Sky Acquires Digital Content Producer

LONDON: Sky has acquired Diagonal View, a producer of social content that is best known for creating online channels such as Alltime10s and The Football Daily.

The purchase of the company, which also works on campaigns for leading brands, allows Sky to better engage with a younger, digital-first demographic. The move also assists Sky Media in delivering brand-safe digital opportunities to advertisers. For Sky, Diagonal View also benefits its efforts to become one of the top five social destinations for sports in all its markets and globally.

Diagonal View has a dedicated online audience of over 15 million subscribers. Its leadership team, including founder Matt Heiman, will remain with the company.

“Last year Sky Sports reached one in five of the U.K. and Ireland’s total digital population and this acquisition will further our ability to reach new social audiences,” said Barney Francis, the managing director of Sky Sports. “The breadth and diversity of sports that Sky has rights to, combined with Diagonal View’s track record in building audiences from scratch, will be a powerful partnership; benefiting customers and advertisers alike. Matt has an excellent team at Diagonal View that will complement our existing team of creatives and producers here at Sky.”

Heiman added, “The Diagonal View team and I are excited to join forces with Sky. Our social channels complement Sky’s current portfolio—the prospect of our incredibly popular Football Daily channels collaborating with Sky, whose pedigree in this space is unrivaled, is extremely exciting. Sky brings rights, expertise and scale. Diagonal View knows how to make content that digital natives enjoy watching and engaging with, so this partnership feels like a natural win-win for both us and Sky. We are looking forward to working together in developing innovative campaigns and building on the success of our popular owned channels.”