Sky's new commitment to original drama

It’s an exciting time to be at Sky - not least in our commissioning teams. As you may know, we’re significantly growing our ambitions in original content. By next year, we’ll be spending £600m a year on home-grown production.

Providing customers with a great choice of television is at the heart of what we do.  And continuing to develop our portfolio of content brings more value to existing customers and creates more reasons for new customers to join Sky.

As part of this approach, we’ve identified British, home-grown content as something which really strikes a chord with Sky homes.

We’ve made significant progress already – in drama, the arts, factual and, of course, comedy, which has seen a real push over the last 18 months or so.

We’re delighted with what we’ve achieved in comedy, both in terms of the customer and critical reaction – Moone Boy, Hunderby and An Idiot Abroad are just a few of the shows which have really broken through.

Now we’re making a step-change in our drama ambitions, building on the foundations we’ve created over the last couple of years through shows such as Strike Back, Mad Dogs, Hit & Miss and Playhouse Presents… 

My role at Sky, supported wholeheartedly by our director of entertainment channels Stuart Murphy, is to commission across several channels with individual identities; it’s a wide remit where we can create some great television.

Myself, along with my team – including commissioning editor, Huw Kennair-Jones; executive producer, Madonna Baptiste; head of development, Beverley Booker; drama development executives Nicola Larder and Jo McClellan; and development coordinator Daniel Walker – are working on Sky’s biggest drama slate to date.

Our broad vision for all channels is to commission drama that always pushes genre boundaries. Our shows must be bold, brave and confident.

And they must deliver against our vision of ‘New. Unmissable. Exclusive.’  For Sky, this is a more than just a strap line on our marketing.  It helps us create content which defines our channel brands and gives customers more reason to stay with Sky or subscribe.

Yesterday, it was great to be able to share our plans for several new commissions which really demonstrate the scale of our ambition across our Entertainment portfolio.

The new slate includes an original drama based on the life of Ian Fleming, a season of films from acclaimed female screenwriters and the directorial debuts of actors Idris Elba, Matt Smith and Marc Warren.

Featuring some exciting talent including Dominic Cooper, Vanessa Redgrave, David Harewood and Kylie Minogue, these new shows will give you an indication of the direction we’re moving in as we embark on the start of our brand new drama journey.