Digital TV Europe reports that Sky has delivered more news to attendees at MIPCOM, this time from Managing Director of Content, Gary Davey.
Davey outlined the company’s plans to increase its investment in Ultra HD, the “primary reason for people to upgrade to Sky Q”, stating that the platform will deliver about 1,000 hours worth of UHD content this year, across a range of genres, both live and on-demand. He went on to say:
“Sky will produce 124 live football games in 4K this year, and has a catalogue of about 100 movies in UHD, with a further 30 to be added before Christmas”.
Sky first began producing UHD content in August last year, with the Premier League, which has seen users quadruple in number. The company is also preparing to release its Dolby Atmos surround sound-capable Soundbox in mid-November. Davey also mentioned that this year’s MTV Europe Awards would be filmed and produced in HDR and Dolby Atmos.
On the subject of HDR, Davey acknowledged a current lack of clarity around the technology, and how different TVs cope with outputting HDR content.
Davey stated that multiple Sky series are now being produced in UHD, and told delegates that while Sky has “led the charge on UHD” with the Sky Q box in the UK, he expects Germany and Italy to also be receiving UHD content within the year.
He went on to say that the difference in production costs between HD and UHD is now minimal and that the company has begun commissioning content that it would not have previously, before the inception of UHD.
He added that the potential for producing Sky News in UHD is “not a priority currently”.
