Sky centralises European acquisitions

European pay TV broadcaster Sky is bringing its UK, Italian and German acquisitions teams together in one hub, led by group director of acquisitions Sarah Wright.

Zai Bennett

Acquisitions directors Katie Keenan and Lucy Criddle will manage all film and series acquisitions across the group, respectively.

Local acquisitions heads Daniele Ottier (Sky Italia) and Matthias Kistler (Sky Deutschland) will become part of Wright’s leadership team while retaining their local reporting lines to their respective programming heads Antonella d’Errico and Elke Walthelm.

Ottier and Kistler will continue to lead all local deals with major and independent licensors but will also work closely with Keenan and Criddle on all pan-European deals.

Sky MD of content Zai Bennett wrote in a memo to staff today: “From the point at which Sky UK & ROI, Germany, Austria & Switzerland and Italy came together seven years ago, the acquisitions teams have been working together collaboratively, especially on the bigger film agreements and output deals.

“This is the next step in that evolution – formalising the structure to achieve greater efficiency, synergy and coordination across markets. This is vital as we roll out common Sky content brands, showcasing the best shows from around the world, with all the rights we need to ensure our customers can watch what they want, when they want to.

“I am confident this will enable us to flex our resource more effectively, while retaining a high degree of local expertise in the markets. All teams will be fully utilised across the range of series and film deals, enabling Sky to get more value for money and consistency.”