Comcast’s European TV and telecom powerhouse Sky is making huge bets with an eye on business opportunities and customer value, group CEO Dana Strong told the Enders TMT Leaders Live conference in London on Thursday.
“Key for us has been really making courageous, big bets” rather than small incremental changes, given that this is not the time for small steps, Strong said. “We went from being primarily a satellite [service] to more than 90 percent [of customers] taking our IP product.”
She also highlighted how a digital revamp of the business has allowed Sky to expand its sports content offerings to a point where it now features more than 3,000 sports events a month, she said.
How do you think of entertainment as a digital and social media offering, along with a traditional video proposition, has been another focus, with Saturday Night Live U.K. a key example of the “symphonic engagement” between them. “In addition to the big bets [key has] has been the symphonic alignment and the changing of the organization to really understand that these changes that we’re making are transformationally beneficial to consumers, and it’s all being driven around getting customers more value.”
She explained: “I think it was eight people up from midnight until 5 a.m., putting all of the digital assets for Saturday Night Live out there. And you think about the cadence through the week, where you go, ‘Okay, Tuesday we’re going to drop another round, Friday we’re going to get everybody hyped up by getting back onto social media and really driving what’s going on this week.’ So [it’s about] really thinking about the business in every dimension about how we’re reaching audiences” through the company’s digital and linear footprint.
