SKY LAUNCHES 2021 LINEUP AND CELEBRATES ITS LARGEST-EVER RETURN SERIES LAUNCH

Sky announced its 2021 slate, featuring over 125 new Sky originals on Sky and Now TV. Its original “A Discovery of Witches” reached the highest viewership figures for a returning series upon launching earlier this month on 8th January. “These figures are a testament to the overwhelming popularity of the A Discovery of Witches franchise, and that it continues to capture the nation’s imagination and add a little extra magic and escapism to our lives when we need it most,”  Cameron Roach, Director of Drama and Sky Studios said. “With more episodes to come and a third series on the horizon, we hope everyone continues to enjoy the show as the magic, mystery, and romance further unfolds.”

The lineup includes 20 new Sky Original films, 30 documentaries, with 50% more original TV and film that ever before. The titles include drama, comedy entertainment and arts. The titles include “A Boy Called Christmas,” “Extinct” and “Monster Family 2.” There are films inspired by true stories and real people with “Save The Cinema,” “Creation Stories,” “Six Minutes to Midnight” and “The Glorias,” action adventures with “Jolt and SAS: Red Notice,” comedies with The “Comeback Trail” and “Breaking News In Yuba County” and thrillers with Antebellum. “This year on Sky and NOW TV we’ve got an epic variety of entertainment for everyone, adding a brand-new slate of Sky Original films and Sky Original documentaries to our line-up of award-winning drama, comedy, entertainment and arts series," Zai Bennett, Managing Director, Content, Sky UK & Ireland, said.

There are four new series on their way from acclaimed TV writers Paul Abbott with Wolfe David Farr, “The Midwich Cuckoos” and Joe Barton with “Extinction” and Michael Winterbottom with “This Sceptred Isle.” All of these titles will be house with aggregated content on Sky’s award-winning Sky Q platform, including shows and films from Amazon and Netflix, as well as apps such as Disney+, BBC iPlayer and Discovery+.

The "Discovery Of Witches"  launch episode on Sky One achieved a cumulative 7-day audience of 1.79million, serving as Sky’s biggest launch for an original returning series in nearly 9 years. The fantasy series surpassed launch viewings for titles like "Save Me Too," "Bulletproof S2," and "Fortitude S2." Sky also reported the show as the most binged boxset ever for a returning Original series.  Viewers of the original were reported in the US and Austrlia among numerous other regions across the world. The series is distributed internationally by NBCUniversal Global Distribution on behalf of Sky Studios and is produced by Bad Wolf.

During launch week, A Discovery of Witches S2 was the top voice command on Sky Q in the UK, with more than 81,000 customers using their voice to summon the series on Sky Q, along with nearly 5 million downloads. According to 7-day cumulative viewing data for episode 1 of the series, not counting playback, catch up & demand viewing in addition to the overnights. The dats is based on consumption within the first ten days from TX. The first series became Sky One’s biggest drama of 2018.The series' third season is currently being filmed in Cardiff, set to be released in the near future.