Apple TV is coming to the Sky Show Premium subscription – at no extra cost!
Anyone who subscribes to Sky Show Premium will receive an entire streaming service on top starting in mid-September: Apple TV will be integrated at no extra cost.
Another streaming service? Not this time, for a change. At least not necessarily. Starting in mid-September, Sky Switzerland is integrating the entire Apple TV catalog into its premium subscription, as announced by Sky in a press release. Those who already pay for Sky Show Premium will gain access to Apple series such as "Severance", "Silo", "Slow Horses", and "Ted Lasso".
Sky Show itself already bundles series and films from various studios and channels. The offering includes HBO productions such as "House of the Dragon", "The Last of Us", and "The White Lotus", Sky Originals like "The Day of the Jackal", as well as films that arrive on the service relatively shortly after their theatrical release. In addition, there are over 20 linear pay-TV channels. With Apple TV, this package is now growing to include another complete streaming catalog.
This is financially quite interesting. Sky Show Premium regularly costs 24.90 francs per month, with a loyalty price of 20.90 francs applying after six months. Apple TV alone currently costs 10.90 francs per month. Anyone who already subscribes to both services can therefore save on the separate Apple subscription in the future.
One subscription, two streaming services – sort of
However, Sky Show and Apple TV are not merging completely. Sky refers to an "app-in-app" integration: while Apple content can be found directly via Sky Show, it is subsequently played in the Apple TV app. The premium subscription is a prerequisite; Sky has not announced this integration for Sky Show Light and Standard.
The partnership is also interesting because it corresponds almost exactly to the strategy that Sky Switzerland CEO Eric Grignon described to me in an interview late last year. At that time, Sky was facing an uncomfortable situation: HBO Max launched in Switzerland, and with it, the very provider whose series had defined Sky for years threatened to increasingly stand on its own two feet.
Grignon's answer to this: Sky needs to broaden its position. Instead of becoming dependent on individual studios, the company wants to bring various providers under one roof. "We want to mediate. Curate. Remain agile," he told me at the time. And even more specifically: "We are working on true aggregation – that is, 'one price, many contents'."
With Apple TV, this vision is now becoming something quite concrete.
Is the old pay-TV back?
The development is certainly ironic. For years, the streaming market broke apart into ever smaller pieces. Netflix here, Disney+ there, Apple TV, HBO Max, Paramount+, and whatever they are all called. Anyone who wanted to follow several major series eventually collected streaming subscriptions like other people collect Panini stickers.
Now, the counter-movement is apparently beginning: providers are bundling streaming services back into larger packages. Essentially, we are currently reinventing good old pay-TV to a certain extent – just with apps instead of TV channels. For Sky, Apple TV is therefore more than just additional content. It is a fairly large building block in Grignon's plan to transform Sky from a classic streaming service into a streaming aggregator. By the end of 2025, he promised me: "Sky Show will not get smaller, but bigger."
Almost a year later, it can be said: at least this promise has been kept by Sky.
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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