Discovery, Sky blackout looms

TV personalities have leant their support to Discovery Communications as the US factual giant’s portfolio of channels look set to be pulled from Sky’s UK platform this week due to a carriage dispute.

Figures including David Emanuel, Katie Hopkins and Ronnie O’Sullivan have taken to social media to keep Discovery’s 12 channels on Sky using the #KeepDiscovery hashtag.

The row erupted last week when Discovery threatened to remove its channels, including Discovery, TLC and Eurosport, from Sky platforms after claiming it was not receiving a “fair price” for its content.

All 12 Discovery channels will disappear from Sky and its online streaming service Now TV after January 31 if the dispute is not resolved. A similar situation is brewing between Sky Deutschland and Discovery in Germany.

This now looks a likely prospect after Eurosport confirmed on screen during yesterday’s Australian Open tennis final that the channel would be removed from Sky services on Wednesday.

A Discovery spokesman said the company was “hugely humbled” by the support and described reaction from viewers and celebrities as “staggering.”

“Our wonderful viewers deserve to keep the programmes and sports events that they adore and we still hope that this situation can be resolved with Sky,” he added.

Susanna Dinnage, MD of Discovery Networks UK, last week said the company was making a stand for consumer choice and independent broadcasters.

Late on Friday, a Sky spokesman sent out an updated release following the comments made by CEO Jeremy Darroch, who said Discovery’s share of linear viewing had been “down significantly now for an extended period of time.”

The statement responded to what Sky said were “misleading claims and aggressive actions” from Discovery.

“We now feel it’s time to set the record straight. Because despite our differences, we love Discovery too,” the statement read.

“We were prepared to pay a fair price for the Discovery and Eurosport channels and invest more in those channels to make them even better for our customers. We have offered hundreds of millions of pounds to Discovery, a US$12bn American business, but that wasn’t enough. They asked the Sky Group to pay close to £1bn for their portfolio of channels, many of which are in decline.

“Sadly, we have now had to prepare for Discovery to take their channels away from Sky customers, as they have threatened to do. It is Discovery’s choice to do this, not ours. We never left the negotiating table and they haven’t come back to it since they made their threats public this week.

“Sky doesn’t boot channels off our platform. If Discovery don’t want their channels to disappear, as their public campaign suggests, they could have made arrangement to stay on Sky, including free to air with advertising funding or with their own subscription, but they’ve chosen not to do so.

“Our commitment to our customers is this: we will spend every penny that we were going to pay to Discovery on more and better content that our customers value.

“This will come from sources around the globe and home grown shows and documentaries from the UK. We will continue to offer customers a huge range of content including hundreds of shows from The History Channel, National Geographic, PBS, Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic, along with more amazing sport on Sky Sports Mix, available to all our customers.

“We hope our customers understand that we have been working on their behalf and will always do that.”

Discovery Channel, TLC, ID, Eurosport, Discovery History, Animal Planet, Discovery Shed, Home and Health, DMax, Discovery Science and Discovery Turbo are all affected by the move.