Sky invests in new TV production company

Sky has taken a minority stake in Sugar Films, a new independent production company founded by a group of senior television professionals, alongside Discovery Channel president Mark Hollinger, who has also invested in the company and will become chairman.

Led by former BBC chief creative officer Pat Younge as managing director, Sugar Films has been set up to produce "bold, popular and provocative" television programmes and digital content for mainstream and diverse audiences.

Sky’s Sky Vision production and distribution business will become Sugar’s exclusive distribution partner for all new programmes and formats.

As well as a pipeline of further projects in paid development with other broadcasters, Sugar has already secured a number of commissions, including a digital shorts series with Channel Four and the forthcoming BBC2 documentary 'White Boys and Black Heroes' about the wider social impact of the growth of black professional footballers in Britain.

Co-founders Kwadjo Dajan, Narinder Minhas, Lucy Pilkington, Nav Raman will be creative directors and their co-founders CVs include 'Cilla', 'The Girl With 7 Mums', 'Danny Dyer’s Real Football Factories', and 'The Unteachables.