Sky is to offer episodes from some of its big shows, including The Tunnel and Moone Boy, for free on YouTube in an attempt to entice viewers to its pay-TV services.
It has struck a deal with YouTube to launch a channel, Sky First Episodes, that will allow viewers to watch the first episodes of shows including Moone Boy, A Young Doctor's Notebook, The Tunnel and Moonfleet.
The channel, which launches on 1 February, forms part of a multimillion-pound campaign to promote Sky's range of entertainment channels and programming.
More shows will be added to the channel over the coming months, including episodes from current series.
Sky is aiming to reignite growth in its TV base, which has plateaued at about 10 million subscribers. It is now targeting the 13m-plus UK homes that watch free-to-air services.
"We're passionate about delivering truly great TV – and the best way of demonstrating this is to give people the opportunity to enjoy the shows for themselves," said the Sky director of entertainment, marketing and digital, Naomi Gibney. "The combination of Sky First Episodes and a TV campaign featuring entire clips from our biggest and best series means that now everyone has the chance to sample Sky shows."
The marketing push – the largest ever undertaken to back its entertainment channel portfolio of Sky1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts and Sky Living – comes ahead of parent company BSkyB reporting its financial results for the six months to the end of 31 December on Thursday.
The financial filing will provide the latest snapshot of the impact of BSkyB's battle with BT for broadband and TV customers.
BSkyB is pushing its entertainment portfolio – which has committed to spending £600m on British shows alone this year – as a differentiator to BT's primary focus on sports such as Premier League football and Premiership rugby.
"2014 will be the biggest and best ever year of entertainment on Sky, with customers able to enjoy an outstanding breadth and quality of TV across Sky's entertainment channels," said the Sky director of entertainent channels Stuart Murphy. "From brand new homegrown comedy and drama to the biggest series from the US, this year Sky customers can look forward to enjoying some of the very best shows on British TV."
As well as the YouTube tie-up, Sky is spending millions on a marketing campaign that will include TV ads, featuring stars including Chris O'Dowd, Nick Frost and Dominic Cooper, running on rivals including ITV and Channel 4.
There will also be print, digital, poster and cinema ads, with the campaign created by agency Inferno+Draftfcb with media buying by Mediacom.
BSkyB has dabbled with offering some of its pay-TV content for free in the past.
Last January the company ran a campaign on Pick TV, its free-to-air channel, showcasing episodes of Sky shows that had already been on air, like Game of Thrones and Stella.
In August programmes from Sky Sports 1 ran on Sky 2 and Pick TV for the first day of the Premier League season.
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