Sky Arts: New look, new faces, new home and an even bigger contribution to the arts

Sky Arts is to become even bigger and bolder with a range of ground breaking new programmes, innovations and projects for 2012. Supported by a trebling of the channel’s budget, Sky Arts is set to inspire and engage with even more customers, whether on-screen through ambitious new programming, or on the ground through its support of arts projects and emerging British artists.

Supported by a new look and brand identity, a higher profile position on the Sky channel guide and the channel’s launch on Sky Go, highlights for customers this year include:

Getting even bigger and bolder on screen

As part of Sky’s commitment to increase its annual investment in home-grown programming to £600 million by 2014, Sky Arts will see its programming budget increase three-fold. Thanks to this investment, Sky Arts will grow the breadth of its content, to help it reach an even wider audience. Forthcoming highlights include:

• Playhouse Presents…Emma Thompson, David Tennant, Sheila Hancock, Stephen Fry, Richard E. Grant and Sir Tom Jones - in his very first acting role - are just a few of the household names in a spectacular line-up of brand new plays.
• Sir Michael Parkinson returns to British TV with a brand new format for Sky Arts.
• Sky Arts brings The South Bank Show back to screens in 2012, hosted, edited and produced by Melvyn Bragg.
• Flagship Sky Arts series such as The Book Show, In Confidence and Tim Marlow On…return for new runs in 2012.

Supporting arts on the ground across the UK and Ireland

Throughout 2012 Sky Arts will continue its commitment to supporting the arts across the UK and Ireland by encouraging active participation in the arts. This will include showcasing, creating and investing directly in the arts, with specific projects such as:

• The Sky Arts Ignition Series, a new scheme enabling Sky Arts to back the creation of major new works of art as well as nurture emerging talent. Sky Arts will collaborate with six arts organisations over the next three years in the creation of brand new works.
• The launch of the first project in the Sky Arts Ignition Series will take place in September at the Liverpool Biennial, in partnership with Tate Liverpool and globally acclaimed contemporary artist Doug Aitken.
• Meanwhile, later this year, the first winners of the Sky Arts Ignitition Futures Fund, a project which sees Sky investing directly in up-and-coming artists, will launch their new projects. The Fund is designed to help young talent to bridge the development gap from school or college to becoming a working artist.

Making Sky Arts even easier to find and watch

With a new on-air look and feel, the Sky Arts channels will move up Sky’s Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) so that they are even more accessible, both to the more than 3 million viewers who already tune into Sky Arts each month, as well as those Sky homes who will discover Sky Arts in months ahead. The changes include:

• Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 1 HD moving to channel number 129, with Sky Arts 2 and Sky Arts 2 HD moving to channel number 130.
• Arts fans can also now enjoy their favourite programmes on the go with Sky Arts 1 now available through Sky Go, for viewing on 3G and WiFi viewing on tablets and smartphones.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s Chief Executive, comments: "At Sky, we’re committed to providing our customers with the very best entertainment available anywhere. Sky Arts is already a major success story, reaching around 3 million viewers each month. We believe Sky Arts has a very bright future, and by increasing our investment on- and off-screen, we can make it even bigger and better."

James Hunt, Director of Sky Arts, adds: "I’ve always said I’ve got the best job in TV – and our plans for 2012 only confirm this for me. It’s hard to know what to be most excited by – the thrilling talent we now have coming to the channel, the raft of fantastic ideas we have for programmes or the enormously exciting work that’s happening off air. We’re delighted to be able to offer our customers this kind of content, and the unique opportunity to experience what we do off screen as well as on. Needless to say, we’re also thrilled that, in our new home, it’s even easier for them to find us, and to find more of what they love."

More information on a great year ahead on screen

Playhouse Presents - Hayley Atwell, Brenda Blethyn, Trevor Eve, Stephen Fry, Richard E. Grant, Sheila Hancock, John Hurt, Geraldine James, Sir Tom Jones, Eddie Marsan, Gina McKee, Paul O’Grady, Will Self, Martin Shaw, Harry Shearer, Stellan Skarsgård, Alison Steadman, David Tennant, Emma Thompson, Russell Tovey, Zoe Wanamaker and Olivia Williams will all appear in a brand new series of original comedy and drama productions.

