Comcast’s European TV and communications business Sky is making big bets with a focus on business opportunities and customer value, group CEO Dana Strong said at the Enders TMT Leaders Live conference in London on Thursday.
“The key for us is to make big, bold bets” rather than making small, incremental changes, Strong said, since this is not the time to take baby steps. “We’ve gone from being primarily a satellite [service] To more than 90 percent [of new customers] “We took our own intellectual property product,” for example.
It also highlighted how the digital revamp of the business has allowed Sky to expand its sports content offering to the point that it now includes more than 3,000 sporting events per month.
Another focus has been on how to think about entertainment as digital and social media viewing, alongside traditional video viewing Saturday Night Live UK It is a prime example of the “symphonic connection” between the company’s platforms and assets, she said. “Plus the big bets [key has] “It was a symphonic alignment and changing the organization to understand the fact that these changes we’re making are transformatively beneficial to consumers, and it’s all about getting greater value to customers,” Strong said.
“I think there were eight people staying up from midnight until five in the morning, storing all the digital assets,” she explained Saturday Night Live there. And you think about the cadence during the week, where you go, “Okay, we’re going to drop another round on Tuesday, and on Friday we’re going to get everyone excited by getting back on social media and driving what’s happening this week.” So [it’s about] We’re really thinking about the business from every dimension and how we reach audiences” through the company’s digital and linear footprint.
Overall, the show was treated as a “massive form of digital social media”.
What about British programming? “I’m really passionate” about UK storytelling as a cultural and business proposition, Strong told the conference audience. “Our stories travel globally. It has been one of the growth sectors of the UK economy.”
Comcast has been able to “supercharge our innovation,” Strong highlighted Thursday while discussing the benefits of being part of a larger corporate entity.
Strong was not asked about a potential big deal. Sky is in active discussions with UK television giant ITV regarding the potential acquisition of ITV’s Media and Entertainment (M&E) business. “We will update the market in due course,” ITV said last month after the talks were first revealed in November. Its M&E business includes ITV’s commercial free-to-air TV channels in the UK, as well as its ITVX streaming platform. Following a potential deal, ITV Studios will continue as an independent company.
