Sky Plans ITV Windowing For Day Of The Jackal, Premier League — SkimNews
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- Sky completed a £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) takeover of ITV's network operations and is now planning to showcase original series on the free-to-air channel.
- Cécile Frot-Coutaz, Sky's content chief and CEO of Sky Studios, said at the Royal Television Society London Convention that Sky would experiment with windowing, including showing older seasons of The Day of the Jackal on ITV ahead of new-season launches.
- Sky previously tested a similar windowing strategy by placing the first four seasons of Brassic on Netflix, which Frot-Coutaz said produced "new headroom" in viewing by exposing the show to an audience Sky didn't already have.
- Frot-Coutaz said Sky's 40,000 hours of sports content presented "huge opportunities" to put more sport on free-to-air, opening the door to Premier League football appearing on ITV.
- ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said the company had little choice but to sell to Sky because "the competition is ferocious," and dismissed the idea that Sky could tear up the output deal in six years with a terse "Good luck."
- As part of the takeover, Sky agreed a £2.1 billion output deal with ITV Studios guaranteeing shows like Love Island and Coronation Street remain on ITV until 2032.
Why it matters: UK free-to-air viewers could gain access to Sky originals like The Day of the Jackal and potentially Premier League matches, turning Sky's £1.6 billion ITV acquisition into a content-distribution play rather than just a network purchase. McCall's "good luck" retort on the output deal signals the 2032 ITV Studios contract is treated as locked in.
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