Sky Italia Signs Three-Year Extension of ‘X Factor’ and ‘Italia’s Got Talent’

Sky Italia has inked a three-year contract extension with FremantleMedia to be the exclusive home of X Factor and Italia’s Got Talent. The competition series are two of the network’s most successful programs.

The premiere of the eighth season of X Factor last year reached 1.2 million viewers, double that of the previous year. X Factor program creator Simon Cowell declared the Italian edition “the best in the world,” during a promotional tour.

The new season of X Factor will premiere Sept. 10 on Sky Uno HD. New this year, the Italian edition will be the only version that allows bands to participate.

Italia’s Got Talent debuted this past spring, with the next edition already slated for March of next year. The show was a huge hit, bringing in on average two million viewers per episode.

FremantleMedia CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz said in a statement: “This deal cements our long standing relationship with Sky Italia. We have a thriving creative partnership with Sky and a shared ambition to make our shows bigger and better and to find new ways of engaging audiences. We look forward to bringing viewers world-class entertainment shows for a further three years.”

In Italy, social interactions with the nonscripted shows is high, with X Factor racking up 27 million votes in total and 2.4 million tweets, in a country where consumers are not especially active on Twitter. It has since become the most socially talked about show on Italian TV.

“At Sky, researching what’s new and what’s best is at the very core of everything we do to ensure that we are continually pushing boundaries for our clients” said Sky Italia CEO Andrea Zappia.

Related Stories

Related Story

Venice Film Festival: Martin Scorsese’s 'The Audition' Premiere Canceled