Discounts for existing customers, new series, additional features. Sky is currently working hard in the background to keep the damage caused by the loss of various football broadcasting rights as low as possible. A Herculean task.
The largest German-speaking pay TV broadcaster , Sky, has to face various construction sites. Above all, the loss of attractive sports rights ( Bundesliga / Champions League ) is likely to cause one or the other loss of customers. Because above all the live rights to soccer games have been a bargaining chip to keep many of the paying customers happy. In the future, Sky will show respect football broadcasts but in addition to the Premier League in England only the DFB Cup, the 2. Bundesliga and the Saturday games of the Bundesliga .
SKY DELIGHTS EXISTING CUSTOMERS WITH RICH DISCOUNTS
So what to do One of the first steps: just don’t raise prices for paying customers. Numerous customers have been surprised by a “permanent special offer” in the past few weeks. To be found in the password-protected customer area on the Sky homepage. Anyone who received a subscription at a reduced price in the past can usually continue to do so in the future. Exceptions confirm the rule, as is well known, but the inside digital editorial team is aware of numerous Sky customers who have been able to take advantage of a “permanent discount offer” for a few weeks, even though a substantial increase in the price of the subscription was announced at the end of the contract period.
INVESTING IN NEW SERIES AND OTHER EXTRAS
In addition, Sky’s management team, which has been almost completely replaced in the past few months – owner Comcast has appointed various English-speaking decision-makers to management – does everything to keep its own customers happy with innovations. Just recently, new linear TV channels , such as Sky Comedy and Sky Crime, were launched.
Further program expansions are firmly planned. This also includes new in-house productions. Among other things, new seasons of the blockbuster series “Das Boot” and “Babylon Berlin”. During the week, Sky also announced that the shooting of the new six-part Sky Original series “The Wasp” had been completed. The six-part comedy tells the story of the fallen professional darts player Eddie Frotzke, who, after a long trough, finally wants to build on earlier successes.
Further improvements: Since the end of June, customers with Sky Q receivers have had the opportunity to access the TVNow offer ( soon to be RTL + ). Much of the content from RTL’s program is thus available on demand – some of it even free of charge. Since the end of June, Sky Ticket users have also been able to install the appropriate app on Grundig Smart Fire TVs and Fire TV soundbars from Nebula and TCL .
THE COMPETITION DESTROYS THE BUSINESS
It remains to be seen, however, how Sky will be able to defend itself against the steadily growing competition in streaming services. Netflix , Prime Video and Disney + have already ditched many customers with low subscription prices. In the past few months, Disney + in particular has also ensured that attractive films and series are no longer shown on Sky, but behind their own paywall.
And if HBO should one day start its streaming service HBO Max in Germany, it should be linked to the next hit for Sky. The multiple award-winning HBO productions in Germany and Austria are still largely exclusive to Sky Atlantic. Presumably due to contractual conditions, HBO Max has not yet ventured into the German-speaking area.
But that could change over the next few years. And it would be a big surprise if all HBO content would still be shown on Germany’s leading pay-TV provider. By then, at the latest, the discussions should also begin as to whether Sky’s offer is not much too expensive.
