| Pick TV | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 31 October 2005 |
| Owned by | British Sky Broadcasting |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV 16:9, 4:3) |
| Audience share | 0.8% 0.2% (+1) (August 2011, BARB) |
| Country | United Kingdom, Ireland |
| Formerly called | Sky Three (2005–2008) Sky3 (2008–2011) |
| Sister channel(s) | Challenge, Sky1, Sky2, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky Livingit, Sky Living Loves, Sky Movies, Sky Movies Box Office Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Sports News |
| Timeshift service | Pick TV +1 |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Freeview | Channel 11 |
| BT Vision | Channel 11 |
| Satellite | |
| Sky | Channel 152 Channel 153 (+1) |
| Cable | |
| Virgin Media | Channel 180 |
| UPC Ireland | Channel 133 |
| Smallworld Cable | Channel 108 |
| IPTV | |
| TalkTalk TV | Channel 35 |
| Internet television | |
| TVCatchup | Watch live (UK only) |
Pick TV is a British television channel, available free-to-air on Freeview and TalkTalk TV, and free-to-view on satellite via Sky, Freesat from Sky and Virgin Media. The channel was originally launched on 31 October 2005 as Sky Three. From Thursday 24 June 2010, programming from Sky Travel Shop was dropped from the schedules being replaced with programming from Sky Real Lives, which was closed in 2010 to enable Sky to invest in Sky1 and Sky2. On 1 February 2011, Sky Atlantic launched on Sky channel 108, which had originally been occupied by Sky3.[1] Sky rebranded Sky3 as Pick TV on 28 February 2011.[2][3]
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When the channel originally launched as Sky Three in 2005, it was essentially a "shop window" service for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky1 and its other subscription services, which served to "offer digital terrestrial viewers the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of popular programmes from Sky".[4] From its launch on 31 October 2005 until 24 June 2010, the channel carried Sky Travel's commercial presentations selling holiday deals for a number of providers.
Early highlights from the channel's schedule included Futurama, Cold Case, Tru Calling, Relic Hunter, Road Wars, the Inside strand of documentaries, Brainiac: Science Abuse, Airline, and 35mm from Sky Movies (which looks at upcoming films in the cinema and on Sky's premium movies service Sky Movies) and Dream Team. The channel has also shown the free-to-air premieres of some of Sky1's more prestigious shows such as series 3 and 4 of 24, Rescue Me, The 10th Kingdom, Hex and the latest remake of Battlestar Galactica. The channel also showed series 3 and 4 of Prison Break in 2010.
In recent years, the number of well known Sky1 shows being shown on Sky3/Pick TV has declined. The channel is well known for airing repeats of Road Wars and Airline whilst other shows such as Coach Trip and It's Me or the Dog are also shown regularly, the closure of Sky Real Lives responsible for the increase in lifestyle programming. The number of American shows airing on the channel has declined rapidly, with Prison Break the last major US Sky1 drama to be shown on the channel in 2010. Since its rebrand to Pick TV, recent Sky1 shows such as UK Border Force, Pineapple Dance Studios and documentary series hosted by Ross Kemp such as gangs and in search of Pirates have been (or currently are being) aired. The most recent major US series to be shown on Pick TV is Glenn Martin, DDS, being broadcast since September 2010. As of 5 October 2011, series 1 of the US drama Lie to Me is being shown.
Sky Three was the first free-to-air general entertainment channel from Sky. It launched on 31 October 2005, replacing the Sky Travel's EPG slot on Freeview in a bid to attract more subscribers to Sky's satellite service. Due to its wider availability on Freeview channel 11, the channel constantly had higher ratings than Sky2 where Sky3 was achieving on average a 1% share compared to Sky2's 0.1-3% share. Instead of Sky selling on the terrestrial free-to-air rights for their programmes to another broadcaster, these rights are usually retained to remain exclusive to Sky. In 2006, Sky's entertainment channels changed the wording in the logos to numbers, hence Sky Three became Sky3, assuming the theme of particles.
On 23 August 2010 Sky Sports News became a pay-TV channel, which was replaced on Freeview by a one-hour timeshift version of Sky3.[5] Sky3 +1 also launched on Sky channel 223 on the same day. A final rebrand took place in early 2011 and saw Sky1, 2 and 3 gain similar rectangular logos to Sky News and Sky Sports.
The channel was rebranded to Pick TV (and Pick TV +1) on February 28th 2011. Only the name was changed, as the channel retained the look of the most recent rebrand which occurred a few weeks earlier. The launch of Challenge saw quiz and gameshow type programming move off Pick TV. On 20 September 2011 at 14:00, Pick TV +1 was removed from Freeview.[6] This was so that all of the channels owned by BSkyB could be on multiplex C and Challenge could broadcast for 24 hours a day in Wales on the platform, in-line with the rest of the UK.
On the weekend of 18–20 September 2009, the channel showed a selection of programmes normally only available to paying Sky subscribers instead of the channel's usual schedule as a "taster" of what is available on the subscription-based Sky to viewers of Freeview, TalkTalk TV, and Freesat from Sky. Channels not available to Freeview and Freesat from Sky viewers, such as Sky1, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Living, ESPN and MTV contributed programming to the weekend. Sky showed a second Free Weekend Pass event on 17–18 April 2010 and a third event between 11-13 February 2011.
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