Sky scanning the market for superfan hits
LONDON SCREENINGS: Lucy Criddle of UK-based pay TV giant Sky outlines her programming requirements for her shopping trip from Osterley to Soho and gives her take on the state of the market.
Lucy Criddle
Heading up a five-strong team of buyers, Lucy Criddle is director of acquisitions and strategic projects at Comcast-owned European pay TV broadcaster and streamer Sky.
With a wide-ranging remit spanning multiple genres such as scripted, factual, comedy, arts, entertainment, kids and movies, Criddle is looking forward to casting her discerning eye over a variety of box-fresh new content at London TV Screenings this week. Here, she details her acquisition strategy for both domestic and international programming, as well as her content wish list.
Are you a regular visitor to London TV Screenings?
I’ve been attending since the beginning. It’s really grown since the pandemic, and I like that it’s held in a tight geographical area here in London. It’s an important event for my team, not just for viewing new content, but also to meet up with our Sky colleagues from Italy, Germany and Switzerland. My team will be operating a divide-and-conquer strategy to get around all the screenings.
What are the unmissable premieres this year?
It’s a great opportunity to see the latest scripted and factual content. I’m looking forward to seeing a number of shows from our partners. Lionsgate has got the highly anticipated Spartacus reboot, while MGM is super pumped about showcasing their new crime thriller Hotel Cocaine. StudioCanal is previewing Paris Has Fallen, and [Sky sister company] NBCUniversal is showing the Peacock miniseries Apples Never Fall. Then there’s all the factual screenings from companies such as Newen Connect, Fremantle, BossaNova and Banijay. It’s a packed schedule.
What’s your current content acquisition strategy?
The key question we always ask ourselves is: would genre superfans call this a bloody good watch? Will our customers lose themselves in the storytelling, make a connection with the show and really care about it? We recently acquired firefighting action-drama Fire Country from Paramount, and that absolutely ticks all those boxes, as does the Peacock show Ted, which got one of the highest audiences Sky has had for a comedy in a few years. It’s a real ‘wow’ show with a great premise, larger than life characters and fantastic on-screen talent. Also, a hot-off-the-press exclusive for you is that we have just acquired crime drama The Cleaning Lady, from Warner Brothers Television. We really believe our Sky Witness viewers will love that one.
Fire Country from Paramount ticks all Sky viewers’ boxes
What kind of factual and unscripted content are you looking for?
We have a real discerning audience for Sky Documentaries. Our viewers love contemporary, forward-facing topics covered in titles such as Controlling Britney Spears, the recently announced Peter Doherty: Stranger in My Own Skin, and Zuckerberg: King of the Metaverse.
When it comes to acquisitions, what rights do you need?
Sky is a premium service and it’s all about providing value to our customers, so we’re very much in the first-window rights business. We’re there for premium content first, but we do also pick-up library shows as well.
Are there any content genres you’re not interested in acquiring?
We acquire across a broad spectrum, but I’d say we don’t really do any cooking, gardening or DIY shows.
Crime drama The Cleaning Lady from Warner Brothers Television has just been acquired
How do you assess the health of the content industry right now?
We’re all aware of what’s been happening in the market with the overall pull-back on content spend. I can only really speak for Sky, but we’re maintaining our levels of investment so I’m optimistic. The presence of so many US studios at London TV Screenings perhaps signifies their return to third-party licensing, certainly from the likes of Paramount and Disney. They’re back in the distribution game and that’s positive.
Sky’s HBO output deal runs out in 2025; is there a Plan B if the agreement isn’t renewed?
We love HBO content and have had a strong, fruitful partnership with Warner Bros. We also coproduce with HBO on projects such as last year’s documentary film, David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived. However, Warner Bros is just one of many partners we work with in order for us to curate the best possible content for our customers.
