Pan-European pay TV giant Sky has invested $1 million in the Drone Racing League and agreed to a distribution deal that will see races aired on the newly launched Sky Sports Mix channel.
DRL offers First Person View (FPV) drone racing, which features pilots flying custom-designed, hand-built identical drones through complex, thematic, three-dimensional race courses. The races have been compared to real-life video games.
Sky Sports will bring DRL live events and TV content to the U.K. and Ireland. Airing as 10 one-hour episodes, the 2016 DRL season covers five races, including a winner-take-all world championship to crown the best pilot. The episodes will air beginning in October.
The partners also will team up with London & Partners to bring a DRL race to an iconic London venue in what will be the first professional drone race in Britain.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with DRL to help develop this exciting new sport,” said Emma Lloyd, group business development director at Sky, on Wednesday in a statement. “The investments we make are all about driving innovation and ultimately improving the Sky experience for customers. We’re really looking forward to working with the team at DRL to grow the sport and to bring something completely different to audiences across both TV and digital.”
