Edinburgh International TV Festival: Sky director denies rumours £2.3bn Premier League spend hurt commissions

He said: “Sky wouldn't be caught on the hop when buying its biggest product," addressing the rumours that Sky has had to take money from other budgets to pay the monumental bill for Premier League rights.

Murphy admitted the number of commissions has fallen this year but said that was mainly to do with 11 returning comedies.

“At the end of the day the BBC is the only broadcaster with a guaranteed income and as a commercial broadcaster there are times when money needs to be moved from pushing broadband to content or factual to drama. But when it comes to Sky's biggest product - the Premier League - we're prepared.”

Famously Murphy has set out a mission statement to make Sky's entertainment offering as synonymous as its sports in terms of brand and image and admits that the product is now getting there.

“I'd say we're around an eight and a half or nine out of 10 at the moment. But I love the fact that lots of people have said it's crazy to try and create a tent pole entertainment show without the BBC or ITV and we've done that with 'Got to Dance',” he said.

With a piggy bank of £600m to spend on entertainment by the end of 2014 Murphy reveals the broadcaster is "on track to spend it" and it's his job to "make sure the commissioning team and channel team are inspired and well resourced to do so."

In response to BBC controller of comedy commissioning Shane Allen's comments that liken him to a dictator with “a lot of money but not a lot of taste" Murphy takes it on the chin and says the comedy on Sky is meant to be uplifting and he's "not in the business of making the world seem like a grimmer place than it is.”

Discussing ratings Murphy claims that for a subscription business like Sky they're not the be all and end all, adding “Sky Go, mobile and Now TV are making the bigger picture more complicated”.

“For Sky we want to be viewed as less of an ITV and more of an HBO. We have channels that need to be watched and loved - Sky1 and Sky Living, channels that need to be loved - Sky Atlantic. And the channels that just need to be watched and not necessarily loved - PickTv," he said.