in 2022 and upped content investment to £500M , Sky UK and Ireland Managing Director of Content Bennett said the outfit is now taking a “fewer, bigger better” approach to the shows it commissions and produces. Of those 200 originals, only around 20 were high-end scripted, he stressed.
“We want to make sure when we have something we put it in front of customers in a loud, meaningful way,” he added. “The 200 number was a shiny stat but when you take say single arts documentaries into account it can be built up and you get there quite quickly.” The “fewer, bigger better” approach evokes BBC Director General Tim Davie’s strategy since he took the reins of the UK’s biggest public broadcaster.
With the world entering recession and the TV industry feeling the pinch, Lyvers stressed that Sky’s scripted series budgets are not being cut and the “ambition and scale remains.” She concurred with Bennett on “fewer, bigger, better,” adding: “We’re in a moment where [buyers] are being a bit more mindful when picking what they produce. We want to say to our audiences ‘Oh there are great options here’ instead of ‘Here’s a lot of filler’. Eighteen months ago the competition [in drama production] was really fierce but it feels like it’s normalizing a bit.”