Sky partners with BBC Studios to bring customers iconic British box sets

Sky and BBC Studios have today announced an agreement to bring a new range of BBC comedy and drama box sets to Sky and NOW TV customers.

From next month, customers will be able to binge on hundreds of hours of content, newly available on Sky and NOW TV under the trusted UKTV channel brands of GOLD and ALIBI.

The box sets include iconic British comedies like The Vicar of Dibley and Only Fools and Horses, as well as more recent hits like McMafia and Spooks. Other shows coming to Sky and NOW TV next month include:

• Absolutely Fabulous, Blackadder, The Royle Family, Little Britain, Open All Hours, The Young Ones, Keeping Up Appearances, Red Dwarf and Extras.

Later in the year, even more box sets will be coming to Sky including:

• The Last Post, Father Brown, QI, Top Gear, The League of Gentleman, Ashes to Ashes and Brian Cox’s Wonder series

The titles will begin to be available from April 1 2019 and will join Sky’s unrivalled library of premium content including Sky original productions, Patrick Melrose, A Discovery of Witches and Curfew.

Alongside newly available BBC box sets, Sky and NOW TV customers can enjoy exclusive British box sets from Channel 4 as well as top hits from around the globe including Game of Thrones, Big Little Lies, Westworld and all their favourite Netflix shows in one place.

Rob Webster, Group Director of Partner Channels, Sky, said “Bringing all of these box sets together for the first time will cement Sky and NOW TV’s reputation as the home of entertainment. It’s a great example of collaboration between Sky and BBC Studios, and we are pleased to be bringing our customers even more great British content.”

Marcus Arthur, President, UK & ANZ, BBC Studios, said “We are delighted to have licensed this range of titles which Sky and NOW TV customers will soon be able to enjoy under the much–loved UKTV channel brands.”

Notes to Editors

• NOW TV customers will be able to watch newly available GOLD box sets using the NOW TV Entertainment Pass, while Sky customers will be able to watch newly available box sets from both GOLD and ALIBI.

• NOW TV customers can watch Netflix content via the Netflix app available on NOW TV’s Smart Stick and NOW TV Smart Box. A separate Netflix subscription is required.

About Sky

With 23 million customers across seven countries, Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group.

We have 31,000 colleagues and together we want to connect our customers to more of what they love, including our award-winning original productions, like Patrick Melrose and Save Me, and great shows from our partners including HBO, Showtime and Warner Bros. And our ever-improving technology makes it even easier for customers to watch more of the shows they love with personalised recommendations and voice control and, our online streaming service, NOW TV, brings all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract free service.

We treat our customers better than anyone else in our field, as Ofcom’s complaints data shows, and we look after our staff too. Sky is one of The Times Top 50 employers for women and we’re in Stonewall’s list of Top 50 LGBT-Inclusive employers.

We also use our position as the leading entertainment business in Europe to do the right thing. As part of Sky Ocean Rescue campaign, we’re committing to be completely single-use plastic free by 2020, we’re investing £25million over five years in ocean-saving tech and we’re supporting the WWF to protect our oceans with designated Marine Protected Areas.

About BBC Studios

BBC Studios, a global content company with British creativity at its heart, is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group. Formed in April 2018 by the merger of BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios, it spans content financing, development, production, sales, branded services and ancillaries. BBC Studios’ award-winning British programmes are internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms. It has offices in 22 markets globally, including seven production bases in the UK and production bases and partnerships in a further nine countries around the world. The company, which makes 2500 hours of content a year, is a champion for British creativity around the world and a committed partner for the UK’s independent sector. BBC Studios has revenue of £1.4bn and returns around £200m to the BBC Group annually, complementing the BBC’s licence fee and enhancing programmes for UK audiences.

bbcstudios.com

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