Den engelske TV-distributør og kanaludbyder Sky TV er i åben krig med amerikanske Discovery Networks, og tager nu konsekvensen og varsler fjernelsen af alle Discoverys kanaler på deres sendeflade.
Uenighed om hvor meget Sky TV skal betale for at distribuere Discovery Networks kanaler til deres kunder, gør at Sky nu har set sig nødsaget til at varsle fjernelsen af alle Discovery kanaler fra 1. februar.
Sky TV distribuerer DMAX, Animal Planet, ID, Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2, Discovery Shed, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery History, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, Discovery, TLC og Quest, og da Discovery Networks ønskede tæt på en 8,7 mia. kroner for at forlænge aftalen med Sky TV, vil Sky nu kigge på alternativer istedet for at fortsætte samarbejdet med Sky Networks.
Sky TV vil bruge de sparede penge på at købe andet – og selv udvikle nyt og bedre indhold, fortæller Sky TV til deres kunder i en meddelse. Sky TV har allerede tilbudt Disovery et stort mia. beløb for rettighederne, men føler at kravet på endnu mere er for grådigt.
Situationen minder meget om det vi oplevede med Canal Digital sidste år, hvor man også var uden Discovery kanaler i en periode.
Nedenfor kan meddelelsen fra Sky TV læses på engelsk.
We have something for every customer. Drama, documentaries, entertainment, comedy, sports, movies and more.We have worked really hard for more than a year to get a deal done for our customers with Discovery, so we are disappointed with their misleading claims and aggressive actions. We now feel it’s time to set the record straight. Because despite our differences, we love Discovery too. 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 $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. We thank them for their support. If you have any questions about the changes, you can find more information here: sky.com/channelchanges |
