DISCOVERY CHANNELS WILL likely soon be pulled from Sky and its Now TV service in the UK and Ireland as negotiations for a new carriage deal have broken down between the two companies.
Discovery is looking for more money, claiming Sky pays it less now than a decade ago – despite adding new channels and increasing viewership.
Susanna Dinnage, managing director of Discovery Networks UK and Ireland, said: “We believe Sky is using what we consider to be its dominant market position to further its own commercial interest over those of viewers and independent broadcasters.
“The vitality of independent broadcasters like Discovery and plurality in TV is under threat.”
Sky has told consumers Discovery’s channels are “unlikely to be available in Sky TV packages” from 1 February onwards.
In the UK and Ireland, this includes Animal Planet, Discovery HD, Discovery History, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Science, Discovery Shed, Discovery Turbo, DMAX, Eurosport1, Eurosport2, Investigation Discovery, Quest and TLC.
Overpaying
In a statement to Variety, a Sky spokesperson said: “Despite our best efforts to reach a sensible agreement, we, like many other platforms and broadcasters across Europe, have found the price expectations for the Discovery portfolio to be completely unrealistic. Discovery’s portfolio of channels includes many which are linear-only, where viewing is falling.
“Sky has a strong track record of understanding the value of the content we acquire on behalf of our customers, and as a result we’ve taken the decision not to renew this contract on the terms offered.
“We have been overpaying Discovery for years and are not going to anymore. We will now move to redeploy the same amount of money into content we know our customers value.”
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