The upshot is that Discovery’s channels are set to come off Sky’s channels on 31 January. When might this happen?
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“Across the half we have continued to drive customer and product growth in all our markets, adding over 500,000 new customers – faster growth than past year – and selling 2 million products”, he added.
According to Greenfield, Sky pays Discovery £100 million annually to distribute its channels in the U.K., Germany and Italy (where the companies still have 18 months left on their current distribution deal).
“Sky and NOW TV subscribers in the United Kingdom and Ireland could soon lose all of Discovery’s channels and programmes”, the campaign webpage reads.
DISCOVERY CHANNELS WILL likely soon be pulled from Sky and its Now TV service in the United Kingdom and Ireland as negotiations for a new carriage deal have broken down between the two companies.
Sky has decided not to renew its contract on the terms offered by Discovery, the representative added.
“We have delivered a strong first-half performance across the group, continue to make significant progress against our strategy and remain on track for the full year”, Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s CEO, said in a statement. We will continue to offer customers a huge range of content including hundreds of shows from The History Channel, National Geographic, PBS, Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic, along with more awesome sport on Sky Sports Mix, available to all our customers.
The companies have talked since April, and Sky has made “a number of offers” with different structures and “increased what we were willing to offer them many times”, Darroch also shared.
How many people actually watch Discovery on Sky?
Access to television channels, including Eurosport, could be severely reduced in the United Kingdom from next month due to a dispute between Sky and Discovery.
The following Discovery Communications channels are possibly under threat.
Some of Discovery’s most popular programmes include Gold Rush, Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Idris Elba: Fighter, Fast N’ Loud and Marooned with Ed Stafford, all on the Discovery Channel.
Discovery operates a number of television channels in the United Kingdom, including TLC, Animal Planet, and two Eurosport channels.
Discovery UK’s suite of channels are mainly documentary stations, but the channel also owns Eurosport and Quest TV, which are the broadcasters of two FIA championships, the World Touring Car Championship and the World Rallycross Championship in the UK.
Are there other channels on Sky that show similar content? And celebs, and non-celebs, who like watching them are not happy.
Pay-TV operators across Europe have in recent years focused spending on exclusive, on-demand drama and sports rights they believe motivate households to subscribe.
Viewers in the United Kingdom would therefore have to specially purchase the channel separately or sign-up to another provider, such as Virgin Media.
Will my Sky subscription get any cheaper?
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Unsurprisingly, Sky has a different take on the situation.
