Firing on all cylinders, with a slate of high quality shows and impressive commercial performance

After five consecutive years of audience growth, Sky History is firing on all cylinders, with a slate of high quality shows and impressive commercial performance.

Clever content funding initiatives with the likes of Motion Content Group and Krempelwood has helped raise the bar in terms of its ambitions for originations, including Al Murray: Why Do the Brits Win Every War?, which averaged 119k viewers in October 2021, and reached over half a million adults.

Arguably its most impressive show in the judging period was Royal Bastards: Rise of the Tudors, which was nominated for Gamechanger Programme of the Year and boosted the whole channel’s performance significantly in November, with ratings up +20% YoY and share up a significant +50% YoY.

It was so important that it was simulcast on the Sky Showcase channel and was watched by more than 550,000 people based on seven-day consolidated figures.

Other established and hugely successful programming includes History’s Mystery Season, which increased audience share by +8% YoY,UK commission Craig Charles: UFO Conspiracies, which doubling its slot average and Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman, which premiered with a huge +167% increases against its primetime slot average.

2021 saw the channel launch on Amazon with History Play, which has grown by +63% since March and is significantly outpacing the total OTT market growth, and the channel’s Late Night Entertainment strand landed sponsorship from 888poker, which has been renewed for this year

Finally, Sky History gained 100k TikTok followers in its first six months on the platform with unique content including a collaboration with Holocaust educator Lily Ebert, and creative content for Curse of the Ancients with Alice Roberts.

SHORTLISTED 

Gold

Gold

Gold had its best year since 2012 with an outstanding slate of originals comprising The Cockfields, Murder They Hope, Sandylands and Billy Connolly Does.. The channel enjoyed 7% share growth year on year in 2021 and racked up plenty of press coverage thanks to clever marketing and PR, such as the pop-up pub it created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Only Fools and Horses.

Sky Sports Main Event

Sky Sports

The launch of The Hundred (this year’s Gamechanger Programme of the Year) and an emphasis on using sport as vehicle for driving societal change helped Main Event have a fantastic year. The Your Guys Are History series in cricket, content that explained why Premier League players continue to take a knee in football and the Rise with Us series to promote women’s sport are just a handful of impressive and powerful examples.

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