Digital TV Blog

Sky Movies channels get another reshuffle

Sky have recently condensed and rebranded several of their movie channels, changing the names of the channels to reflect the genre of the films shown. Sky Movies 1 will now be known as Sky Comedy, and Sky Movies 4 now comes under the name of Sky Sci-Fi/Horror.

Sky Movies 9 & 10 are now gone, films that would have been broadcast on these channels have been shunted into the remaining eight, to make space on the airwaves for two HD movie channels, Sky Movies HD1 and HD2. This also means that programming on the movie channels will be less repetitious, as more titles will be shown through less channels, meaning more films are now being broadcast in HD than before.

A new Sky Movies Premiere channel along with a +1 time shift channel has been introduced; five new films will be broadcast every Saturday, playing at the same times every night for a week until the following Saturday.

Aside from this restructuring of the Sky Movies channels, there are no changes to the pricing for the service.

The list below displays all the new channels plus their EPG codes, and the times they will be broadcasting through the day:

301 Sky Movies Premiere – 16:00 to 02:00 (10 hours)
302 Sky Movies Premiere +1 – 17:00 to 03:00 (10 hours)
303 Sky Movies Comedy – (24 hours)
304 Sky Movies Action/Thriller – (24 hours)
305 Sky Movies Family – (24 hours)
306 Sky Movies Drama – (24 hours)
307 Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror – 16:00 to 04:00 (12 hours)
308 Sky Movies Classics – (24 hours)
309 Sky Movies Modern Greats – (24 hours)
310 Sky Movies Indie – 16:00 to 04:00 (12 hours)
311 Sky Movies HD1 – 11:00 to 03:00 (16 hours)
312 Sky Movies HD2 – 11:00 to 03:00 (16 hours)

Digital provider slashes prices

Top Up TV have just slashed the price of their Anytime DVR box by about £30. The twin-tuner receiver/recorder manufactured by Thomson specifically for the Top Up TV Anytime package has fallen in price from £180 to £149.99.

For this new price and an additional connection fee, subscribers get the Top Up TV Anytime box, along with the first month’s subscription and delivery absolutely free.

As well as providing access to the Freeview channels, customers have access to content from 19 of the best non-terrestrial channels including MTV, LIVINGtv, UKTV Gold, Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel, as well as the option to add extra premium content such as movies and sports coverage courtesy of Setanta Sports.

Cable provider hooks up ADSL customers

Virgin Media has announced that it intends to supply digital TV services to customers not living in an area which is serviced by their cable network, by way of a set-top box.

The small, matt-black box, roughly the same size of a VHS cassette, will broadcast the 40 free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) channels, as well as the 25+ digital radio stations, along with an eight-day electronic programme guide (EPG). The box comes with its own stylish remote, and is free to anyone who signs up to Virgin’s 8MB ADSL Broadband and Talk Anytime phone bundle deal.

This move means that Virgin Media’s much emphasised offer of Quad Play services will be available to more than just cable customers, allowing customers to save money on phone and internet bills as well as receive digital television. There are also announcements of plans to add “more advanced” TV services to the package throughout the year, which may or may not be a converged IPTV service, similar to BT Vision.

If this is the case, then this is something of a controversial move from Virgin who, along with BT, Setanta, and Top Up TV, has asked for Ofcom to investigate the pay-TV market after Sky had announced that it intended to sell on-demand content through a similar box.

As such, some have viewed the launch as yet another extension in the Sky/Virgin dispute, regarding it as a pre-emptive measure against the possibility of Sky VoD content being made available via Freeview in light of Ofcom’s investigation.

Sky Digital video on demand service

Well, almost anyplace. Sky Anytime is the name for a range of video on demand (VoD) services supplied by Sky, designed primarily for those who live in rented accommodations or listed buildings and are, due to contractual or structural reasons, unable to fix a dish to their homes and receive Sky TV in the normal manner.

Sky Anytime subscribers can download video content, watched through Windows Media Player, to their computers through a broadband internet connection – any broadband connection will do, although by taking a subscription with Sky you could potentially save quite a bit, as basic broadband services come bundled gratis as part of the Sky See Speak Surf deal.

Viewers will have to first download a Sky Anytime installation program to their computers and set up a My Sky account at Sky’s website to register. As the VoD content is available on a pay-per-view basis, all payments are handled via direct debit, through your my Sky account. Users purchase programmes using web currency in the form of ‘Anytime Credits’, worth 1p, meaning a programme costing 500 credits is equal to £5.

Sky Anytime is also available to regular Sky TV customers who have a Sky HD box or the most recent version of the Sky+ box (the PVR3 version), as well as the required broadband connection.

Sky VoD content can also be viewed on a number of web-enabled mobile phones (3G or GPRS phones) if the user is also a subscriber to either of Sky’s premium TV services (Sky Movies and/or Sky Sports).