Breaking News: Lost Moves To Sky One After Bidding War

SoSueMe

Sky One have done to Channel 4 what they did to the BBC several years ago by stealing away one of their most popular US imports. Instead of 24 a few years ago they have outbid Channel 4 and E4 for seasons 3 & 4 of Lost as well as repeats of the first 2 seasons. Sky have paid a reported £20million for series 3.

Here are just some of the articles published. More to follow.

Sky One poaches 'Lost' rights from Channel 4
Thursday, October 19 2006, 14:51 BST - by Neil Wilkes
digitalspy.co.uk
Sky One has picked up the exclusive rights to air new seasons of Lost in the UK.
The deal with distributor Buena Vista International Television covers seasons three and four of the cult drama, which has an audience of around 4 million viewers in the UK.

Channel 4 originally signed the series on a two-year deal in 2004 and has been in contract renewal negotiations with BVITV for several months. It is understood that Sky - who successfully poached 24 from the BBC in 2003 - outbid C4 and other rival broadcasters for the new contract.

"We are confident that Sky will build upon the established success of Lost, bringing the series to viewers in flexible ways, ideally suited to its watercooler, must-see status," said Tom Toumazis, evp at BVITV EMEA.

The "flexible ways" will include opportunities to watch the latest episodes via broadband and mobile platforms. The series is also likely to air in high definition on the Sky One HD channel.

Sky One head Richard Woolfe said that Lost had been "the envy of every network" since its launch on Channel 4 last year. "The series has defined TV drama over the last two years," he added. "We are absolutely thrilled to bring it to Sky One."

Having lost Lost - one of its most acclaimed imports ever - Channel 4 will now be fighting hard to retain another of its key acquisitions, Desperate Housewives. The broadcaster signed the drama on the same two-year deal as Lost but has yet to agree terms for a new contract.

from mediaguardian.co.uk
3.45pm

---

Sky snaps up Lost for £20m

Tara Conlan
Thursday October 19, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk


Sky has poached US island drama Lost from Channel 4 for an estimated £20m.
The satellite broadcaster has snapped up exclusive rights to series three and four and will air them on Sky One.

It is understood that Channel 4 negotiated with makers Disney's Buena Vista International Television for a month but was unable to reach an agreement.

Other broadcasters were invited to bid and Sky won the day.

Channel 4 was given the option to match Sky's offer but declined.

Although Lost remains one of the US's biggest shows and has been a hit for Channel 4, ratings have dropped recently.

When it launched last August it premiered with 6.1 million viewers - peaking at 6.4 million. The first series then averaged 4.1 million.

Series two, which finished last month, averaged 2.8 million. At its lowest point it scored 1.9 million.

Sky's deal ensures that the drama will also be available to viewers on its broadband and mobile platforms.

The director of programming for Sky One, Two and Three, Richard Woolfe, commented: "We're absolutely thrilled to bring Lost to Sky One. The series has defined TV drama over the last two years and has been the envy of every network.

"Today's audiences demand more quality and flexibility than ever before, so we are intending to use various digital media platforms to make Lost available to our customers when they want and how they want ... ensuring that they never miss the mysterious goings on of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

"This outstanding series will bring even more entertainment to Sky customers and demonstrate our strengths in multiplatform content and innovation."

Channel 4 is replacing Lost with Ugly Betty, the surprise hit of the autumn season for ABC, in the Tuesday 10pm slot. The new show has been pulling in more than 16 million viewers in the US.

CiaranC

'The envy of every network', showing 2 year old episodes with stupid spoiler ads. Now Sky will have 1 year old epidodes with stupid spoiler ads, with 5 ad breaks in a 50 minute show.

Who in their right mind would watch these shows on TV anymore?

SoSueMe

CiaranC wrote:

'The envy of every network', showing 2 year old episodes with stupid spoiler ads. Now Sky will have 1 year old epidodes with stupid spoiler ads, with 5 ad breaks in a 50 minute show.

Who in their right mind would watch these shows on TV anymore?

I have broadband and have no interest whatsoever in seeing the latest episodes of Lost. I would much prefer to watch them on TV with the majority of people and talk about it the next day.

Your incoherent rant about the airing of episodes is stupid. Sky One have confirimed they are showing it in January, the same time as RTE.

SoSueMe

From scotsman.com:

A Sky One spokesperson syas Lost will start in November

BSkyB snatches rights to "Lost" from Channel 4
By Jeffrey Goldfarb

LONDON (Reuters) - BSkyB has snatched the UK rights to "Lost", one of the world's most popular TV shows, bringing upcoming seasons three and four to its Sky One channel after the first two were shown on Channel 4.

