Content Planning Manager

Want to do the best work of your life? With 24 million customers in 7 countries, make your mark at Europe’s leading media and entertainment brand. A workplace where you can proudly be yourself; our people make Sky a truly exciting and inclusive place to work.  

Reporting to the Director of Planning, you will be responsible for the strategic planning of Sky Sports content for defined rights and genres, alongside the delivery of key projects and workstreams. You will collaborate closely with the Commercial Strategy team and Content Genre teams, with the aim of optimizing content performance, whilst delivering subscription value to our customers.  You will work closely with both the Linear and Merchandising teams to ensure successful translation of the strategic plans, to bring our customers a world class Sports experience  

This role will develop a dedicated forward planning function within Sky Sports, which will be key in exploiting existing opportunities from our rights portfolio and identifying new areas for performance growth. Whether that’s enhancing the way we pick and select our content fixtures, the way we utilise our rights or developing the way we distribute our content. You will lead a team who will be focused on driving performance through our plans, where you will instil insight led decisioning to deliver the best outcomes and results for Sky Sports and the wider business.   

You will play an integral role in supporting the Director of Planning in the strategic delivery of key projects and workstreams across Sky Sports.  You will be key to connecting with the wider Sky business teams including Sky Marketing, Sky Media and Sky Business ensuring our content priorities and plans are shared, interpreted, and supported in the right way.   

What You'll Do:  

• Lead and develop the Content Planning function to create and output forward plans which maximise Sports performance across our 11 linear channels housing in excess of 96,000 hours of content, + 6000 events of live stream events and multiple UI’s.  

• Support the Director of Planning in the strategic delivery of key projects and workstreams across Sky Sports and Sky. 

• Instil a data and insight mindset into everyday planning and editorial decisions, which drives a culture of informed decision-making, meeting Sky’s operational requirements and policies, whilst maximising performance from our content plans. 

• Work in close partnership with the Commercial Strategy team and Content Genre teams to ensure customer experience, performance, and monetisation of content is optimised across Sky Sports and Sky’s business functions, and that prioritisation of sports rights and events is effective.  

• Work and collaborate with the Linear and Merchandising teams, to ensure our plans are coordinated and translate into a functional implementation plan which is achievable and accounts for Sky’s operational requirements. 

• Accountability and ownership of multiple strategic plans which inform Sky Sports content strategy across our channels and UI outputs.  

• Oversee the allocation and distribution of commercial minutage across Sky Sports channels and platforms, ensuring we maximise monetisation accounting for live sport production plans.  

• Develop planning processes to ensure our outputs deliver a world class customer experience directly to Sky subscribers. 

• Through data led and informed decisioning support the Sports content selections across various genres. 

• Represent Sky Sports in the strategic development of the sports product experience enabling us to maintain a market leading position and scale efficiently. 

• Manage key Stakeholders across Sky, ensuring alignment across business strategy and KPI’s. 

• Ensure our plans are compliant, conforming to regulatory requirements including Ofcom policy and internal platform rules. 

• Lead, Manage and develop your team, fostering a positive culture and supporting their growth to deliver high performance. 

• Proactively support future business development and initiatives. 

What You'll Bring:  

• Expertise in strategic content planning, with the ability to understand operational and live production workflows. 

• Excellent working knowledge of Sports media, and experience of working within broadcast and streaming environments. 

• Extensive knowledge of Sky’s platforms and products.  

• Demonstrate knowledge of content trends, technologies, emerging platforms and changes to target audience consumption habits. 

• Ability to translate insight and data into positive action and decisioning. 

• A pro-active and results orientated mindset, with excellent strategic awareness, the ability to problem solve, whilst simplifying complex problems. 

• Continuous improvement mindset, which is consistently demonstrated throughout your work. 

• Passion and enthusiasm to deliver world class sports customer experiences to Sky Customers 

• A clear communicator, enabling you to present plans and operationally complex information in a professional and accessible manner.  

• Big picture thinking and a Believe in Better approach in all aspects of your role. 

• Ability to build and develop trusted relationships and influence at a senior level. 

• A team player with ability to work independently, lead, support, listen and collaborate. 

The Rewards:  

There's a reason people can't stop talking about #LifeAtSky! Our great range of rewards really are something special, here are just a few:  

• Sky Q, for the TV you love all in one place  

• A generous pension package  

• Private healthcare  

• Discounted mobile and broadband  

• Access a wide range of best-in-class Sky VIP rewards and experiences  

Team Overview  

The Sky Sports UK Planning team are responsible for the strategic planning, scheduling, merchandising and operational delivery of streams.  This includes planning across Sky Sports 11 linear channels, Sports UI merchandising across multiple platforms and our new streaming capability Sky Sports+. Our role extends to also cover content from partner Sports providers and channel brands to bring together the very best customer experience.   

How You'll Work:  

We know the world has changed, and we want to offer our employees the chance to collaborate at our outstanding office spaces, whilst enjoying the convenience of working from home. We've adopted a hybrid working approach to give more flexibility on where and how we work. You'll find out more about what this means for this role during the recruitment process.  

Your Office Base:  

Osterley  

Our Osterley Campus is a 10-minute walk from Syon Lane train station. Or you can hop on one of our free shuttle buses that run to and from Osterley, Gunnersbury, Ealing Broadway and South Ealing tube stations. There’s also plenty of bike shelters and showers.  

On campus, you’ll find 13 subsidised restaurants, cafes, and a Waitrose. You can keep in shape at our subsidised gym, catch the latest shows and movies at our cinema, get your car washed and even get pampered at our beauty salon.  

Inclusion:  

At Sky we don’t just look at your CV. We’re more passionate about who you are and your potential. We also know that everyone has a life outside work, so we're happy to discuss flexible working. We are a Disability Confident Accredited Employer, and welcome and encourage applications from all candidates. We will look to ensure a fair and consistent experience for all,  and will make reasonable adjustments to support you where appropriate. Please flag any adjustments you need to your recruiter as early as you can.  

Why wait?  

Apply now to build an amazing career and be part of a brilliant team. We can’t wait to hear from you. To find out more about working with us, search #LifeAtSky on social media. Just so you know: if your application is successful, we’ll ask you to complete a criminal record check. And depending on the role you have applied for and the nature of any convictions you may have, we might have to withdraw the offer.