Netflix expands European presence with Sky deal
In a new deal that will expand its presence throughout Europe, Netflix is partnering with Sky to bundle the full Netflix service into a new Sky TV subscription pack.
The service, which was announced Thursday, will make Netflix shows like “Stranger Things,” “Black Mirror” and “The Crown” available to users of the Sky Q set-top box, with shows from both services accessible under a single user interface.
Netflix said that the new service will become available in Britain and Ireland by the end of the year, and in Germany, Austria and Italy at a later date. No pricing for the bundled service has been announced, but the streaming giant said customers would receive one monthly bill.
Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix has already partnered with other traditional pay-TV operators, including Liberty Global in 2016 to make the streaming giant’s content available to Liberty’s customers around the world.
Sky already has content partnerships with HBO, Showtime and other U.S. studios to make their TV series and movies available to subscribers.
Netflix’s new partnership with Sky comes as the British pay-TV provider is at the center of a fight between 21st Century Fox and Comcast Corp. This week, Comcast proposed a $31-billion acquisition of Sky in a broadside to Walt Disney Co., which wants to buy Sky as part of its proposed $52.4-billion takeover of Fox.
Netflix counts more than 117 million subscribers in more than190 countries. The streaming giant, which has poached mega TV producers Ryan Murphy from Fox and Shonda Rhimes from ABC, projects it will spend $7.5 billion to $8 billion on content this year, up from $6 billion in 2017.
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