Sky eyes extended HBO pact, unveils raft of comedy shorts

Dreamland

Sky expects to continue to work with HBO despite owner Warner Bros. Discovery’s planned roll-out of its new streamer in Europe, while the pay TV operator has also unveiled a raft of comedy shorts. 

Sky has held a rich output deal with HBO for more than a decade, providing it with hit programming, including the recent Game Of Thrones spin-off House Of The Dragon.

Its latest deal, struck in 2019, is due to run out in 2025 and had meant that WBD’s HBO Max streamer could not be launched in Sky countries, including the UK. The companies also have a coproduction pact, as revealed by TBI.

It had been expected that WBD would take back HBO programming to launch its combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streamer in Europe in the coming years, but insiders are increasingly talking up the likelihood of the US giant extending its rich output deal in some form.

Sky director of programming Jamie Morris addressed the issue at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Friday, admitting that he expected his Comcast-owned company would continue working with the US giant despite the imminent streaming expansion.

Morris said the relationship ‘is going from strength to strength” and added that “one way or another”, it would continue. “In what shape, we will wait and see,” he added.

Comedy shorts

Sky has also unveiled seven shows as part of its Sky Comedy Shorts programme, which will debut in 2023 and air on its Sky Arts channel and YouTube. They include Life’s A Pitch, which features a neurotic, self-destructive copywriter who goes to increasingly idiotic extremes to save face and keep up appearances as his work life spirals out of control.

It has been written by Nathan D’Arcy Roberts, starring Jordan Stephens, Aurie Styla, Alex Theo, Shazia Mirza and Ruairi McInerney.

Sky has also greenly Diane From Accounts, which follows a charity worker who makes a fateful decision that turns her life upside down, with Desiree Burch and Jayshree Patel writing.

The slate also includes Past Caring from Rosie Jones and Jen Brister; Real Friends from Rachel Stubbings and Jess Fostekew; Seen from Jordan Brookes; Silo from Tom Neenan, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Sunil Patel; and Six Foot Something, written by Yemi Oyefuwa.

The series are the latest for Sky’s Comedy Shorts programme, which has previously been behind Sharon Horgan’s Dreamland, and Bloods, created by Samson Kayo and Nathan Byron. Both shows went on to become fully fledged series.