SKY Network Television : CONFIRMS MEMBERSHIP OF GLOBAL DRAMA COLLABORATION ATRIUM TV

Innovative 'commissioning club' targets the co-creation of premium
high-profile drama content.

SKY has confirmed its membership of Atrium TV, an innovative global drama 'commissioning club'.

Established by Sir Howard Stringer, former chairman of Sony and former president of CBS, and Jeremy Fox, CEO of British distributor DRG, Atrium TV is a consortium of some of the world's key TelCos and OTT platforms with the specific aim of working with leading writers and producers to create premium, high-profile drama content for their customers.

SKY joins founding member Viaplay (Nordics) along with Orange (France), Movistar+ (Spain), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Iflix (Asia/MENA), Antenna (Greece), BigFlix(India), NewFilm (Russia) and Yes TV (Israel). As well as an opportunity to engage and draw on the resources of their global partners, Atrium TV's currently looking at a first slate of six new high-profile dramas, focussing on working with writers and talent.

SKY's Director of Entertainment Content, Travis Dunbar, said the company is delighted at the opportunity to be a part of Atrium TV from the start.

'It's exciting to be a part of such a diverse and talented group. The ability to be involved at the grass-roots level of the commissioning of cutting-edge drama on a global stage offers us the opportunity to not only inject a Kiwi perspective in the development of these projects but to ultimately be able to share the results of this collaboration exclusively with local audiences,' he said.

Atrium TV unveiled its extended slate this week at mipcom® which includes a TV adaptation of Quasimodo, written by Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars) and Executive Produced by Game of Thrones alumni Charles Dance and Peter Dinklage. It is part of an expanded slate which includes epic historical drama Jerusalem, State of Decay based on the eponymous survival horror videogame and thriller Perfect People, an adaptation of the Peter James novel of the same name.

The new titles join existing projects: moon landing series One Giant Leap and Fandorin, an adaptation of the Boris Akunin book series about a 19th-century Russian detective.