Quote:
Originally Posted by Chad
The dispute is not over yet.
SKY UK CEO Stephen van Rooyen:
"The deal has been concluded on the right terms after Discovery accpeted the proposal we gave them over a week ago."
Discovery have responded:
"The deal we reached with SKY is meaningfully better than our former agreement and their proposal. Furthermore, our new arrangement enables us to control our destiny in more ways, with even more opportunities to invest and launch channels and consumer services. Stay tuned in the coming weeks."
Read into that what you will. Got the feeling Discovery are planning their own streaming service. One thing for sure SKY where more than prepared to let the Disovery Network channels go. SKY also confirmed earlier today a deal with PBS America to offer “the best of PBS’ factual programming.” SKY also confirmed they are to add more than 1,000 hours of on-demand programming from nonfiction channels including History and National Geographic.
I'm happy with the outcome. Discovery Network channels continue plus even more factual on demand content than ever before.
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Just in case it were not known here, National Geographic is in effect the factual arm of Fox.
Murdoch bought a controlling interest in nat geo a few years ago.
And for those that remember the early days of Sky, Murdoch always put restrictive measures in place to prevent competition if they did not allow themselves to be controlled, or part owned by Sky.
So, if we're assuming that Sky is the "baddie" here, I'd imagine there has been long standing restrictive covenants placed on Discovery so that they don't get too competitive to Sky. Although, how Discovery could ever be viewed as a serious broadcaster these days with the rubbish they now show, is beyond me.