Sky’s Jamestown soars past 3 million downloads
David Farnor | On 12, Jul 2017
More than 3 million people have journeyed to Sky’s Jamestown this summer, as the original drama reaches its conclusion.
The Sky 1 series, produced by Carnival Films, may have just ended, but a growing number of people are taking advantage of the ability to visit on-demand. The period drama gripped 1.3 million viewers on average across its weekly broadcasts, making it one of the highest performing original dramas on Sky 1 to date.
Over the course of the series’ eight episodes, within its Friday 9pm time slot, Jamestown outperformed offerings from both BBC Two and Channel 5 within pay homes. Away from linear constraints, though, more the series has been downloaded more than 3.2 million times Sky’s on-demand platforms, including the Sky Go app and online streaming service NOW. Sky expects this number to keep growing over the coming months.
Adam MacDonald, director of Sky 1 and Sky Living, says: “We’re so pleased with the positive reaction that we’ve received from our customers about Jamestown and that such large numbers have watched the series both live and on demand. We’re now shooting series two and can’t wait to see what happens next to our favourite characters in the New World.”
Gareth Neame, Executive Producer, Carnival Films, adds: “Bill Gallagher has brilliantly re-created the brooding atmosphere of Jamestown, a viper’s nest of intrigue and politics inhabited by an intriguing cast of characters. As a British take on the beginning of the new world, this is truly original drama and we are already hard at work on new episodes.”
Jamestown will return to Sky 1 and NOW in 2018 with an eight-part second season. Written by Gallagher once again, it will see the ensemble cast return, led by Naomi Battrick as Jocelyn, Sophie Rundle as Alice, Niamh Walsh as Verity, Max Beesley as Henry and Jason Flemying as Yeardley.