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Sky Movies
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Sky Movies is the collective name for the British premium subscription television movie channels operated by Sky Television, and later British Sky Broadcasting. It has around 5 million subscribers, via both satellite, cable and IPTV in the UK and Ireland. In addition to the television channels, it has an interactive 'red button' service, a website (sky.com/movies) and recently launched a 3G Mobile service via Vodafone. Sky Movies is said to be the largest television movie service in the world.
It competes with its rival Film4, which reaches 18 million households.
History
The early years (1989 - 1998)
Sky Movies was originally a single movie channel offered as part of Sky's original 4-channel package in February 1989, but it was not until 1990 that it became the first Sky channel to scramble its signal, using a card-encryption system called VideoCrypt which rendered the picture totally obscured to anyone attempting to view it without a decoder and smart card.
When Sky merged with rival British Satellite Broadcasting it acquired BSB's The Movie Channel, and with the launch of the second Astra satellite in 1991 The Movie Channel was relaunched as part of the Sky package.
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Encyclopedia
Sky Movies is the collective name for the British premium subscription television movie channels operated by Sky Television, and later British Sky Broadcasting. It has around 5 million subscribers, via both satellite, cable and IPTV in the UK and Ireland. In addition to the television channels, it has an interactive 'red button' service, a website (sky.com/movies) and recently launched a 3G Mobile service via Vodafone. Sky Movies is said to be the largest television movie service in the world.
It competes with its rival Film4, which reaches 18 million households.
History
The early years (1989 - 1998)
Sky Movies was originally a single movie channel offered as part of Sky's original 4-channel package in February 1989, but it was not until 1990 that it became the first Sky channel to scramble its signal, using a card-encryption system called VideoCrypt which rendered the picture totally obscured to anyone attempting to view it without a decoder and smart card.
When Sky merged with rival British Satellite Broadcasting it acquired BSB's The Movie Channel, and with the launch of the second Astra satellite in 1991 The Movie Channel was relaunched as part of the Sky package. Later Sky added a "classic movies" channel, Sky Movies Gold. On 6 April 1991, music channel The Power Station closed down on BSB's satellite and Sky Movies subsequently launched on that transponder. A rebranding exercise on 1 November 1997 saw Sky Movies renamed to Sky Movies Screen 1, and The Movie Channel was renamed Sky Movies Screen 2.
After a further rebranding on 10 September 1998 Sky Movies Screen 2 became Sky Premier, Sky Movies Screen 1, became Sky Moviemax, and Sky Movies Gold was renamed Sky Cinema.
Sky Movies in the digital era (1998 - 2007)
The launch of Sky Digital in October 1998 was accompanied by a dramatic expansion of channels. Sky Premier 2 through 4 , Sky Moviemax 2 through 5 and Sky Cinema 2, along with Sky Premier Widescreen - at the time, the only channel devoted to showing widescreen movies, were all launched exclusively on digital satellite.
1 July 2002 saw yet another re-branding exercise. The Sky Premier channels were renamed Sky Movies Premier, the Sky Moviemax channels became Sky Movies Max, and the Sky Cinema channels became Sky Movies Cinema.
Eventually in June 2003 Sky bowed to demands for more widescreen movies. The Sky Movies Premier Widescreen channel was closed and the majority of films on the remaining channels were shown in widescreen.
On 1 November 2003, the Sky Movies Premier and Sky Movies Max channels were all brought under one banner as Sky Movies 1 through 9. At the same time, Sky Movies Cinema 1 and 2 became Sky Cinema 1 and 2.
From 30 January 2006, Sky Movies 9 and the new Sky Movies 10 started broadcasting from 5pm to 3am. They were PIN-protected, meaning that for the first time 15 rated films will be able to be shown as early as 5pm. With the launch of Sky HD, the two channels were also available in a high definition format.
Sky Movies goes categorised (2007 - )
From 4 April 2007, Sky Movies channels were revamped and genred. Sky Cinema 1 and 2 merged to become Sky Movies Classics.. The names of the new channels became, Sky Movies Premiere, Sky Movies Premiere +1, Sky Movies Comedy, Sky Movies Action & Thriller, Sky Movies Family, Sky Movies Drama, Sky Movies Classics, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror, Sky Movies Modern Greats, Sky Movies Indie, Sky Movies HD1 and Sky Movies HD2. Three of the HD channels have launched already before the other.
Sky Movies also got a new logo, where the V is supposed to be from searchlights, similar to the searchlights used by Fox (which is also owned by Sky's parent company, Newscorp). The new idents for the channels were also based on the searchlight theme.
Sky later made Sky Movies HD1 and HD2 available to subscribers without HDTV equipment through two channels simulcasting the same content in SDTV format. These channels were known as Sky Movies SD1 and SD2. These channels were renamed Sky Movies Screen 1 and Screen 2 in February 2008. The HDTV channels were renamed Sky Movies Screen 1 HD and Screen 2 HD accordingly.
