{"id":714853,"date":"2026-06-04T16:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714853\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:20:12","slug":"saturday-night-live-uk-is-social-media-format-skys-dana-strong-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714853\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Saturday Night Live UK’ Is Social Media Format, Sky’s Dana Strong Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSaturday Night Live<\/a> UK \u00a0was \u201cconceived as a huge, social media digital format as well as a traditional video format,\u201d according to Sky<\/a> boss Dana Strong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tStrong set out the case for social media being as important if not possibly more important than linear for the UK version of the 50-year-old American mega-hit.<\/p>\n

\n\tStrong used SNL UK<\/a>\u2019s social media drive as proof that Sky is thinking digital-first.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSNL UK was conceived of as a huge social media digital format as well as a traditional video format and so the way we have created engagement across digital platforms is so important,\u201d she told the Enders TMT Leaders Live Conference in London. \u201cFrom a standpoint of entertainment \u2013 and SNL \u2013 it\u2019s about how you think about being digital first in your entertainment content.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStrong pointed out that Sky has huge teams working from midnight to 5AM after each Saturday show \u201cputting digital assets out there,\u201d which then continues through the week before they start \u201chyping up on social media\u201d on the Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\tSNL UK landed relatively middling ratings<\/a> but broke through culturally and social media was crucial to this. After its first month, we revealed it had <\/a>stormed past 86M views across its official online accounts on YouTube, Instagram Reels, X\/Twitter, and TikTok, meaning it was consistently going viral.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show has been renewed for a bigger, 12-episode season starting later this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tTurning to sport, Strong said Sky has the \u201cbroadest, deepest amount of sports rights we\u2019ve had\u201d despite intense competition from rivals.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe said Sky airs 3,000 sporting events per month, amounting to around 100 per day. New digital formats, such as the multi-viewing experience that meant all 10 Premier League finals day matches were shown on Sky, is helping, Strong added.<\/p>\n

\n\tSky is in the process of buying broadcaster ITV<\/a>. ITV recently said<\/a> the pair remain in \u201cactive discussions\u201d over a \u00a31.6B ($2.2B) sale of its Media & Entertainment (M&E) business. Strong, however, was not asked about the ITV sale during her appearance at the Enders conference<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tStrong was speaking at the Enders TMT Leaders Live Conference before the likes of Netflix\u2019s Larry Tanz, Disney\u2019s Karl Holmes and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday Night Live UK \u00a0was \u201cconceived as a huge, social media digital format as well as a traditional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,259100,259101,75,2835,28371,211346,11610,214371,348],"class_list":["post-714853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dana-strong","tag-enders-conference","tag-entertainment","tag-itv","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-saturday-night-live-uk","tag-sky","tag-snl-uk","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}