Sky buys into Drone Racing League

Sky has invested in the Drone Racing League and will televise its events on the Sky Sports Mix channel.

The pay TV operator has sunk US$1 million into the League, which features specialist drone pilots racing identical drones over complex, themed race tracks.

Sky Sports Mix is effectively a basic tier taster channel for the pay TV operator’s premium Sky Sports offerings. It has US and Spanish football as well as a small number of Premier League games.

The live DRL coverage will start in October, and stretch to ten one-hour episodes of drone racing from the 2016 season including the crowning of the world champion.

Sky and DRL will also team to host and televise the first professional drone race in London, which will be part of its coverage.

Emma Lloyd, group business development director at Sky, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with DRL to help develop this exciting new sport.

“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.”

DRL CEO/Founder Nicholas Horbaczewski added: “Having a distribution deal and strategic partnerships with Sky will bring DRL to tens of millions of viewers.

“With their expertise and our industry leading technology, media production and development of the best competitive racing, we believe we can truly grow a global franchise around this futuristic, high-speed racing sport.”