How to Advertise in Sky (Including Sky AdSmart)
How to Advertise in Sky (Including Sky AdSm
Key Takeaways
Premium Reach and Precision: Sky combines national scale with household-level targeting via AdSmart.
Flexible Entry Points: AdSmart allows brands to run campaigns from £3,000 upwards, democratising TV advertising.
Expertise Matters: Working with One Day Agency ensures you navigate costs, creative, and targeting effectively for maximum ROI.
Sky has long been one of the most important players in the UK television market, offering advertisers unrivalled access to households across sport, drama, entertainment, and news. With premium properties such as Sky Sports Premier League, Sky News, and Sky Atlantic, as well as Sky Cinema and entertainment channels, the broadcaster delivers both mass-reach and high-value niche audiences.
But in today’s fragmented media world, Sky has gone a step further with Sky AdSmart — its addressable TV advertising solution that allows brands to target specific households rather than buying airtime on a one-size-fits-all basis. This innovation has transformed TV advertising into something closer to digital media: measurable, targeted, and efficient, while retaining the premium power of broadcast TV.
In this article, we’ll explore how to advertise on Sky, what Sky AdSmart is, the formats available, and how brands can make the most of this powerful ecosystem.
1. Why Advertise on Sky?
Sky reaches over 12 million UK households, and its content portfolio is among the most premium in the industry. From live Premier League and Formula 1 coverage to exclusive HBO series and blockbuster films, Sky offers advertisers association with high-quality, culturally relevant programming.
Audiences are typically affluent, engaged, and spread across key demographics — making Sky a compelling choice for brands targeting both scale and quality.
2. Traditional Sky Advertising
Sky’s linear channels allow advertisers to buy airtime in much the same way as ITV or Channel 4. Formats include:
Standard 30-second spots within ad breaks.
Programme sponsorships, e.g. sponsoring Sky Sports News or Sky Atlantic drama strands.
Product placement, integrated into entertainment or sports programming.
Traditional Sky buys are sold regionally or nationally and priced on CPT (cost per thousand impacts).
3. What is Sky AdSmart?
Launched in 2014, Sky AdSmart is Sky’s addressable TV solution that allows different households watching the same programme to see different adverts. Instead of buying a broad audience, advertisers can choose to target by household data.
For example:
Two families watching the same episode of Sky Sports News could be served completely different ads — one for a luxury car, another for a local restaurant.
This innovation blends the brand-building power of TV with the targeting precision of digital.
4. How Sky AdSmart Works
Sky AdSmart uses data from Sky boxes and third-party sources to deliver ads to selected households. Advertisers can target based on:
Location: Region, city, postcode level.
Demographics: Age, household composition, presence of children.
Financial and Lifestyle Data: Household income bands, property type, car ownership.
Purchase Behaviour: Linked to data partnerships and anonymised consumer datasets.
This targeting is fully GDPR compliant, with household-level privacy maintained.
Importantly, advertisers only pay for impressions delivered to their chosen audience, avoiding wasted spend.
5. Sky AdSmart Formats
AdSmart allows for the same high-quality TV spot formats but delivered in a more targeted way:
30-second TV spots in live or on-demand content.
Short-form creatives optimised for targeted households.
Local and regional advertising, allowing SMEs to advertise on premium TV for the first time.
National campaigns with segmented targeting, enabling different creatives to run in different household groups.
This flexibility makes AdSmart appealing to both big brands seeking efficiency and local businesses entering TV for the first time.
6. Costs and Accessibility
One of the biggest benefits of AdSmart is accessibility. Traditional national TV campaigns often require six-figure budgets, whereas AdSmart campaigns can start from as little as £3,000–£10,000 depending on targeting.
This democratises TV advertising, opening it up to regional and niche advertisers who previously would have found TV inaccessible.
Costs are typically calculated on CPM (cost per mille) impressions delivered to the defined audience.
7. Measuring Performance
Sky AdSmart campaigns come with detailed reporting similar to digital advertising, including:
Impressions delivered to the selected households.
Reach and frequency of campaign delivery.
Uplift measurement, such as website visits, app downloads, or footfall (via third-party tracking).
For national advertisers, this allows for optimisation and attribution that goes far beyond traditional TV spot reporting.
8. Opportunities Beyond AdSmart
Sky also offers opportunities across its wider ecosystem:
Sky Sports Sponsorships: Association with Premier League, F1, cricket, and more.
Sky Cinema Partnerships: Film premieres, genre sponsorships, and exclusive activations.
Sky Originals: Branded content and bespoke partnerships within original drama and entertainment.
Digital and On-Demand: Ads served within Sky Go, NOW, and catch-up programming.
This combination allows brands to blend addressable targeting with broad cultural impact.
9. Challenges and Considerations
Creative Adaptation: Ads need to be adapted for multiple household segments, requiring flexible creative production.
Smaller Audiences per Segment: While targeting increases efficiency, it reduces mass reach, so balance is required.
Competition: As AdSmart becomes more popular, targeting costs may rise in highly competitive segments.
Nonetheless, for advertisers who value precision and accountability, AdSmart represents a major evolution in TV.
How One Day Agency Can Help
At One Day Agency, we specialise in helping brands navigate the full TV and streaming ecosystem. Our expertise spans from traditional TV buying to advanced addressable and programmatic solutions such as Sky AdSmart.
We can help you:
Design campaigns that blend linear and AdSmart buys, ensuring you balance mass reach with precise targeting.
Plan efficient regional campaigns, making premium TV accessible for local or niche advertisers.
Develop and adapt creative to suit addressable formats, ensuring ads resonate with targeted households.
Integrate Sky activity with digital, OOH, and performance channels, creating fully joined-up campaigns that drive measurable impact.
Negotiate sponsorships and premium placements, from Sky Sports partnerships to Sky Originals integrations.
With our senior-only model and deep experience in media buying, we ensure every pound invested in Sky delivers maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
