Sky Cinema is a group of British pay television film channels owned by Sky, a division of Comcast. They have over 5 million subscribers on subscription TV. In addition to the television channels, it has an interactive 'red button' service, a website (sky.com/movies) and in 2005 launched a 3G mobile service via Vodafone. In 2016, Sky rebranded its television film channel operations under one single Sky Cinema branding: on 8 July 2016, the channels in the UK and Ireland were rebranded from Sky Movies to Sky Cinema; on 22 September in Germany and Austria, the Sky Cinema brand 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 UK and Ireland earlier.
ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998 and is available digitally via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial (Freeview) platforms. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a claim now held by its sister service ITV3 both of which are freely available to a majority of households.
ITV3 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004, replacing Granada Plus. ITV3 is the sixth largest UK television channel by audience share and the largest after the five main terrestrial services, the position which was previously held by its sister station ITV2. The channel is known for UK dramas, including sequential re-runs of Agatha Christie's Poirot, Classic Coronation Street, Classic Emmerdale, Heartbeat and Inspector Morse, amongst others.
Sky Witness is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel's programming was originally aimed mainly at women and young adults. More recently, with shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Boston Legal and The Blacklist, the channel has broadened its audience reach to a wider range of demographics, including men aged 18–45.
ITV4 is a British free-to-air television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-orientated line-up, including sport, police shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action series of the 1960s and 1970s.
More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. On 13 May 2019 More 4 moved to channel 18 on Freeview as part a reshuffle of channel 4 channels
Sky+ HD is the brand name of the HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky to be viewed. For the first 2 years after launch, the service was branded Sky HD. The service requires the user to have a Sky+ HD Digibox and an HD ready TV. A subscription to the original HD pack carries an extra fee of £10.25 a month in addition to the standard Sky subscription, allowing customers to view HD channels corresponding to the channel packs subscribed to. Additional Pay-Per-View events on Sky Box Office HD are not available to customers unless they subscribe to the Sky HD pack.
Universal TV is a British and Irish pay television channel owned by the Universal Networks International division of NBCUniversal. It is devoted primarily to imported drama series, primarily from the United States.
The National Geographic Channel is a British pay television channel that features documentaries produced by the National Geographic Society. It features some programming similar to that on the Discovery Channel such as nature and science documentaries. The channel was launched in Europe in September 1997 and time shared initially with the failing NBC Europe until NBC Europe's demise in 1998, at which point it began timesharing with Fox Kids ; with analogue transmission of the channel ending, and the sale of Fox Kids to Disney, timesharing was eventually superseded by 24-hour broadcasting. It was later launched worldwide including in Asia and the United States. Today, the channel is available in over 143 countries, seen in more than 160 million homes and in 25 languages.
Crime & Investigation is a pan-European television channel based in the United Kingdom, owned by A&E Networks UK. The channel primarily broadcasts true crime programming, and is a European version of the U.S. network of the same name.
Discovery HD is the international name of the high-definition television channels from Discovery Communications.
History is a European television channel which broadcasts programs related to historical events and persons. It is owned by a joint venture of A&E Networks, owner of the American History, and Sky. TVT Media is responsible for signal distribution in Europe, with local subsidiaries of A&E Networks as distribution representatives on the continent. Its programming, primarily in English, is subtitled or dubbed into regional languages. The channel is available through a number of satellite, cable, terrestrial and IPTV distributors across Europe, the Middle East and South Africa. In some countries, advertisements and announcements between programs are localized.
There are four major forms of digital television (DTV) broadcast in the United Kingdom: a direct-to-home satellite service from the Astra 28.2°E satellites provided by Sky UK, a cable television service provided by Virgin Media ; a free-to-air satellite service called Freesat; and a free-to-air digital terrestrial service called Freeview. In addition, an IPTV system known as BT Vision is provided by BT. Individual access methods vary throughout the country. 77% of the United Kingdom has access to HDTV via terrestrial digital television. Satellite is the only source of HDTV broadcast available for the remaining 23%.
Eurosport 2 is a European sports television network. It is a sister channel to Eurosport 1 and part of the Eurosport Network. Several different versions of the channel exist across Europe, where television rights for sport differ.
High-definition television in the United Kingdom is available via cable, IPTV, satellite and terrestrial television. The first high-definition broadcasts began in 2006 and since then the number of channels available to view has grown to a maximum of 87 that can be viewed on pay-TV service, Sky.
MGM HD is an all high-definition television cable network. It features movies from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library of approximately 1,200 movies mastered in a high-definition-compatible format. The network exists largely because MGM does not have to pay to license their own films, and the schedule is composed mostly of second-tier and less-popular films that are not wanted or licensed by other major networks and movie channels. The films are usually presented uncut and in their original aspect ratio, although some films are edited for content for daytime viewing and commercial breaks are often added during peak viewing hours.
MTV Live HD is an international 24-hour HD music pay television network that is operated by Viacom International Media Networks' subsidiary Viacom International Media Networks (Europe). The channel is available in Europe, Latin America, Oceania, Middle East and North Africa and Asia.
Virgin Media Television Ltd is a commercial TV network in Ireland, based in Dublin. Launched in 1998 as TV3 Television Network, the TV3 Group was formed in January 2009. The company was acquired by Liberty Global in 2015, and the channels were rebranded to Virgin Media Television in 2018.
Eurosport 1 is a pan-European television sports network channel operated by Eurosport, a subsidiary of Discovery, Inc. Discovery took a 20% minority interest share in December 2012, and became majority shareholder in the Eurosport venture with TF1 in January 2014, taking a 51% share of the company, On 22 July 2015 Discovery agreed to acquire TF1's remaining 49% stake in the venture.
