Sky picks up BBC Studios bundle

BBC gangster drama McMafia

Sky in the UK has struck a deal with BBC Studios (BBCS) that will allow subscribers to its pay TV services and Now TV OTT offering to watch boxsets of shows such as McMafia, Only Fools & Horses and Absolutely Fabulous.

The shows will be available under the Gold and Alibi channel brands, which belong to UKTV, the operator owned by BBCS and Discovery that has been at the centre of takeover talks over the past six months.

Now TV customers will be able to watch newly available Gold-branded boxsets, as will Sky TV customers, with the latter also gaining access to Alibi-branded shows.

Boxsets of The Vicar of Dibley and Spooks will also be available, along with Blackadder, The Royle Family, Little Britain, Open All Hours, The Young Ones, Keeping Up Appearances, Red Dwarf and Extras.

Further titles will be added later this year including The Last Post, Father Brown, QI, Top Gear, The League of Gentleman, Ashes to Ashes and Brian Cox’s Wonder series.

The titles will be made available from April 1 and join other shows from UK broadcasters such as Channel 4, as well as series including HBO’s Game of Thrones and Westworld.

Rob Webster, group director of partner channels at Comcast-owned Sky, described the deal as “a great example of collaboration between Sky and BBCS.”

UKTV shows were at the centre of a carriage dispute this time last year when Liberty Media-owned telco Virgin demanded that the fee it paid for the broadcaster’s channels be cut. The move came after it was unable to secure VoD rights to certain shows that aired on the linear networks but were not available via OTT, having been previously sold to operators including Netflix.