Sky and Blue Ant renew natural history content deal

Sky and Blue Ant Media have renewed their content partnership for natural history channel Sky Nature, Broadcast International can reveal. 

The European pay-TV giant and Canadian company initially forged the partnership in 2020 to coincide with the launch of Sky Nature, with Blue Ant’s flagship natural history brand Love Nature supplying a catalogue of programming and working as a partner on co-productions. 

The initial five-year deal, which was extended to Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia in 2021, had been due to expire this year, but the re-upped agreement will see Sky Nature’s programming line-up bolstered by original Love Nature series and documentaries for audiences in the UK, Italy and Germany.  

It will allow Sky Nature to schedule Love Nature original content across the three territories through bespoke agreements. Details of the length of the deal were not revealed as part of the renewal. 

Highlights of the partnership include Humble Bee blue-chip co-production pair Airborne and Wild Side of the Moon and Big Wave Productions’ six-part Deep Dive North America, following prolific presenter and biologist Lizzie Daly.  

Other Love Nature titles that have broadcast on Sky Nature include Aussie Snake Wranglers: Deadly Pursuit, Pride Rules, Survival of the Beast (featuring Max Djenohan), Snow Leopards with Dan O’Neill, My Best Friend’s An Animal and Planet Weird. 

Speaking to Broadcast, Carlyn Staudt, Blue Ant’s president of global channels & streaming, and an architect of the original deal in 2020, called the agreement a “pivotal renewal”.  

“It speaks to the strength of Blue Ant as a reliable and reputable partner,” she said. “It is testament to what we’ve built with Sky and Sky Nature over the past five years and our focus on producing and commissioning quality content in the natural history space that they were interested in renewing with us. 

“The level of content that Alison Barratt [Love Nature’s senior vice-president of content], who leads our commissioning team, has brought to the table has delivered.” 

Staudt acknowledged the “ebbs and flows” that natural history programming has gone through over the “challenging” past few years for producers within the community, but said the genre is “incredibly resilient” for global buyers. 

“It has broad audience appeal, it’s an evergreen property, it doesn’t change the way that other programming comes in and out of style. Continuing to invest in that solid genre is important when you’re looking at what other broadcasters are doing,” she added. 

“We feel we have a commitment to supporting this genre and we’re happy Sky is in that same frame of mind – a genre that people come back to.” 

Staudt reiterated that Love Nature is “open for business” and will continue to develop co-pros with Sky like Airborne and “narrative-led” programming like Pride Rules. 

“We’re continuing to commission, we have a pipeline to produce into for this partnership,” she said. “We have big tentpoles like Airborne and Wild Side of the Moon, but there are also talent-led pieces such as those with Lizzie Daly. So we have faces now that will be continuing in our roster of programming. 

“We do the blue-chip, but we have character-led programming and multiple shades of natural history, which Sky audiences also value.”