Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on demand content are available through these as well as via Now, EE TV and TalkTalk TV.
In 2016, Sky rebranded its television film channel operations under one single branding on 8 July, the channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland were rebranded from Sky Movies to Sky Cinema; on 22 September in Germany and Austria, the Sky Cinema brand (originally used for the flagship network) was extended to the German channels in the group formerly known as Sky Film; the Italian Sky Cinema channels followed suit on 5 November by adopting the brand packages introduced in the United Kingdom and Ireland earlier.
Output includes movie premieres from Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Studiocanal (from 2026), Entertainment Film Distributors (from 2026) and Sony Pictures (until 2027) and Sky original films.
History
1989–1998: early years Launching on 5 February 1989, Sky Movies was one of the four channels that formed the Sky Television network on the Astra 1b satellite system (the others being Sky News, Eurosport and Sky Channel (which later became Sky One). The first film shown on the channel was Project X. Before the launch, Sky signed deals with companies such as Orion Pictures and Columbia Pictures to secure first-run rights to the newest films for the channel. Sky Movies was originally planned to timeshare with a UK version of The Disney Channel, but following a settled lawsuit between Sky Television and Disney in May, the latter eventually agreed to a five-year deal to supply films from Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures to the Sky Movies schedule the following month.
Sky Movies remained free to anyone with a Sky Television subscription until 1990, when it became the first television network in the country to scramble its signal, using an encryption system called VideoCrypt. Anyone attempting to view it without a decoder and smart card could only see a scrambled picture. With the encryption, Sky Movies began to air Pay-Per-View Sporting events such as boxing matches and World Wrestling Federation events, which were available at no extra cost to existing viewers of the channel, and as such during this period the network was normally referred to Sky Movies Plus. The first event shown by the channel was Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas on 11 February 1990. On 2 November, Sky Television merged with rival British Satellite Broadcasting and formed British Sky Broadcasting. BSB had already broadcast a movie network of their own, named The Movie Channel, which was now a sister network to Sky Movies.
With the launch of the second SES Astra satellite (1B) on 15 April 1991, The Movie Channel officially launched on Sky's satellite service and gained a brand new look. Sky Movies was also made available on the Marcopolo Satellite beginning on 8 April, replacing BSB's music channel The Power Station. on 6 May, both networks started broadcasting 24 hours a day. In addition of these slots for 6.00 pm, 8.00 pm and 10.00 pm, Sky Movies had several different film genres used every evening, such as: Monday Night Comedy Tuesday Night Action Thursday Night Horror After Dark – used for Saturday and Wednesday nights at approximately 11.30 pm, which included erotic films with a 18 certificate that often shows sexually explicit material and various adult-oriented content.
At the same time, The Movie Channel started to begin its evening films at the later slots of 6.15 pm, 8.15 pm, and 10.15 pm. It also showed children's films at around 4.00 pm and classic movies during the daytime hours, from early morning until the 4 pm children's film.
On 1 October 1992, a third network in the package, Sky Movies Gold, was launched on the transponder formerly home to The Comedy Channel. This network focused more on "classic" films, with Rocky II being the first film to air on the network upon its launch at 6:00 pm. The channel broadcast from 4.00 pm to midnight every day, timesharing with TV Asia. On 31 December, Sky stopped broadcasting all its networks on the Marcopolo Satellite, including Sky Movies and The Movie Channel.
From 1 February 1993, BSkyB introduced a new system of ratings for Sky Movies. The Movie Channel and Sky Movies Gold were used at various times replacing the British Board of Film Classification certificates which lasted over four years, and remained on air until 31 October 1997: Rating Description U Universal – suitable for all audiences at any time. PG Parental Guidance – some scenes may be unsuitable for young or sensitive children. 7 Suitable for transmission at 7.00 pm, may also include edited versions of any otherwise unsuitable titles with the BBFC PG (or 12) certificate until it was later dropped and never used on air. 8 Suitable for transmission at 8.00 pm, broadly in line with the BBFC 15 certificate. 9 This classification reflecting the 9.00 pm watershed, which covers films of more adult nature that may contain strong language or violence. 10 Suitable for transmission at 10.00 pm, is equivalent to the BBFC 18 certificate and that is suitable for adults only. 11 Suitable for transmission during 11.00 pm, in which films of an explicit nature for adult viewing but mostly showing uncut versions offer include martial arts and erotic films were also used.
As part of the launch of Sky Multichannels in September 1993, the three movie networks remained as their own package, although for a limited time, those who were already subscribed to the package would get Sky Multichannels at no extra cost.
TV Asia moved to a different transponder in March 1995, so for a short period Sky Movies Gold would be the lone network in its slot and during the summer months of this period it broadcast non-film programming during the day, with an overall on-air time of 9:00 am to 2:00 am.. This continued until 1 October, when it would become home to a British version of The Disney Channel, which meant that Sky Movies Gold's broadcasting hours were changed to 10:00 pm - 6:00 am.
