HBO And Sky Announce First Investment

HBO and Sky, have announced their first investment as part of their co-production deal, taking a minority stake and seats on the board of Bad Wolf, the production company launched by award-winning producers Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner.

The deal will see Bad Wolf formalise their role to supply drama for the recently announced co-production partnership between Sky and HBO, which is aimed at funding large scale dramas for the international television market.

As part of their investment, HBO and Sky will be represented on the board of Bad Wolf Productions by Glenn Whitehead and Gary Davey.

Bad Wolf has already co-produced the Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated series, The Night Of for HBO. Other major drama series currently in pre-production include A Discovery of Witches for Sky and the TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s novels His Dark Materials.

The investment underlines HBO and Sky’s commitment to investing in world-class content and follows the announcement of Chernobyl, the first project from their international high-end drama co-production partnership.

The deal follows Sky’s commitment to increasing investment in Original productions by twenty-five percent, building on the success of Guerrilla, Jamestown and Riviera, their biggest drama premiere of the year with over 17 million downloads so far.

Bad Wolf launched in 2015 as a transatlantic production company, with backing from the Welsh Government, and is co-sited in Los Angeles and South Wales, where they recently opened a new studio complex, Wolf Studios Wales. In March this year, Len Blavatnik’s Access Entertainment, headed by Danny Cohen, took a 24.9% stake in the company.

Jane Tranter, chief executive, Bad Wolf, said: "The synergy between HBO and Sky perfectly matches the transatlantic ambitions of Bad Wolf. From Rome and Five Days through to Getting On and The Night Of, Julie and I have always had a creatively fulfilling relationship with HBO. A Discovery of Witches marks our first partnership with Sky and we are thoroughly enjoying being part of their creative vision for TV. This transatlantic relationship, with its roots in South Wales, is something we cannot wait to get stuck into."