Sky set to launch Sports and Movies magazines

by Craig Smith, Marketing 10-Oct-06, 08:30

LONDON - Sky is set to rewrite British magazine rankings with the launch of two customer titles, each with a circulation of more than 4m.

The multichannel broadcaster will pursue a segmented magazine strategy with the introduction of Sky Movies in December and Sky Sports in January. Sky subscribers will receive the dedicated monthly magazines based on their channel packages.

Sky Sports, published by Haymarket Network, will be the world's second-highest circulation sports magazine, trailing only Sports Illustrated. Sky Movies will be produced by Future Plus, under Future's Total Film brand.

The launches will sit alongside Sky's existing titles Sky The Magazine and Sky Kids, both of which are published by John Brown.

Sky The Magazine, which will now be themed around entertainment programming, is the UK's highest circulation title, at 6.8m. Based on current ABC figures, the introduction of the sports and movies titles will give Sky the top three titles.

Sky's investment, estimated to total more than £20m, represents a significant vote of confidence in the customer publishing channel. The publishers will sell third-party advertising into their titles, and share the revenues with the client.

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