Discovery & Sky Reach New Deal

February 1, 2017 Kristin Brzoznowski Top Stories
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LONDON: Discovery and Sky have managed to agree on terms of a new carriage pact, preventing a potential channel blackout.

The new pact means that Discovery’s bouquet of 12 channels will continue to be available on Sky in the U.K. This includes the flagship Discovery Channel, as well as Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Discovery History, Discovery Shed, Home and Health, DMAX, Discovery Science and Discovery Turbo. Also, Discovery Channel will continue to be available on NOW TV through the newly reached terms.

Susanna Dinnage, the managing director of Discovery Networks UK, commented: “We want to thank our millions of viewers and fans for their overwhelming support over the last few days. We have been humbled by the strength of the passion people feel for all our brands, including Discovery Channel, Eurosport, TLC, Animal Planet and Investigation Discovery.

“We have reached a new agreement that guarantees Sky’s customers access to Discovery’s wide range of channels and programs for years to come. Our fans’ voices were heard loud and clear. They want choice and great TV and I cannot stress how much we love them for their support.”

Additionally, the agreement covers Discovery’s four pay-TV channels in Germany: Discovery Channel, Eurosport 1 HD, Eurosport 2 HD and Eurosport 360 HD. (Discovery also operates three free-to-air networks in Germany: DMAX, Eurosport 1 and TLC.)

Susanne Aigner-Drews, the general manager for Discovery Networks Germany, said: “We are grateful to our fans in Germany. Thank you for all your support. We have been in a business relationship with Sky for 20 years and we are glad that will continue.”

A Discovery Communications spokesperson remarked: “The deal we reached with Sky is meaningfully better than our former agreement and their proposal. Furthermore, our new arrangement enables us to control our destiny in more ways, with even more opportunities to invest and launch channels and consumer services. Stay tuned in the coming weeks.”