Milan become an European production hub for Sky’s arts
UK satellite broadcaster Sky has chosen Italy as main production base for arts and cultural content.
The Italian branch of the group has 4.7 million subscribers out of the 20.8 million clients total in Europe. Sky’s owner Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch has sought a new “European” organization for Sky starting in the second half of last year.
Sky’s first pan-European project will be based in Italy, namely in Milan, where the media company will open a new production center at its Sky Italia facility that will serve all the markets of the group.
“This decision shows how much the group recognizes the professional quality present in our country, along with the ability of translating into audiovisual products all the energy that you find in arts” confirmed Andrea Scrosati, Executive vicepresident of Programming at Sky Italia.
The new Sky Arts Production Hub, which will become the main production center for arts and cultural programs, will receive an investment of €18 million over three years.
“The investment will be accompanied by similar resources to reach a total of €35 million in the three-year period in Italy” Scrosati said. “This is a fairly good investment in a sector like the production of contents about arts and culture” the Sky Italia VP said.
In addition to the creation of the Sky Arts Production Hub in Milan, Sky will also launch initiatives outside of Italy, including the integration of Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 in UK in a single channel, for which the group expects to increase the resources available by 10%.
In Italy, Sky Arte will instead continue to do what it has done since 2012. Since its launch in November 2012, the channel has created 142 original productions as well as an “Art calendar” that has covered 3,500 cultural events across Italy.
“It’s a small channel but it has involved 5,000 people who work for us along with smaller production companies” Scrosati said. The production of new artistic content could also have a positive impact on the sector.
