Comcast-owned European pay-TV, media and telecom giant Sky‘s CEO Dana Strong told a London conference on Tuesday that getting AI policies and regulations right is key given the speed of technological change.
During a fireside chat at Deloitte and Enders Analysis’ Media & Telecoms 2025 & Beyond Conference, she said about Sky’s approach to AI: “We are thinking about AI as a cultural movement nside the organization.” She highlighted it should be seen as “an amplification” of people’s work inside Sky, touting a “Dragon’s Den of AI” within the company.
Sky is using AI “quite prolifically” in the advertising department. In show creation, “we use AI as first-generation tools,” such as language translation and post-production. “We are in the early innings” in this space. And in sports, it will help provide a “more bespoke” offering to viewers depending on their interest in angles and the like.
Copyright protection is key, and a proposed opt-out rule in the U.K. approach to AI, allowing AI companies to use copyrighted works unless the holder actively opts out, is not the right approach, Strong said. “It’s very hard to put the genie back in the bottle, so we need to get it right now,” she said.
Continuing to discuss the issue of copyright worries, she added: “I can’t fathom how a small producer keeps up.”
The future of Warner Bros. Discovery’s content partnership with Sky was also a topic of debate, given that WBD is planning to launch HBO Max in the U.K. in 2026 when the companies’ previous output deal expires. The two companies previously reached a new distribution and bundling agreement that will see Sky subscribers get the advertising-supported version of HBO Max bundled at no extra cost. Sky users will also continue to get HBO shows, such as The Last of Us and House of the Dragon, on Sky Atlantic and on demand, with the deal covering series that air before the end of 2025.
Last year, Strong had also appeared at the event, outlining Sky’s sports strategy.
Asked about Sky’s resilience in a tough market, Strong highlighted the role of technology, such as moving from satellite to newer delivery forms. “I spend a lot of time internally talking about my passion for sport,” Strong said on Tuesday. “We’ve been able to increase the volume of sport by 50 percent just in the last year, and so we’re able to do 100 streams simultaneously. The volume of sport that we’re able to give to customers and choice is very different than what it would have been 10 years ago.”
Mentioning that Sky will soon have expanded English Premier League soccer rights, she concluded that “given the level of disruption,” the focus of her team at Sky is always to “believe in better” and continue to innovate.
Asked about how Sky’s own marketing and its advertising business are affected by technological change, Strong shared that automation and deeper localization are key focus areas for her. “And it is much more social-driven than TV-driven,” she said about a key upcoming marketing campaign.