Financial terms of the deal between the satellite operator and Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista international distribution arm, which was announced on Thursday, were not disclosed.

People familiar with it put the price at just under 1 million pounds ($1.87 million) an episode, more than double what is typically paid for the rights to a programme.

The agreement takes "Lost", the hit drama about plane crash victims surviving on a mysterious island, off a free national channel and onto a digital one that can only be seen by those subscribing to either Sky or the NTL cable service.

TV networks have been losing audiences, and the related advertising money, in droves as viewers watch more and more of what is shown on speciality niche channels.

Sky One, which also broadcasts the hit shows "24" and "Nip/Tuck", said it planned to make "Lost" available on multiple digital platforms so audiences could watch it when they wanted.

Season one of "Lost", which debuted in August 2005 on Channel 4, had an average audience of 4.1 million viewers, but season two fell to an average of 2.8 million.

Channel 4 had an exclusive window to negotiate for the rights to seasons three and four, but it couldn't agree a price with Disney. It also was entitled to match the rival offer, but declined, people familiar with the situation said.

Channel 4 declined to comment.

Season three of "Lost" debuted in the United States on Disney's ABC network earlier this month. Sky plans to start showing the new episodes in November, a spokesman said.

gustavo

Presumably that will put pressure on RTE to start in November too.

SoSueMe

Sky One have now confirmed it will start in November.

from skyone.co.uk

L O S T
The new series of the massively popular, award-winning series LOST debuts this November on Sky One.

Series 3 of television’s most extraordinary drama continues the harrowing adventures of the surviving group of friends, enemies, lovers, and strangers who were thrown together on a mysterious island following the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 – a place where even the most cursory glance beneath the surface reveals vast conspiracies and untold depth.

During the last series, a more extensive network of underground hatches was revealed, key characters tragically lost their lives, the elaborate backstory of the Dharma Initiative and the Hanso Foundation started to come into focus, and – perhaps most significantly – it became clear that on this island, even the heroes can harbour the darkest of secrets.

Now, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are being held captive by the ever-mysterious ‘others,’ and the fate of Locke, Desmond, and Mr. Eko remain unclear after the seemingly cataclysmic magnetic incident in the original Hatch. The survival stakes have been raised to a crisis point. The survivors are going to have to band together like never before. Will they ever solve the mystery of their fate in this epic war of faith and science? Of course, on LOST, for every answer there are countless new questions.

duridian

SoSueMe wrote:

I have broadband and have no interest whatsoever in seeing the latest episodes of Lost. I would much prefer to watch them on TV with the majority of people and talk about it the next day.

Your incoherent rant about the airing of episodes is stupid. Sky One have confirimed they are showing it in January, the same time as RTE.

Do you work for Sky, as a dish installer or something like that? You seem to be very defensive of Sky, and most of what you have posted looks like spam/advertising, or am I also being incoherent?

SoSueMe

duridian wrote:

Do you work for Sky, as a dish installer or something like that? You seem to be very defensive of Sky, and most of what you have posted looks like spam/advertising, or am I also being incoherent?

No your post is quite coherent:rolleyes: . BTW I don't work for Sky. Most of what I've posted is news articles from websites detailing the accquisition of Lost. But if you read the sources properly you would know.

duridian

Ok, I know that the sources (digitalspy, etc.) of what you posted are not in themselves spam sites or advertisements. All I meant was that you seemed very anxious for us all to know about Sky buying the broadcast rights to Lost. Therefore it seemed as if you were in some way linked to Sky and it came across a bit like advertising. If you say you have no links to Sky, that's ok, I accept that you don't.

El_mariachi

the only bit of this that is important is the fact this will put pressure on rte to show lost sooner as sky one will run the first arc of 6 in November and then start the second arc a week after it starts in America!

more info www.lostpedia.com

as alot of ppl have sky one (i dont though ) so hopefully rte will start showin them soon coz i am fed up downloading them.

doh.ie

El_mariachi wrote:

as alot of ppl have sky one (i dont though ) so hopefully rte will start showin them soon coz i am fed up downloading them.

Not to point out the obvious or anything, but you do realise you're way better off with ABC episodes than any Sky One or RTE Two show, right? No ads, no edits (yes, they do happen - a lot more than people realise! the Lost pilot on RTE had over three minutes missing from ep2...) and of course, no ads. No oversized on-screen branding either (RTE and Sky's are both way more distracting than ABC.)