Building on Sky Arts’ successful Playhouse Live and Theatre Live series’ which were executive produced by Sandi Toksvig, Playhouse Presents is a series of incredibly diverse, richly crafted productions which recreate famous moments in history; span universal themes and genres and showcases the incredible wealth of acting, directing and writing talent in the UK.

Sky Arts Masterclass with Michael Parkinson - Sky Arts will also welcome Michael Parkinson this autumn, as he returns to British TV with an exclusive format. Sky Arts Masterclass with Michael Parkinson will see the veteran presenter learn how leading arts practitioners work, in the definitive interview of their life and times. Whether it’s how to write the perfect song or how a masterpiece is sculpted, Sky Arts Masterclass will explore the art of their craft.

Sky Arts will bring back flagship series’ for 2012, including a sixth series of The Book Show , hosted by Mariella Frostrup, and In Confidence with Laurie Taylor. The South Bank Sky Arts Awards will also return for the second year, and Sky Arts is delighted to welcome The South Bank Show back to screens in 2012, hosted, edited and produced by Melvyn Bragg. Tim Marlow will offer further exclusive tours of some of the UK’s biggest exhibitions, including Picasso at the Tate and Sky Arts’ coverage of live music festivals will continue in 2012, kicking off with exclusive, extended coverage of the Isle of Wight Festival in June, hosted by Zoe Ball.

More information on The Sky Arts Ignition Series

The Sky Arts Ignition Series is the new scheme announced in 2011, which enables Sky Arts to back the creation of major new works of art as well as nurture emerging talent. Sky Arts will collaborate with Tate Liverpool, and five other arts organisations over the next three years in the creation of brand new works. For each of the chosen projects, Sky Arts will provide a cash investment of up to £200,000 and work with the arts partners to bring their projects to a wider audience, using Sky’s platform. In conjunction, The Futures Fund is designed to help young talent to bridge the development gap from school or college to becoming a working artist. The fund will support five individuals with a bursary of £30,000 each, with opera director Daisy Evans and animator Phoebe Boswell selected as the first two recipients for 2012. Sky Arts is also supporting young creative talent on air, with the SKY ARTS IGNITION STINGS – ten idents that have been created by young people exclusively for Sky Arts in collaboration with Sky Creative Agency.

The first Sky Arts Ignition Series project will form part of the Liverpool Biennial 2012. The Series complements Sky Arts’ existing support of book festivals around the country, broadcasting live from Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literary Festival, Bath Literature Festival and Brighton Literature Festival, and comes as a natural evolution of Sky’s longstanding support for the arts. Applications for the second round of both Sky Arts Ignition and Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund are now open at sky.com/skyartsignition.

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For further information, images or interviews please contact:

Manisha Ferdinand
Head of PR, Sky Arts and Sky Movies
Email: Manisha.ferdinand@bskyb.com

Photography available from www.image.net or StillsDepartment@bskyb.com

About Sky Arts

Sky Arts offers an eclectic mix of the best music, arts, biographies, chat shows, film, drama and comedy. 2012 will see Sky Arts turn the spotlight on the best amateur dramatics companies in the UK in BRITAIN’S BEST AM-DRAM, exclusive productions from The Globe Theatre and Simon Callow’s one man play as part of a SHAKESPEARE SEASON and Ronnie Wood’s new show for Sky Arts. Popular series such as THE ONION NEWS NETWORK and ROMANZO CRIMINALE will sit alongside the premieres of Israeli dramas BE TIPUL and PRISONERS OF WAR. Sky Arts also encourages new formats and methods for accessing opera; beaming the world’s first live opera in 3D to cinemas across the UK and Ireland from ENO.

Sky Arts seeks to connect with culture on the ground; creating and collaborating with the best of the arts in the UK and Ireland to bring new experiences to life. The flagship show, The Book Show, now goes to four literary festivals including Hay and Cheltenham. The Sky Arts Ignition Serieslaunched in in 2011 to invest in the arts landscape of the UK, following long term partnerships with English National Opera, English National Ballet and Artichoke. The Series will seek to collaborate with six arts organisations over the next three years in the creation of brand new works; Sky Arts Ignition Series: Futures Fund will support five young artists with a bursary of £30,000 each, enabling Sky Arts to back the creation of new works of art as well as nurture emerging talent.

See sky.com/arts
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