Discovery threatens to pull all their channels from Sky

We have something for every customer. Drama, documentaries, entertainment, comedy, sports, movies and more.

We have worked really hard for more than a year to get a deal done for our customers with Discovery, so we are disappointed with their misleading claims and aggressive actions. We now feel it’s time to set the record straight. Because despite our differences, we love Discovery too.

We were prepared to pay a fair price for the Discovery and Eurosport channels and invest more in those channels to make them even better for our customers. We have offered hundreds of millions of pounds to Discovery, a $12bn American business, but that wasn’t enough. They asked the Sky Group to pay close to £1bn for their portfolio of channels, many of which are in decline.

Sadly, we have now had to prepare for Discovery to take their channels away from Sky customers, as they have threatened to do. It is Discovery’s choice to do this, not ours. We never left the negotiating table and they haven’t come back to it since they made their threats public this week.

Sky doesn’t boot channels off our platform. If Discovery don’t want their channels to disappear, as their public campaign suggests, they could have made arrangement to stay on Sky, including free to air with advertising funding or with their own subscription, but they’ve chosen not to do so.

Our commitment to our customers is this: We will spend every penny that we were going to pay to Discovery on more and better content that our customers value. This will come from sources around the globe and home grown shows and documentaries from the UK. We will continue to offer customers a huge range of content including hundreds of shows from The History Channel, National Geographic, PBS, Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic, along with more amazing sport on Sky Sports Mix, available to all our customers.

We hope our customers understand that we have been working on their behalf and will always do that. We thank them for their support

RetroBait wrote:Discovery is owned by Liberty media so if this tiff continues looks like Sky could be losing the F1 rights in the near future.

RetroBait wrote:Discovery is owned by Liberty media so if this tiff continues looks like Sky could be losing the F1 rights in the near future.

bear wrote:

RetroBait wrote:Discovery is owned by Liberty media so if this tiff continues looks like Sky could be losing the F1 rights in the near future.

They have the rights tied up until the mid 20s don't they? Hard to see Liberty trying to renegotiate the deal as Sky paid big money for them at the time.



I wonder if Discovery have a service/app ready to go if the channels do get pulled?

TigaSefi wrote:I have actually just paid £20 for a year of Eurosport online player. This works out well for me as I am a massive cycling nut. The tennis will be great.

Mini E wrote:

TigaSefi wrote:I have actually just paid £20 for a year of Eurosport online player. This works out well for me as I am a massive cycling nut. The tennis will be great.

I honestly don't understand why someone like BT Sport don't offer this. I'd fork out in a heartbeat.

KKLEIN wrote:Same format as in the US - I wonder who buckled.