This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

From military raids to delivering Amazon’s books, drones are almost everywhere. And now they are set to become TV stars, as professional drone racing comes to the UK for the first time.

Sky is investing $1m (£760,000) in the US-based Drone Racing League, and will begin broadcasting its events from next month. The first live races outside the US, including one in London, are due to take place next year.

The Sky investment is part of $12m fundraising which also includes MGM, Hearst Ventures and Matt Bellamy, lead singer of Muse.

Founded in 2015, the DRL sees competitors pilot custom-designed craft through three-dimensional courses using headsets giving a first-person view. A final winner-takes-all race chooses the world champion.

“It’s like a cross between Robot Wars and Red Bull air racing,” said a Sky spokesman. “It’s not that big in the UK yet but it is catching on. This is a good opportunity for us to get involved at an early stage.”

So far, races have taken place through a disused power station in New York City, an abandoned mall in Los Angeles, the former headquarters of Bell Laboratories and the home of the Miami Dolphins. Next year, the DRL plans to host events in venues outside the US including in London, although a site has not yet been finalised.

As well as Sky, the DRL has signed broadcast deals with ESPN in north America and 7Sports in Europe.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Drone Racing League promotional video

DRL’s chief executive and founder, Nicholas Horbaczewski, said: “The sport began four years ago and now hundreds of thousands of people do it as a hobby around the globe.

“I wanted to elevate that amazing hobby into a professional sport for a television audience. These deals are a turning point for the sport, we will be in tens of millions of homes around the world.”

As part of its agreement with the DRL, Sky will show 10 60-minute episodes covering five races on its Sky Sports Mix channel, which launched last year and is free for subscribers. For those who cannot wait until October, Sky is showing an introduction to drone racing at 4am on Thursday, repeated at 5pm.

Drone racing has already established itself in the US, with a national championship held in Texas in August, and a world championship set to take place in October, both organised by the Drone Sports Association.

According to Horbaczewski, there are plenty of drone racing competitions around the world, but no comparable professional league to the DRL. He said: “We have the most advanced technology with the most elaborate races.”

The Sky spokesman said: “For us, the DRL are the leaders in this sport.”

The Sky investment follows a bigger deal in June in which the broadcaster invested in e-sports firm Ginx as part of plans to set up a 24-hour channel.

Sky’s group business development director, Emma Lloyd, said: “We’re really looking forward to working with the team at DRL to grow the sport and to bring something completely different to audiences across both TV and digital.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pilots steer their craft in the the Drone Racing League. Photograph: Sky

Drone flying has become increasingly popular in recent years as machines become cheaper and lighter, but it has also run into problems. Reports of a number of near misses between drones and aircraft coming into land prompted the Civil Aviation Authority to warn drone pilots they must follow safety regulations.