Sky Movies

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Sky Movies
Launched	5th February 1989
Owned by	BSkyB
Website	www.skymovies.com
Availability
Satellite
Sky Digital	Channels 301 - 314
Cable
NTL:Telewest	Channels 401-412 (Sky Movies 10 not available on NTL)
NTL Ireland	Channels 301 - 311

Sky Movies is the collective name for the British premium subscription television movie channels operated by Sky Television, later British Sky Broadcasting. It has around 5 million subscribers, via both satellite and cable in the UK and Ireland [1]. In addition to the television channels, it has an interactive 'red button' service, a website (skymovies.com) and recently launched a 3G Mobile service via Vodafone. Sky Movies is said to be the largest TV movie service in the world outside the United States ^{[citation needed]}.

1 History
- 1.1 The early years (1989 - 1998)
- 1.2 Sky Movies in the digital era (1998 - )
2 Advertising and promotion
3 Original production
- 3.1 Presenters
4 Voice-overs
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] 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 hard-encryption system called VideoCrypt which rendered the picture totally incomprehensible 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.

A rebranding exercise saw Sky Movies renamed to Sky Movies Screen 1, and The Movie Channel was renamed Sky Movies Screen 2.

After a further rebranding on September 10, 1998 Sky Movies Screen 1 became Sky Premier, Sky Movies Screen 2, became Sky Moviemax, and 'Sky Movies Gold was renamed Sky Cinema.

[edit] Sky Movies in the digital era (1998 - )

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.

Eventually in June 2003 Sky bowed to demands for more widescreen movies. The Sky Premier Widescreen channel was closed and the majority of films on the remaining channels were shown in widescreen.

July 1, 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.

The most recent re-brand occurred on November 1, 2003, when 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 January 30, 2006, Sky Movies 9 and the new Sky Movies 10 started broadcasting from 5pm to 3am. They are 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 SkyHD, the two channels are also available in a high definition format.

[edit] 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 (tradtional & interactive ads, sponsorship, online) are handled by Sky Media - 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Presenters

Comedian and film actor, Omid Djalili is currently the main on-air presenter for Sky Movies. He introduces the big Saturday Premiere - 'First Time Saturday' - each week.

Past On-air Presenters have included Barry Norman, Clare Grogan, Richard Jobson, Rob Brydon, and Jessica Whittaker.