National Theatre Live and Sky Arts renew partnership

The partnership between the National Theatre and Sky Arts as its headline sponsor of NT Live has been officially renewed.

The collaboration, which dates back to 2017, was formed to improve access to the best of British theatre nationwide. The financial investment has supported the National’s work in filming and distributing theatrical performances from UK stages to cinemas across the globe. It has also provided opportunities for various productions to be broadcast on television via Sky Arts. During the pandemic, the Lyttelton stage was able to be transformed into a film studio, producing Romeo and Juliet (starring Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor) and Death of England: Face to Face (starring Giles Terera) for the free-to-air channel.

Two further NT Live productions will be heading to Sky Arts in the coming months, with details to be revealed soon.

Emma Keith, managing director of the Digital department at the National Theatre, commented: “We are delighted that Sky Arts have renewed their support of National Theatre Live for a further three years. Over the last year, we have been delighted to see audiences returning to our cinema broadcasts, with over 86 per cent of tickets sold by cinemas outside of London.

“In recent years our digital output has grown exponentially, undeniably placing us as world leaders in live and digital storytelling, making the NT more accessible than at any other point in our history. The renewal of this partnership with Sky Arts will allow us to further grow our reach bringing more world-class theatre to even more audiences across the globe.” 

Director of Sky Arts, Phil Edgar-Jones, added: “We are really pleased to be continuing our partnership with the National Theatre. Our sponsorship of NT Live is only part of the story which involves a deeper collaboration bringing some of the very best of NT’s theatre capture to our screens. We have enjoyed our relationship over the years and are very proud to be able to support all the brilliant creative talent who benefit from our work together.”

New NT Live programming will be announced this autumn.

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