After keeping theatre-loving Sky customers entertained during lockdown the broadcaster has unveiled plans to make its popular Sky Arts channel available to everyone from September.
The change to a free-to-air channel forms part of Sky Arts’ ambitious plans to support and champion the arts as the industry attempts to re-build following the Covid crisis.
Announcing the decision to make the UK’s only channel dedicated to arts and culture channel available to all, Stephen van Rooyen, executive vice president and chief executive officer, Sky UK and Europe said: “As a creative business, we believe it’s important to have a thriving cultural sector. By making Sky Arts free for everyone we want to give more artists and arts organisations a platform to create and share their work and to bring more art and culture to everyone across the UK.”
The move to free-to-air will include a new slate of original programmes and increased and deepened partnerships with artists and arts organisations. To support new talent the channel will launch a series of bursaries worth £30,000 each, offering access to leading figures from the arts world who will support and mentor diverse and emerging new artists.
Commenting on the move, Philip Edgar-Jones, director of Sky Arts, said: “There’s never been a stronger need or demand for the arts, nor a more important time to champion and celebrate creativity. That’s why we’re throwing open the doors to make Sky Arts a free channel. During lockdown we’ve seen audiences to the channel increase by 50% and our weekly live paint-along show, Portrait Artist of The Week, reached 4.6 million people with over 20,000 portraits painted.
“As a free to air channel I hope that Sky Arts can help arts organisations and cultural institutions of all shapes and sizes across the UK, providing them with a platform to create and showcase their work to a broad audience. With our renewed focus and mission to increase accessibility and participation across the arts, we want to hear from everyone with ideas for how we might be able to work together – we can only succeed with artists and creatives at the heart of what we do.”
Welcoming the news, culture minister Caroline Dinenage said: “This is fantastic news for our world-leading cultural and creative industries. The Coronavirus pandemic has underlined just how important they are to our health and wellbeing. I am delighted that Sky Arts is opening up its vast array of programming to the nation’s living rooms, for us all to enjoy.”
While the Sky Arts channel will be free, the extensive Sky Arts On Demand library will remain exclusive to Sky and NOW TV Entertainment Pass customers.
Angela Thomas
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