Disney, Netflix And Sky Are The Best Of Frenemies

Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey has revealed an initial nervousness over allowing Netflix onto Sky Q.

“It was a long time before we finally got to a point where we were happy to have Netflix on our platform. I was uncomfortable about that idea for a while, but it’s actually worked out very, very well. Our customers like Netflix and if they want Netflix they can get it through their Q Box,” Davey told a meeting of the Broadcasting Press Guild held over Zoom.

Netflix launched on Sky in November 2018 as an app on the Sky Q box. Its content sits alongside that of the pay-TV broadcaster.

Davey’s colleague, Sky Studios COO Jane Millichip, says that when she first joined Sky she was surprised that Sky was a platform, a content provider, a channel operator, all of which serve multiple threads.

To talk about Frenemies is you know, most of our competitors are actually on [our] platform. So it’s in our interests that they provide good service,” she said.

“Obviously, we observe what’s happening and making sure that we’re on our toes. But I’m not threatened by Disney plus at all. So it’s on the platform. We’ve got content deals with HBO, Showtime, Discovery, Disney, BBC Studios, Channel 4. So from a platform perspective, we’re very agnostic.” Broadband TV News