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“There’s a lazy misconception that TV is a ‘traditional’ media, when in fact it’s one of the most innovative and fast evolving platforms,” Karin Seymour, director of client and marketing at Sky Media, tells Campaign during a sit-down chat. “Yes, habits are shifting and linear viewing is declining, but not in all areas. Take live sport – that's growing and growing, and is massive for us.”
Sky is working hard to change this perception – not just for brands with multimillion-pound budgets but, perhaps more pointedly, for marketers at SMEs who assume that TV is too costly.
Sky Media’s proposition now spans live broadcast, on-demand streaming, YouTube content, and social campaigns, combined under the brand platform “Connections Mean Everything”. This is no mere slogan for Seymour and her colleagues; it underpins everything Sky Media offers advertisers.
Reaching new audiences in new ways
“We can help people join up all of the different platforms and demonstrate effectiveness,” she explains. “It's also us explaining better how we simplify our offering, simplify our message, to help advertisers really understand the breadth of what we bring.”
That breadth spans a media ecosystem with many facets, including Sky TV, Now, Sky Stream, Sky Glass, Sky Sports, Sky Atlantic, digital ad tech and addressable TV and hundreds of media partners. It’s all built on robust data and a firm grasp of audiences’ changing habits.
“We really understand our customers,” Seymour says. “[With streaming], for example, over 90% of our new sales now are either Sky Glass or Sky Stream. So, we're really leaning into streaming as a way people want to consume content.”
This shift underlines Sky’s wider approach – not just to keep up with tech adoption, but to lead it. That sometimes manifests with partnerships with ostensible rivals. Seymour points to distribution partnerships with Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
“We always talk about the fact that we want people to spend more time watching and less time searching for what they want to watch.”
Universal ads platform
Sky Media is chatting to Campaign at Cannes Lions 2025, where it is hosting its first major presence and promoting its new venture.
The company has teamed up with Channel 4, and ITV, in a collaboration with (Sky owner) Comcast, to announce its intention to launch a game-changing advertising marketplace that gives SMEs easy access to premium cross-broadcaster on-demand and streaming inventory via a single buy.
“It’s very much about being able to offer TV to those smaller, SME businesses, to really bring some of the money in,” Seymour says. “[It’s] offering them the kind of media buying that they're used to, measurement that they're used to, and a simple way of interacting and buying, but in the premium trusted world of TV.”
Built on FreeWheel technology and adapted from Comcast’s US proposition, the platform, aims to launch in 2026, and is designed to shake up the UK ad market.
“It’s a big moment when you've got ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and Comcast all coming together to offer something to the marketplace,” says Nick Lewis, head of marketing, at Sky Media.
Lewis says it’s also about offering the type of seamless experience that advertisers expect from digital. “When they have options like Google and YouTube, where there's a really simple interface and a really simple way to target, TV needs to move in that direction.”
Through the funnel
Seymour is also clear that Sky’s ad solutions are not just for brand-building. “One of the other misconceptions against TV as a sector is that we're just [a brand awareness platform], whereas we can do through-funnel from brand all the way through to performance.”
Sky’s suite of offerings is a case in point, from understanding cross-platform impact with tools like Web Attribution, One Campaign’s focus on connecting audiences across platforms, to its involvement in Project Lantern – another partnership with ITV and Channel 4 – that aims to prove the short-term benefits of TV advertising in particular.
“We’re doing a lot individually as broadcasters, but also coming together to help the industry,” Seymour adds.
Clients as partners
Sky’s relationships with advertisers go beyond traditional media buys. Take Audi, for instance, which Sky says isn’t just a sponsor of Sky Sports but an innovation partner. Sky’s use of the Audi Power Meter in cricket and golf coverage demonstrates the brand’s automotive tech in action, showing how hard the ball has been hit and analysing the balance of a golfer’s swing, tying into Audi’s messaging around balance and performance into mass reach, live sports viewing.
Then there’s the long-running Boots partnership, which has used Sky Sports talent and storytelling to drive engagement with men’s health services. “Making health conversations feel more natural and normal in the style of Sky Sports,” Seymour says. One YouTube video from the campaign reached over 17m views in its first few days.
Boots also uses Sky’s addressable capabilities through targeted advertising based on Advantage Card data, allowing for custom campaigns and creative based on specific purchase behaviours.
It’s a powerful illustration of Sky’s ability to merge high-quality content with data-led distribution. “You can bridge that divide, so you're not delivering campaigns in silos,” Lewis says. “In this fragmented world, you need to bring it all together, and you need quality, verified and scaled data to be able to connect the story.”
Sport for all – even local businesses
Sky is also democratising access to premium content, particularly in sport. Seymour highlights the new Sports Marketplace, which allows smaller advertisers to buy into relevant streaming sports content.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, it's very expensive’, or, ‘I won't be able to do that’,” she says, “but If you're a local business in say Plymouth, and know their EFL game is being shown on Sky Sports, you can reach your audience in a really engaged and affordable way. So, that democratises sport in a way that we haven't been able to do before.”
Future-facing tech and trusted TV
Sky’s focus on the future is also evident in its ongoing tech development, especially around measurement and attribution. Propositions such as One Campaign allow advertisers to evaluate deduplicated reach and tailor campaigns to specific outcomes.
“We are developing the tech so we can do much more in the addressable space… joining things up in a fragmented market,” Seymour says.
But for all the innovation, the power of TV still lies in something simple: trust.
“With TV you can have that brand trust, that ‘as seen on TV’ tag,” says Lewis. “People want to be on TV, they just assume it's out of their reach, or it's just too difficult. This is a way of creating a marketplace for brands to realise that it is simple, effective and within their reach.”
In a media environment increasingly defined by automation and algorithmic buying, Sky is eager to retain the human aspect of marketing – storytelling, quality content, and meaningful connections between brands and audiences.
“TV has always been one of the most innovative platforms,” Lewis says. “It’s all very good trying the shiny and new media opportunities, but you’ve got to be able to prove its effectiveness and show how it delivers better outcomes as part of the wider campaign. It’s working closely with brands to show the investment is worth it, that will keep advertisers coming back and keep those connections strong.”
