Launched in February 2023, SkyShowtime is available in 22 markets on the European continent. The streaming service is a joint venture between Paramount Global and Comcast, offering a diverse range of content in 19 languages, with a focus on United States and local entertainment.
The JV was a great way for the two U.S. giants to pool their resources, according to SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan, not just in terms of content but also technology. SkyShowtime is built on Comcast’s tech stack, which is also used for Peacock in the U.S.
“For the past two years, we’ve been live across 22 different markets in Europe, and they are really interesting and diverse markets,” said Sarhan, speaking at the Streaming Summit’s Keynote Fireside Chat at NAB Show.
None of the 22 markets in which the streamer operates is the same, Sarhan added. “We have some of the richest markets in Europe and some of the poorest markets in Europe,” he said. “They are in different places on the voyage towards a direct-to-consumer future. They have different consumption and viewing habits.
“When you have markets that are that diverse, you have to have different strategies,” Sarhan continued. “There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for success in international markets. We lean into the differences that exist in all these regions, and that’s been, I think, a key part of our success.”
Another key part of SkyShowtime’s success is that it delivers its content in 19 languages (and not one of them is English). “Every piece of content either has subtitles or dubs, in some cases both, and the interface is in 19 different languages,” he said. “We try very hard to meet the consumer wherever he [or she] is, and to show up and be authentic in terms of content.”
What makes SkyShowtime unique among its competitors is that it does not own any sports rights. Sarhan said he feels that the streamer’s audience isn’t missing that content. However, he’s not ruling out the idea that SkyShowtime could follow its U.S. cousins by introducing it in the future.
“For me, the great thing about working at a streaming service in Europe is that, having worked in the U.S., in subscription television and in streaming, you kind of know what the pattern is,” he said. “You know what’s going to eventually happen. You know how the movie turns out. And so that’s allowed us to, I think, take a lot of interesting bets.”
Sarhan and his team have found great success by putting the customer first. At launch, SkyShowtime offered a 50% discount to anyone who signed up, driven by post-COVID timing, an economic crunch and a need to break through. “As a new service, you’re getting scale and profitability,” he said. “If you come out with a not-so-great price point, it will severely diminish your ability to scale and grow.”
That first cohort of viewers is treated “like gold,” Sarhan said. “You have to make sure that you show that appreciation to the consumer. In fact, internally, we don’t call them subscribers, we call them members. Netflix does the same thing, so I’m not going to take credit for it. But for us, it creates a different mindset internally, when you’re thinking about the fact that this person is a member, a subscriber or a sub is a very inanimate term. This is a person who has a family, and they want to watch certain content. So we try to keep them personal, every single person.”
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