Sky sign exclusive HBO deal

In an astonishing move, Sky have acquired the rights to HBO's entire TV archive and future programming for the next five years, in a £150m deal. This will assumedly provide the broadcaster with high quality programming to fill its newly-acquired suite of channels from Virgin Media (Living, Bravo, etc.)

What does this mean for viewers? Expect the schedules for those channels to be filled with repeats of Sex & The City, The Sopranos, Flight Of The Conchords, Band Of Brothers, Rome, Six Feet Under and The Wire; while current/future content like True Blood, Treme, Entourage, In Treatment, and Boardwalk Empire will likely get their UK premieres on Sky-branded channels (Sky1, Sky Movies, etc.) In the case of True Blood and Entourage, Sky will have to wait until existing deals with FX and ITV2 expire, respectively.

What do you make of this news? It certainly boosts Sky's drama output and will appeal to British fans of HBO. I just hope Sky don't put too many prestige shows on Sky Movies (as they did The Pacific), because you need an additonal movies package to get those channels. On the positive side, it looks like Living and Bravo will get an injection of quality if they become the home of HBO's older hits. Update: Sky are apparently planning to boost their video-on-demand service with the majority of HBO's back catalogue.