As of 20 March 2008 an additional high definition movie channel called Sky Movies Premiere HD which is a high definition simulcast version of the current Sky Movies Premiere channel was added after many requests for the channel from Sky HD subscribers.
Sky has also announced that in October 2008, they will launch six new high-definition simulcast channels called Sky Movies Action/Thriller HD, Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror HD, Sky Movies Drama HD, Sky Movies Modern Greats HD, Sky Movies Family HD and Sky Movies Comedy HD. This would mean that almost all Sky Movies channels would be broadcast in both standard- and high-definition, except for Sky Movies Premiere +1, Sky Movies Classic and Sky Movies Indie which remain standard-definition only.
Advertising and promotion
All of the Sky movie channels have always carried commercials between movies, although the movies themselves are uninterrupted. Additionally some strands and seasons are sponsored. All advertising for Sky Movies (traditional & interactive ads, sponsorship, online) are handled by - the advertising sales part of BSkyB.
Sky Movies regularly sponsors the theatrical premieres of major film titles - such as Shrek 2, The Incredibles, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
A brief experiment with small on-screen logos in the early 1990s caused a storm of protest, and so movies are now shown logo-free although the channels use logos over feature programmes like movie Top Tens.
Sky Movies is part of a "Rate Card" within the UK and BSkyB must supply other TV operators (such as Virgin Media and Tiscali TV) if they agree to pay a price set down by Sky.
Original production
Sky Movies has a dedicated production team that produces over 100 hours of original film-related programming each year - including Sky Movies News (a half hour weekly film release round-up), and UK/US Top Tens. In addition, Sky's close relationships with the Film Studios means it regularly gets exclusive access on-set and to talent for one-off 'making-of's', talent-based programming etc.
In 1998, Elisabeth Murdoch (who was Sky's director of channels and services at the time) advocated Sky setting up a film funding and production unit (similar to BBC Films and Film4 Productions). The result was Sky Pictures, which existed in order to invest in both low-budget and mainstream British films. However, following a lack of success and her decision to leave Sky and set up her own production company, Shine, the unit was scaled back and closed in 2001.
Pin Protection
Pin Protection of some films was brought in on 30 January 2006 to increase the range of films available to customers during the daytime.
Viewers are prompted for a PIN when trying to watch a programme rated 12 or 15 before 20.00, and when trying to watch a programme rated 18 before 22.00. This must be done live, so an unattended recording will fail, or with Sky+ the PIN will need to be entered when watching the recording.
To change or disable these parental control options on Sky+, go to 'Services' 'Parental Control', enter the four digit PIN code and select 'Other restrictions'. Here viewers have the option to enable/disable PIN prompts when trying to play back a programme before the watershed on Sky+.
A Sky system has a 4 digit PIN code. The default Sky PIN code is the last four digits of the Sky viewing card. In surveys far more children are found to know how to change the PIN settings on Sky than parents. And many parents will give a 12 year old the PIN in order for them to watch a programme rated 12, few realising that also lets them watch programmes rated 18.
A similar system is used when watching the Sky Movies channels through Virgin Media's cable TV service.
Voice-overs
- Eddie Outwaite (February 1989 - September 1989)
- James Smillie (February 1989 - 1994)
- Charlie Neil (September 1989 - September 1990)
- Juliet Daniels (September 1989 - September 1994)
- Richard Madeley (September 1990 - September 1991)
- Leslie Crowther ( September 1991 - September 1992)
- Steven Roberts (September 1992 - September 1993)
- Bruce Hammal (September 1993 - September 1998)
- Tom Baker (September 1993 - September 1998)
- Eamonn Holmes (September 1993 - September 1994)
- Darren Tarbuck ( September 1994 - September 1995)
- Nigel Gallagher (September 1995 - September 1996)
- Gail Townsend (September 1996 - October 1997)
- Andy Sherriff (November 1997 - September 1998)
- Barnaby Hiles (September 1998 - June 2002)
| Sheiley Bailey (September 1998 - December 2001)Sarah-Jane Honeywell (September 1998 - June 2002)Justin Fletcher (September 1998 - June 2002)Trevor McDonald (December 2001 - June 2002)Danielle Nicholls (July 2002 - October 2003)Pauline Brownslaw (November 2003 - April 2007)Chris Jensen (January 2006 - April 2007)Neil Fox (April 2007 - October 2008)Matthew Kelly (April 2007 - October 2008)Katey Sagal (April 2007 - October 2008)Veronica Roberts (April 2007 - October 2008)Tony Francis (April 2007 - October 2008) | Ken Morley (October 2008 onwards)Rob Moon (October 2008 onwards)Carol Clarke (October 2008 onwards)Sue Weaver (October 2008 onwards)Barry Smith (October 2008 onwards)Alf Roberts (October 2008 onwards)Stephen Mulhern (October 2008 onwards)Melanie Sykes (October 2008 onwards)Adrian Vaughan (October 2008 onwards)Paul Grant (October 2008 onward) |
External links
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