How ‘Yellowstone’ & The Taylorverse Helped SkyShowtime Muscle Into Europe’s Crowded Streaming Market
EXCLUSIVE: Taylor Sheridan has helped SkyShowtime establish itself on the European streaming stage. CEO Monty Sarhan says Sheridan’s shows have given SkyShowtime a serious leg-up in the two years since it launched, and as it looked to persuade consumers in over 20 territories to part with cash for a new subscription service.
“We see why people subscribe, what they come in for, and what they watch once they’re subscribers,” Sarhan says. “The Taylor Sheridan shows, the Taylorverse, is a huge driver. Yellowstone has been the biggest driver of subscriber acquisition for us since launch and it remains the case today.”
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As the upstart service marks its second anniversary, Sarhan reflects on the story so far and looks ahead at what’s to come in an exclusive interview with Deadline. As well as giving the low-down on the impact of the juggernaut U.S. series, he shares news of the SVoD’s plan to bring a channels type service to subscribers.
Yellowstone & Jackal
If content is king, it helps to go out of the gate with films and series from two U.S. majors in the shape of Paramount Global and NBCUniversal. SkyShowtime is co-owned by Paramount Global and NBCU parent Comcast and has rolled out in Europe where neither of those has a standalone streaming service.
It gets all films from Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures – which is a chunky proportion of Hollywood box office – as well as series from Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Sky Studios and Peacock.
Yellowstone is a key attraction for subs, but Sarhan highlights the wider selection from the Sheridan stable. “It’s really the Yellowstone universe, because there’s Yellowstone, there’s 1883, there’s 1923 and there are things that are adjacent and complementary, like Landman.”
His take on the European success of the U.S. shows is simple: “They’re big, glossy, well-shot soap operas, and they just draw in an audience. For some of our markets in Europe, they’re emblematic of everything that people think the United States stands for, sweeping shots of Montana and cowboys on horses. It taps into what people think about America and strikes a really important chord.”
The universe is expanding: “Hopefully The Madison is going to be a great spin-off and drive even more growth for us,” adds Sarhan.
Sky and Peacock series have also moved the dial. Eddie Redmayne-starrer The Day of The Jackal “was our best new series premiere in our history, and over 25% of all subscribers watched,” Sarhan reports.
From 0 to over 20…
Sarhan is at Sky’s west London HQ when he talks to Deadline, but SkyShowtime’s 250 employees are spread across eight European offices.
“What makes us unique is that we were created for Europe. A lot of global streamers may view our territories as flyover markets, but these are our home markets. We were created specifically for them. That’s a big difference in our approach and how we think about things.”
With services in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Iberia and Central & Eastern Europe, SkyShowtime has set up across countries with contrasting cultures and consumer behavior. It means working in 18 different languages and subtitling or dubbing all international content.
The various markets are also at different stages of growth. “In the Nordics, there are almost four subscriptions per household, you have cord cutting and it looks very much like the U.S. or the UK,” Sarhan says. “In Central and Eastern Europe linear television is still popular, and in some cases growing, and you have about one and a half subscriptions per household. Spain and Portugal are somewhere in the middle.”
The war in Ukraine started before SkyShowtime rolled out and the impact was being felt across Europe with inflation spiking in many countries. “All of a sudden, we had double-digit inflation in many of our markets and you have to be sensitive to what consumers are going through,” Sarhan says. “We launched with a headline price that was better than Max, better than Disney and better than Netflix. That was a deliberate choice; we were talking about value from the start and we continue to talk about that.”
Pricing options now span ad-free, ad-supported and a premium tier without ads and that allows subs to stream to multiple devices and watch in ultra HD. “We’re the only streaming service to have three plans across all markets,” Sarhan says. “We want to give consumers different price points for different experiences so that everyone can find a version of SkyShowtime that fits their pocketbook. There is a bit of subscription fatigue and it’s incredibly important for us to be affordable.”
Post-launch next steps
The service is in its infancy and yet to turn a profit, company filings show. It does not publish any official subscriber numbers, but respected analyst outfit Omdia shared its subs estimates with Deadline. The Omdia TV & Online Video Intelligence Database put SkyShowtime subs at 5.3M at end 2023, rising to 6.2M by end 2024. It forecasts it will cross the 7M subscriber threshold in 2025.
With all launches complete, the growth strategy involves going D2C and B2B: meaning getting customers to pay for a service directly and working with other platforms and telcos to bundle SkyShowtime.
“We are in investment mode right now,” Sarhan says. “There’s a lot of headroom. The shareholders are really happy with the performance. We are on track to be a top three service in a lot of our markets within the next year or so.”
Lean-Back approach
SkyShowtime shares plans to add a linear experience for its subs, akin to viewing a traditional TV channel. Sarhan says adding a linear element will address the paradox of choice. The thinking goes that with an overwhelming array of viewing options, a curated experience will help people discover shows and avoid endless scrolling.
“It’s about scheduling or programming content to create compelling channels, thematic channels, whether it is potentially a Yellowstone channel or an action channel. It’s about that lean-back experience, being able to tune-in and discover a new series,” Sarhan explains.
Local Sprinkles
As well as the powerhouse series from the parents, SkyShowtime has been adding “local sprinkles,” meaning original projects from its various territories. It dropped 10 in 2023 and the same number in 2024. It will hit that mark again in 2025.
Notable sprinkles include Polish hit crime series ?leboda. Over half of the streamer’s Polish subs watched the show in month after its launch and 90% of those that tuned into the first episode watched subsequent instalments.
This year, the local output has included Schmeichel, a two-part doc about the titular Danish goalkeeping icon. Upcoming projects include Nails, a comedy out of Spain that revolves around the lives of four women who meet in a nail bar. Season 2 of Swedish psychological thriller series Veronika will mark the first re-commission of a SkyShowtime original.
With the U.S. SVOD market maturing, “it is still early days in streaming, Europe is the next frontier,” says Sarhan. As the latest major entrant to the streaming fray on the continent, he says there’s space for everyone. “There’s still a lot of room to grow, and I think there’s room for all of us to compete and be successful.”
“I don’t believe in the streaming wars,” he adds.
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