Sky has filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) alleging “multiple material breaches” of the two companies’ co-funding and co-production agreement covering programming from WBD’s Max streaming service.
In particular, the European pay TV giant claims that Warner has sought to keep its upcoming Harry Potter series for itself, “as the cornerstone” of Max’s launch in Europe.
A WBD spokesperson called the suit “a baseless attempt” by Sky and its owner Comcast “to try and gain leverage” in negotiations to extend the agreement beyond its current expiration date at the end of 2025.
The 2019 deal at the centre of the legal action was signed to bring high-end TV projects from Max to Sky’s services in the UK, Italy and Germany. (Sky has a separate and longstanding deal giving it access to programming from HBO, the WBD cable network that provides Max with its most prestigious shows.)
Filed on Friday (Sept 27) in the US district court in New York, the suit alleges that Warner “has repeatedly failed to offer Sky the annually required minimum number of contractually qualifying series” under the co-funding deal. Warner was obligated to present Sky with four shows a year in 2021, 2022 and 2023, according to the suit.
“If all that were not enough,” the suit goes on, “Warner has now even brazenly denied Sky its right to partner on Warner’s highly valuable decade-long, tentpole television series adapting J K Rowling’s iconic Harry Potter novels, set to premiere in 2026 or 2027.” The Harry Potter series, based on WBD’s massively successful film franchise, was originally announced as a Max Original but has now been classified an HBO Original.
Warner, the suit claims, “seeks to deprive Sky of the valuable contractual benefits for which Sky bargained specifically in order to expand the market share of Warner’s own streaming service in Sky’s territories.” As a result, “Sky faces, at the very least, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of lost revenue that it would have generated through exclusive exploitation of co-funded series were it not for Warner’s breaches.”
WBD recently began rolling Max out in a number of smaller European markets and has said it will launch the service in the UK in 2026.
The suit calls for a “judgment and declaration” that Warner has breached its obligations under the Max agreement as well as a “compensatory and consequential damages” order requiring Warner to submit the Harry Potter series for Sky’s consideration.
In its statement responding to the suit, WBD said: “The HBO and Max licensing agreements expire at the end of 2025, and this lawsuit is a baseless attempt by Sky and Comcast to try and gain leverage in its negotiations for our programming beyond that date. We know HBO branded shows are critical to Sky, as evidenced by their desire for over a year to find a way to renew our agreements, and this lawsuit makes it clear that Sky is deeply concerned about the viability of its business were it to lose our award-winning content.”
“WBD will vigorously defend itself from this unfounded lawsuit as we move forward undeterred with plans to launch Max, including the new HBO Harry Potter series, in the UK and other European markets in 2026,” the statement added.
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