All in all, I would say you're better off as is. The only downside is not having the 'water cooler' discussion possibilities the following day, but then again, isn't that what Boards.ie's Lost forum is for?

qwertplaywert

but alot of people want bb to downlload for these reasons but cant get bb[like me]so they must pin thier hopes on tv channels......
interesting:if they both aired the same ep each week,sky on sun[im presuming its gonna be on on sundays as thier other 2 big us shows,24 and tiptuck are]and rte on monday,which will you watch?i would properly watch sky..........better follow up prgram[hopefully they will show an ep of lost and]an ep of niptuck each sun]

MeTV

doh.ie wrote:

... yes, they do happen - a lot more than people realise! the Lost pilot on RTE had over three minutes missing from ep2...) ...

And Sky are even worse than RTÉ; I no longer watch things on Sky One if I can help it as I'm sick of their censors deciding what is and isn't appropriate for me to watch - even if I have to wait 'til January, I'm sticking with RTÉ for Lost.

Mr E

Newsflash.... beep de de beep beep beep de de beep beep....

RTE airing Lost Season 3 this year (I assume due to Sky getting the rights). Just heard it on Today FM. Its either at the end of October or the end of November (can't remember which - it was said over a half hour ago).

Basq

TmB wrote:

Newsflash.... beep de de beep beep beep de de beep beep....

Stunning morse code there Dave! :eek:

EDIT: According to sarahp over the the 'Season 3' on RTE thread - Tuesday 31st October!

abelard

Will RTÉ have to fork out for showing it much earlier?? They won't like that.

duridian

abelard wrote:

Will RTÉ have to fork out for showing it much earlier?? They won't like that.

They'll probably try to get yet another rise in the licence fee to make up for it.

wba88

basquille wrote:

Thursday 31st October![/B]

dont u mean tuesday? he he

sry couldnt resist

Basq

wba88 wrote:

dont u mean tuesday? he he

sry couldnt resist

Nope.. i'm actually on a different calendar week than everyone else: Monday, Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Friday

And as for numbers: ten, eleven-ty, twelve-ty, thirteen-ty, fourteen-ty, fifteen-ty, sixteen-ty, seventeen-ty *







* at least 1 'League..' fan must have got that!

MisterAnarchy

TmB wrote:

Newsflash.... beep de de beep beep beep de de beep beep....

RTE airing Lost Season 3 this year (I assume due to Sky getting the rights). Just heard it on Today FM. Its either at the end of October or the end of November (can't remember which - it was said over a half hour ago).

I'd say it will be the end of November otherwise there will be gaps in the schedule ala the US.
I have Sky but I couldnt be arsed waiting for them to get around to showing most of the shows I like.
Still no sign of Battlestar Galactica over here ,will prob be 2007 for God's sake:)

Faith

So, if RTE and Sky are showing Lost at the end of October/ start of November, does that mean they'll take the same break that the US is? I doubt Irish viewers will understand that, seeing as they're not used to it.

I remember when C4 started showing The OC and took a break for the summer, people kept talking about "series two" when it was all season one.

Garret

well scrubs, CSI and Friends have all had mis-season breaks, if people dont understand it, maybe they don't deserve to have a TV

SoSueMe

Thank you for your mail. I'm delighted to tell you that Series 3 of Lost begins on RTÉ Two on Tuesday 31st October at 10pm

Best regards
Kay Smith
RTÉ Information

SoSueMe

Garret wrote:

well scrubs, CSI and Friends have all had mis-season breaks, if people dont understand it, maybe they don't deserve to have a TV

I think fans of Lost and there are a lot of them are smart enough to look at TV listings and its one of the shows RTE promote quite well.

qwertplaywert

now we just need prision break....

MisterAnarchy

After the initial first six episodes of the third series, the series takes a break and begins again after Christmas, with Sky One aiming to show each of the remaining 16 episodes just days after it airs first in the US.
About bloody time the networks over here woke up.
I always though there was a 5 hour difference between here and the East coast not 5 months.

OFDM

So let me get this right - Channel 4 stole 24 away from the BBC and then DIDN'T show it?

Serves the bástards right if that's the case....

SoSueMe

OFDM wrote:

So let me get this right - Channel 4 stole 24 away from the BBC and then DIDN'T show it?

Serves the bástards right if that's the case....

No Sky outbid the BBC for 24 while Channel 4 took Friends, ER, Sex and the City and probably more from Sky One.

qwertplaywert

so.....with 24 being announced to start within a week[on sky 1] of its premiere in us,and lost only being weeks rather than months behind,will this helerd a new era for us shows air dates over here?!?

