Sky Bows Documentary, Nature Channels As Disney Plus Carriage Deal Looms

By Naman Ramachandran

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Comcast’s pay TV service Sky is adding two new channels to its U.K. portfolio, the company announced on Monday.

Documentaries and Sky Nature will launch this spring and will be available as linear and on demand channels and also on Sky’s streamer NOW TV.

Originals on Sky Documentaries will include “Tiger Woods: The Comeback”; HBO’s “McMillions,” executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, that exposes the McDonald’s Monopoly game scam that took place in the 1990s; Andrew Rossi’s “After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News”; and Showtime’s “The Kingmaker,” a look at the controversial political career of the Philippines’ Imelda Marcos.

Sky Nature will host the existing David Attenborough collection, as well as new originals “Extreme Animals: One Wild Day,” “Extreme Animals: Life’s First Steps,” “Amazing Animal Friends,” produced by Emmy and BAFTA award-winning producers Oxford Scientific Films, and “Wild Tales From the Farm,” narrated by Hugh Bonneville.

Zai Bennett, managing director of content at Sky, said: “These new channels will offer our customers an unrivalled destination for brand new, world-class documentaries and nature programming as well as an extensive on demand library of the world’s best factual programs.”

Sky has 24 million customers across seven countries in Europe.

Meanwhile, the pay-TV operator is also close to signing a carriage deal with Disney Plus, according to media reports. The “Mandalorian” streamer is expected to be available on Sky Q boxes on March 24 – the date it is launching in the U.K.

Sky recently signed a multi-year deal with Netflix , integrating the streaming service with Sky Q. The Disney+ deal is expected to be on similar, seamless lines. Last year, Disney removed more than half their shows, 45 out of 99, including “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” from Sky’s streaming service, ahead of the Disney+ launch this year.