Celebrities take aim at Sky in bid to keep Discovery channels

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Celebrities including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jimmy White, Katie Hopkins and Colin Murray have thrown their weight behind Discovery in its battle against Sky.

It emerged earlier this week that Sky customers are set to lose 12 channels including Eurosport and Animal Planet after the Discovery Channel revealed details of a spat with the media giant.

Read more: Sky to axe all Discovery channels at end of January

In a public he-said-she-said battle, Discovery said:

We believe Sky is using what we consider to be its dominant market position to further its own commercial interest over those of viewers and independent broadcasters… Somebody has to stand up for consumers, because consumers believe they are paying for choice and diversity – they deserve better.

And Sky said:

Despite our best efforts to reach a sensible agreement, we, like many other platforms and broadcasters across Europe, have found the price expectations for the Discovery portfolio to be completely unrealistic.

The upshot is that Discovery’s channels are set to come off Sky’s channels on 31 January. And celebs, and non-celebs, who like watching them are not happy.

https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/824907213063925760

Read more: Premier League costs hit Sky's profits in first half

Many others have also been using the hashtag #keepdiscovery.

In a press release highlighting the online campaign, Discovery said:

We at Discovery are hugely humbled by the public support for our channels. The reaction from viewers and celebrities is staggering and we are really grateful. Our wonderful viewers deserve to keep the programmes and sports events that they adore and we still hope that this situation can be resolved with Sky.