SoSueMe

qwertplaywert wrote:

so.....with 24 being announced to start within a week[on sky 1] of its premiere in us,and lost only being weeks rather than months behind,will this helerd a new era for us shows air dates over here?!?

I think the way US TV shows are shown over here will change. A new US TV show called Jericho airs in Australia less than 24 hours after the US airing.

cooker3

With all the torrenting that goes on, I think the broadcasters have been forced to show it as quick as possible. It is about time too.

wayne040576

What they really need to do (although they won't), is make every episode available to download for a price worldwide just after it debuts on US tv. They really have to start changing their business model to use the technology rather than trying to fight to keep an outdated model. I think we are going to drift to an online availability scenario eventually and then they'll really start cracking down on those who are using torrents etc. As it is, I'm certain the MPAA are logging all the ip addresses of the biggest downloaders they find.

Killaqueen!!!

I hate waiting as much as the next person but downloading is just stupid - it's illegal, it ruins the excitement and personally I think it sucks watching TV on the computer.

But at least the trolls that download episodes have made RTE (and Sky) realise that they have to show the series sooner.

And I'm not for this whole mid-season break....oh well, still can't wait to have Lost back on the box again!

CiaranC

Killaqueen!!! wrote:

I hate waiting as much as the next person but downloading is just stupid - it's illegal, it ruins the excitement and personally I think it sucks watching TV on the computer.

Nobody watches downloaded episodes 'on their computer' ffs. You think the whole family crams onto an office chair in front of a desk? A divx capable dvd player is about 40 quid and a cdrw is about €1. An xbox is about €50.

slave1

well thats me finished from getting the episodes from my mates in the states, would continue if it was just RTE but with it coming on Sky One HD then its a no brainer for me.
At last we're going places, Lost in HD along with 24, hopefully Smallville and BSG also, c'mon January

qwertplaywert

downloading is bad

SoSueMe

Start date for season 3 on Sky One.

Dear
Thank you for your email regarding Lost.

I'm delighted to be able to tell you that Sky have acquired the rights to years 3 and 4.

I can confirm that Lost will broadcast on Sky One on Sunday 19/11/06 with the first 2 episodes of the 3rd season broadcasting ay 10pm and 11pm, and then on a weekly on Sundays at 10pm. It will be repeated throughout the week on Sky One and Two, however programmes schedules are all subject to change.

SoSueMe

Complete Sky scheduling:

Lost Scheduling

·Sky One and Sky Two
·Starts 19th November 2006

·Core Episodes: Sky One, Sundays 2200–2300 (opening night 2200-2400)

·NB – Opening night is likely to see a red button multi start (TBC)
·22 episodes
·Plus peak time repeats on Sky One and Sky Two in the following slots

Sky One Tuesdays 2200 - 2300
Sky Two Wednesdays 2200 - 2300
Sky Two Sunday 2000 - 2100

·Plus one hour special on Sky One and Sky Three “Lost: A Tale of Survival”

·NB: Lost Series-3 breaks on 17th December 06 and resumes again on 11th February 07. This is due to US ABC Network current scheduling commitment.

qwertplaywert

okay,dont post that all over the place now......

cooker3

Killaqueen!!! wrote:

I hate waiting as much as the next person but downloading is just stupid - it's illegal, it ruins the excitement and personally I think it sucks watching TV on the computer.

But at least the trolls that download episodes have made RTE (and Sky) realise that they have to show the series sooner.

And I'm not for this whole mid-season break....oh well, still can't wait to have Lost back on the box again!

tbh I prefer watching stuff on my laptop, it looks much nicer but my laptop screen does rock

Mossy Monk

yes. any tv show looks much nicer on my pc if it can be gotten in 720p

SoSueMe

Here is the first teaser trailer for Lost Season 3 on Sky One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKYdAtwAQe8

Basq

SoSueMe wrote:

Here is the first teaser trailer for Lost Season 3 on Sky One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKYdAtwAQe8

Did i just hear "Don't tell The Others" at the end of that...

... oh Christ! Probably took 3 writers at Sky One 5 days to think of that "beauty"! :rolleyes:

Jello

SoSueMe wrote:

Here is the first teaser trailer for Lost Season 3 on Sky One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKYdAtwAQe8

Haha, that's terrible!!

SoSueMe

The teaser isn't that bad. But nowwhere near as good as the David LaChappelle promos for season one on Channel 4.