Sky imposes Curfew, reveals results

European satcaster Sky has commissioned an eight-part drama starring Sean Bean for Sky1 in the UK, while also revealing growing revenues in its latest financial results.

Jeremy Darroch

Endemol Shine-owned UK prodco Tiger Aspect Productions and Moonage Pictures, the new UK indie from Will Gould and Frith Tiplady, are working on Curfew (8×60’).

The series will be available on Sky1 and Now TV in the UK next year and follows a group of ordinary people who compete in furious, illegal night-time street races.

Sky is also teaming with US premium cablenet HBO on a four-part drama starring Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great.

The mini-series, set to start filming later this year, will follow Catherine towards the end of her reign and her passionate affair with Grigory Potemkin.

It is being produced by Origin Pictures and New Pictures and will air on Sky Atlantic in the UK, Italy, Germany, Austria and Sky’s recently launched service in Spain. The miniseries will air on HBO in the US and HBO Canada in Canada, through HBO’s output deal with Bell Media.

Sky will also return its Arctic-based thriller Fortitude for a third and final season of four episodes later this year.

Meanwhile, Sky has announced its revenues grew by 5% to £6.7m (US$9.5m) in the six months ending December 31, 2017.

The satcaster recorded growth in each of its territories, with the UK and Ireland up 4% at £4.4m, Germany and Austria up 8% at £1m and Italy up 4% at £1.2m.

Jeremy Darroch, group CEO at Sky, said: “This performance reflects the investment choices we have made in recent years, allowing us to more than offset the pressure on consumer spending across Europe, as more customers continue to choose Sky for more of their services.”

Darroch also revealed that, starting in Italy, Sky will be making all of its channels available online, via a Sky box, so customers no longer need a satellite dish to access programming.

The announcement came as Sky launched Sky Cinema Original Films, which will operate by acquiring exclusive rights and commissioning original movies, providing customers with film content in addition to the 1,000 movies currently available on demand.

The first film to be released under the brand will be animated comedy Monster Family, in March. Rob Cohen-directed action movie The Hurricane Heist will follow in April, with sci-fi crime thriller Anon and UK production Final Score coming later in the year.

As part of the launch, Sky plans to show its original films in cinemas at the same time as they become available to Sky Cinema customers.