A+E Networks UK channel HISTORY®, which will become Sky HISTORY, enjoyed a highly successful 2019, with audience share up by 11%. The foundation of this growth is the success of long-running franchises like Curse of Oak Island and new hit series such as UnXplained with William Shatner. There has also been greater investment in local commissions, including innovative talent-led UK programming; Damian Lewis: Spy Wars, James Nesbitt: Disasters That Changed Britain and Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate the English, which was awarded the Gamechanger Programme of the Year prize at the 2019 Broadcast Digital Awards.
Building on the success of 2019, Sky HISTORY, will have further investment in locally commissioned original programming in 2020 and beyond. The additional titles will showcase premium factual series and specials delivered by a range of UK production companies.
The channel will be available on linear TV and on demand in the UK and Ireland and will also be available on streaming service NOW TV for the first time.
Sky HISTORY is the flagship brand of the A+E Networks® UK family of channels: Crime+Investigation®, Sky HISTORY2 (formerly HISTORY2®), Lifetime® and free-to-air channel BLAZE®. All channels will continue to broadcast on Sky, Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk.
Sky HISTORY will continue to be managed and operated by the A+E Networks® UK team from their Hammersmith offices.
“We are delighted to be deepening our partnership with Sky,” said Dean Possenniskie, Managing Director of A+E Networks® UK. “It is exciting to be taking the HISTORY® brand to a new level in the U.K. with greater commissioning investment and broader reach. Our joint venture with Sky has been a long-standing success—this innovative brand partnership further strengthens its future.”
Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content at Sky, said: “The launch of Sky HISTORY will build on our existing channel portfolio and complement new channel brands Sky Documentaries and Sky Nature, which will also be coming in Spring 2020. The continuation of our strong partnership with A+E Networks® UK will mean more investment in premium original content and make it easier for our customers to find the shows they want to watch.”
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