Relaunch (1997-1998) On 10 October 1997, Sky announced that it would relaunch Sky Movies and The Movie Channel as Sky Movies Screen 1 and Sky Movies Screen 2 from 1 November, while Sky Movies Gold would remain as is. From 1 December, the Sky Box Office pay-per-view service added movies to its lineup and launched four dedicated channels on various transponders on the Astra 1B satellite. Movies broadcast on those networks would be shown in advance of their broadcast on the main Sky Movies portfolio. Sky Movies Gold would move to a different transponder on Astra 1C by that date alongside Sky Travel, with Sky Box Office 1 replacing it in its former Astra 1B slot with Disney Channel.
1998–2007: digital era On 22 July 1998, Sky announced that the Sky Movies portfolio would undergo a second rebranding from 10 October 1998, with Sky Movies Screen 1 becoming Sky MovieMax, Sky Movies Screen 2 becoming Sky Premier and Sky Movies Gold becoming Sky Cinema.
The launch of Sky Digital from the new Astra 28.2°E satellite position on 1 October 1998 was accompanied by a major channel expansion for the Sky Movies portfolio. With this, Sky launched additional multiplex channels; Sky Premier 2 to 4, Sky MovieMax 2 to 4, and Sky Cinema 2. On 15 November, Sky Premier Widescreen was launched – becoming the only British channel devoted to showing widescreen material.
In 1999, Sky MovieMax and Sky Premier launched on the ONDigital terrestrial platform. On 1 October 1999, an additional multiplex channel, Sky MovieMax 5 was launched. This brought along the number of Sky premium movie networks to twelve.
On 23 May 2002, Sky announced that its movie networks would all be rebranded under the single "Sky Movies" suffix from 1 July, and would have a change of focus in content. Sky Premier would become Sky Movies Premier, focusing on blockbusters; Sky MovieMax would become Sky Movies Max, focusing on action and comedy; and Sky Cinema would become Sky Movies Cinema, focusing on classic films. The relaunch would also coincide with the launch of a Sky Movies website portal, which would feature over 40,000 film reviews and schedules for the twelve networks in addition to non-Sky-owned channels.
On 28 April 2003, Sky announced that it would expand widescreen showings of films across the entire Sky Movies multiplex, meaning that Sky Movies Premier Widescreen would cease operations on 3 June, with no replacement. Sky also announced that 5.1 stereo sound films would be broadcast on the first three Sky Movies Premier networks. On 20 October, Sky announced that the entire Sky Movies Premier and Sky Movies Max multiplex networks would undergo a full rebrand on 1 November with a new logo and refreshed package, becoming Sky Movies 1-9. The Sky Movies Cinema channels would remain as is and revert to their previous name, Sky Cinema.
Sky Movies, along with numerous other channels, became available to watch via Sky Mobile TV in 2005, in partnership with Vodafone.
On 3 January 2006, Sky announced that from 1 February, they would make a major change to its multiplex portfolio to allow films with a 15 certificate to air as early as 5:00 pm on Sky Movies 9 and the newly-launched Sky Movies 10, which was the first time such films would be allowed to be broadcast on British television before the watershed. Sky Movies 9 would become PIN-protected and its broadcast hours would be reduced to 5:00 pm-3:00 am, with Sky Movies 10 adopting the same pattern. The change went into place as planned on that day. In May 2006, both networks gained high-definition simulcasts as part of the launch of the Sky HD platform.
2007–2016: Sky Movies gets categorised Sky Movies was overhauled on 4 April 2007, when the different channels became dedicated to different genres, but three of the HD channels have launched already before the other:
Premiere Premiere +1 Comedy Action & Thriller Family Drama Sci Fi & Horror Classics Modern Greats Indie HD1/SD1 HD2/SD2
Sky later made Sky Movies HD1 and HD2 available to subscribers without HDTV equipment through two channels simulcasting the same content in SDTV format, the channels were known as Sky Movies SD1 and SD2. These channels were renamed Sky Movies Screen 1 and Screen 2 in February 2008, and the HDTV channels were renamed Sky Movies Screen 1 HD and Screen 2 HD accordingly. On 20 March 2008, an additional high-definition film channel called Sky Movies Premiere HD, which is a simulcast version of the current Sky Movies Premiere channel, was added after many requests for the channel from Sky HD subscribers.
Sky also announced that in October 2008, they would 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 means that almost all Sky Movies channels are broadcast in both standard- and high-definition except for Sky Movies Premiere +1, Sky Movies Classics and Sky Movies Indie which remained standard-definition only until Sky Movies Indie HD launched on 26 October 2009. Sky Movies were rebranded as the part of the various Sky channels on 1 January 2010.
On 26 March 2010, some Sky Movies channels were renamed, the new Sky Movies Showcase that replaces Sky Movies Screen 1 were devoted to box sets, collections and seasons. Sky Movies also reshuffled its bouquet of ten channels to achieve greater "clarity" for subscribers. The changes included Sky Movies Action & Thriller becoming Sky Movies Action & Adventure, Sky Movies Drama becoming Sky Movies Drama & Romance and Sky Movies Screen 2 becoming Sky Movies Crime & Thriller. The Sky Movies HD channels launched on the Virgin Media platform on 2 August 2010.