Sky Arts

World Screen Weekly, March 29, 2007

OWNERSHIP: British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)

COUNTRIES: U.K., Ireland

YEAR IT LAUNCHED: The channel launched as Artsworld in 2000, and was re-branded as Sky Arts on March 1, 2007.

DESCRIPTION: As the U.K.’s only channel devoted solely to the arts, Sky Arts airs 18 hours a day, seven days a week, combining live performances with documentaries and films. Being a pure arts outlet, the channel offers all forms, including opera, dance, classical music, jazz, design, the visual arts, architecture, cinema, literature and theater.

The channel was previously named Artsworld and was founded by Sir Jeremy Isaacs in 2000. BSkyB bought 50 percent of the channel in 2003 and took full control in 2005.

HEAD OF PROGRAMMING: Adrian Zak

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: Though the channel changed its name to Sky Arts as of March 1, “the content didn’t change dramatically,” says Adrian Zak, the head of programming. Besides adjustments like bringing opera to prime time, the re-branding will reorganize the channel’s existing programming, making it easier for viewers to navigate through the offerings. Though Sky Arts is currently in the habit of featuring an eclectic combination of concerts, visual programs and documentaries on any given day—“we carry more arts and culture coverage in a single day than the terrestrial channels do across a week,” asserts Zak—after the name change, programming has taken on a more structured form. “One night will be documentaries, one will be more performance-arts related, there’ll be the Monday night opera, that sort of thing,” he says.

Approximately 95 percent of the schedule consists of acquired programs and the channel relies strongly on commissions and co-productions. “There’s some very good arts programming out there, and besides us and BBC Four, there aren’t many homes for it,” explains Zak. Sky Arts’s most successful programs have included Iconoclasts from the Sundance Channel in the U.S. Each Iconoclasts episode unites two leaders from a variety of fields such as film and TV, architecture and design, fashion, food, music and sports, presenting a unique, personal interaction between the two. Season two of Iconoclasts includes Mikhail Baryshnikov + Alice Waters and Isabella Rossellini + Dean Kamen. Also popular is London Visions, a high-definition series in which audience members are treated to a journey around the British capital with renowned historian Peter Ackroyd.

Zak also enthusiastically mentions a strand that featured popular music, Alice Cooper’s Rock Revolutionaries, which initially ran from August to December 2006. “Airing these great, seminal rock songs did very well for us in the past,” he says. Zak attributes the success of this strand, featuring performances by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and the more contemporary The Flaming Lips, to the range of audience members it appealed to. “The younger audiences were discovering this music because of iPods, while our older audiences found this music to be very influential,” he says. “For our main demographic, in the 55-plus range, it’s probably the music they grew up with. They [are the] most up-market demographic of any arts-related channel.”

Ultimately for Zak, determining the Sky Arts lineup is all about finding a careful balance. “We’ve got the rock concerts and the Kylie Minogue exhibitions, but we’re also showing four-hour Wagner operas in prime time,” he says. “It’s all about accessibility—but it doesn’t mean you have to dumb your programming down.”

WHAT’S NEW: Sky Arts most recently signed a three-year broadcast deal with the The Guardian Hay Festival, a Wales-based event that provides an anticipated crowd of 130,000 with the opportunity to indulge in their passions for fine literature, comedy, music, art and argument. Sky Arts will support the festival, which will run from May 24 to June 3 this year, with extensive daily coverage, including online and multiplatform access.

Additionally, the Sky Arts website, which currently supports the channel by providing listings, program information and competitions, will soon be expanded to include current art event listings, content from specialist providers in each of the genres (film, literature, art and architecture) a forum and video content.

WEBSITE: www.skyarts.co.uk