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Sky Showtime to launch in more countries this month

The logo of streaming service Sky Showtime.
The logo of streaming service Sky Showtime. (Image courtesy Comcast/Paramount Global, Graphic by The Desk)

Comcast and Paramount Global’s streaming joint venture Sky Showtime will launch in more European countries this month, the company affirmed in a statement on Monday.

Starting December 14, Sky Showtime will be available to TV viewers in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, with executives calling the launch “our biggest market roll-out yet.”

“We are extremely excited to bring Sky Showtime to Central and Eastern Europe,” Marty Sarhan, the joint venture’s chief executive, said in a press release. “We know that our incredible line up of series and movies – all at an amazing price – will resonate with consumers in these new markets just as it has with subscribers in the Nordics, the Netherlands and Portugal. It has been incredibly rewarding to see the excitement about Sky Showtime’s next launches.”

Sky Showtime was announced in mid-2021 as a way to bring Comcast’s NBC Universal and Paramount Global’s content to market in European countries, where both media brands do not have much brand recognition among TV viewers.

The joint venture marries the content libraries of each brand, offering hit shows like “Yellowstone,” “Shameless,” “Law & Order” and “The Office” alongside blockbuster films from Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, including “Top Gun: Maverick,” and “Jurassic World: Dominion.”

Sky Showtime operates on the same platform that powers Comcast’s Peacock in the United States and a handful of other countries. In countries where Comcast’s Sky satellite service is offered, localized versions of Peacock and Paramount Global’s streaming service Paramount Plus are made available instead of Sky Showtime.

The Nordic countries were the first to get Sky Showtime in mid-September, priced between $7 and $9 a month in local currency. One month later, the service debuted in the Netherlands and Portugal for about the same price.

Early next year, Sky Showtime is expected to land in the Czech Republic, Poland, North Macedonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is an award-winning journalist with more than 10 years of experience covering the business of television and radio broadcasting, streaming services and the overall media industry. In addition to his work as publisher of The Desk, Matthew contributes regularly to StreamTV Insider and KnowTechie, and has worked for several well-known news organizations, including Thomson Reuters, McNaughton Newspapers, Grasswire, Comstock's magazine, KTXL-TV and KGO-TV. Matthew is a member of IRE, a trade organization for investigative reporters and editors, and is based in Northern California.

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