Poker - Sky's the Limit
Well it was only a matter of time before the people who understand growth industries have put together the first dedicated Poker Channel on Sky. This has matererialed because of a group of former BSkyB executives seeing the opportunity and going for it.
The opportunity was seen following the succes of such programmes as the Celebrity Poker Club and the rise of online casinos, The Poker Channel, which went live on March 23, has been set up by former Sky Ventures commercial manager Crispin Nieboer, former head of Sky Music Chiara Cipriani and Sky producer James Hopkins.
Thankfully the Channel will attempt to go for as much original content as possible, rather than competing with the likes of Flextech-owned Challenge for rights to Celebrity Poker Club, or Discovery for the World Poker Tour. The channel will initially air between 14.00 and 01.00 but will be twenty four seven by May.
The Poker Channel will expect major income from online casino and poker sites. The Poker Channel will also look to alternative revenue streams from mobile phones, offering a range of competitions, games, voting and on-screen chat.
‘The main problem with what's out there at the moment is that its very samey, not made for the UK market and there's not enough live programming,’ said CEO Crispin Nieboer ‘We think we can do as well, if not better than the World Poker Tour. Live is the next big thing to happen in poker
