Sky CEO: SNL U.K. Is Example of Symphonic Engagement Across Assets

Comcast’s European TV and telecom powerhouse Sky is making huge bets with an eye on business opportunities and customer value, group CEO Dana Strong told the Enders TMT Leaders Live conference in London on Thursday.

“Key for us has been really making courageous, big bets” rather than small incremental changes, given that this is not the time for small steps, Strong said. “We went from being primarily a satellite [service] to more than 90 percent [of new customers] taking our IP product,” she cited as an example.

She also highlighted how a digital revamp of the business has allowed Sky to expand its sports content offerings to a point where it now features more than 3,000 sports events a month, she said.

How to think of entertainment as a digital and social media proposition, along with a traditional video offering, has been another focus, with Saturday Night Live U.K. a key example of the “symphonic engagement” between the company’s platforms and assets, she said. “In addition to the big bets [key has] been the symphonic alignment and the changing of the organization to really understand that these changes that we’re making are transformationally beneficial to consumers, and it’s all being driven around getting customers more value,” Strong said.

She explained: “I think it was eight people up from midnight until 5 a.m., putting all of the digital assets for Saturday Night Live out there. And you think about the cadence through the week, where you go, ‘Okay, Tuesday we’re going to drop another round, Friday we’re going to get everybody hyped up by getting back onto social media and really driving what’s going on this week.’ So [it’s about] really thinking about the business in every dimension and how we’re reaching audiences” through the company’s digital and linear footprint.

All in all, the show was approached as “a huge social media-digital format,” she concluded.

How about British programming? “I’m really passionate” about U.K. storytelling as a cultural and business proposition, Strong also told the conference audience. “Our stories really travel globally. It’s been one of the growth sectors of the U.K. economy.”

Comcast has “been able to super-charge our innovation,” Strong also highlighted on Thursday in discussing the benefits of being part of a larger corporate entity.

Strong was not asked about a big possible deal. Sky has been in active discussions with U.K. TV giant ITV regarding a possible acquisition of ITV’s media & entertainment (M&E) business. “We will update the market in due course,” ITV had said last month after first disclosing the talks in November. The M&E business includes ITV’s commercial free-to-air TV channels in the U.K., as well as its ITVX streaming platform. After a potential deal, ITV Studios would continue as a standalone company.