Pick (TV channel)

"Sky Three" and "Sky 3" redirect here. For the 3D channel, see Sky 3D. For the album, see Sky 3 (album).
Pick
Launched 1 November 2005
Owned by Sky plc
Picture format 576i (SDTV 16:9, 4:3)
Audience share 0.73%
0.05% (+1) (September 2015 (2015-09), BARB)
Country United Kingdom, Ireland
Formerly called Sky Three (2005–08)
Sky3 (2008–11)
Pick TV (2011–13)
Sister channel(s) Challenge,
Real Lives,
Sky 1,
Sky 2,
Sky Arts,
Sky Atlantic,
Sky Living,
Sky Movies,
Sky Movies Box Office
Sky News,
Sky Sports,
Sky Sports F1,
Sky Sports News HQ
Timeshift service Pick +1
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview Channel 11
Satellite
Sky Channel 152
Channel 153 (+1)
Freesat Channel 144
Channel 159 (+1)
Astra 2F 12207 V 27500 5/6
12207 V 27500 5/6 (+1)
Cable
Virgin Media Channel 123
Virgin Media Ireland Channel 133
WightFibre Channel 11
Channel 21 (+1)
Streaming media
FilmOn Watch live

Pick is a British television channel, available via Freeview, Freesat,[1] Sky and Virgin Media.

Programming

The channel was originally launched in 2005 as Sky Three. It was essentially a "shop window" service for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky 1 and its other subscription services, which served to "offer digital terrestrial viewers the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of popular programmes from Sky".[2] From its launch on 1 November 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 Sky 1'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 seasons 3 and 4 of Prison Break in 2010.

In recent years, the number of well known Sky 1 shows being shown on 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 U.S. Sky 1 drama to be shown on the channel in 2010. Since its rebrand to Pick TV, recent Sky 1 shows such as UK Border Force, Pineapple Dance Studios and documentary series hosted by Ross Kemp such as gangs and in search of Pirates were aired.

On 1 February 2011, Sky Atlantic launched on Sky channel 108, which had originally been occupied by Sky3.[3] Sky rebranded Sky3 as Pick TV on 28 February 2011.[4][5] On Monday 7 October 2013, Pick TV became Pick introducing a new look and logo for the channel.

In May 2012, Pick TV started broadcasting some older Sky 1 and Sky Living, and the former Channel One and Bravo shows. The following programmes are currently airing on the channel:

Pick on Freeview

Sky Three was the first free-to-air general entertainment channel from Sky. It launched on 1 November 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 Sky 2 where Sky3 was achieving on average a 1% share compared to Sky 2'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 2008, Sky's entertainment channels changed the wording in the logos to numbers, hence Sky Three became Sky3.

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.[6] Sky3 +1 also launched on Sky channel 223 on the same day. A final rebrand took place in early 2011 and saw Sky 1, 2 and 3 gain similar rectangular logos to Sky News and Sky Sports.

The channel was rebranded as Pick TV (and Pick TV +1) on 28 February 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.[7] 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 7 October 2013, Pick TV was rebranded as Pick on Freeview and all platforms.

Free Weekend Pass

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 sister network Sky 1, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, sister network Sky 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 and final event between 11–13 February 2011. The event has not been repeated since Sky3 rebranded as Pick TV.

Sky Thursdays

Pick TV showcased some of Sky's premium entertainment content once a week from 24 January 2013 for 12 weeks. 'Sky Thursdays' was a branded segment that offered selected episodes of some of Sky's most popular programmes, usually only available on its pay TV channels.

Sky Thursdays kicked off on 24 January with the first episode of comedy series Modern Family at 7pm. Sky's recent documentary on cyclist Bradley Wiggins was shown at 7:30pm. America's answer to Sherlock, Elementary followed at 9pm and the evening ended with the first episode of Sky Atlantic's Game of Thrones at 10pm.

During subsequent weeks, selected episodes of shows like Boardwalk Empire, An Idiot Abroad, Michael Parkinson's Masterclass and Mad Dogs were shown. Excluding An Idiot Abroad, there is no indication that the full set of episodes for any of these programmes will air on Pick TV.

Sky News on Pick

A 60-second bespoke news bulletin from Sky News was introduced on 26 November 2012 and is broadcast nightly at 21:00. The first hour of Sunrise is also simulcast on Pick on weekdays from 06:00 to 07:00.

References

  1. ↑ "Pick TV launching on Freesat". Join Freesat. 1 December 2012.
  2. ↑ Plunkett, John. "Sky Three to launch on Freeview", MediaGuardian, 22 September 2005. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
  3. ↑ "Sky confirms strengthened entertainment line-up". British Sky Broadcasting. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  4. ↑ Farber, Alex. "Sky 3 to relaunch as Pick TV". Broadcast. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  5. ↑ Lane, Alex. "Sky3 to become Pick TV". What Satellite and Digital TV. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  6. ↑ "Sky Sports News to get bigger and better as a pay TV channel". British Sky Broadcasting. 2010-06-17.
  7. ↑ "Pick TV+1 leaves Freeview channel 44.". Freeview. Retrieved 5 September 2010.

External links

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