Sky Mix
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | BSkyB |
Sky3 is a free to view British television channel, available on Sky Digital as well as Freesat from Sky (where it is available free to view), Freeview (where it is free to air), Virgin Media and Tiscali TV (provided as part of the base pack). The channel was launched on 31 October 2005 and is the first free to air general entertainment channel from Sky.
Programmming and content
When Sky Three launched, it was essentially a "shop window" service for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky1 and its other subscription services. Today, the channel broadcasts some popular Sky1, Sky Real Lives and Sky Travel shows on a long delay after their original airing.
Early highlights from the channels schedule included Futurama, Cold Case, Tru Calling, Relic Hunter, Road Wars, the Inside stand of documentaries, Brainiac: Science Abuse, 35mm from Sky Movies (which looks at upcoming films in the cinema and on Sky's premium movies service Sky Movies) and Dream Team. Sky Three has shown the free to air premieres of some of Sky One's more prestigious shows such as season 3 and 4 of 24, Rescue Me, The 10th Kingdom, Hex and the latest remake of Battlestar Galactica.
Sky3 has also premièred screenings of certain shows including the hairdressing reality show Shear Genius. From time to time, movies are shown on the channel however these are not the blockbuster films from Sky Movies but low budget or made for TV movies. Recently the channel has taken to showing some older Channel 4 programmes such as Coach Trip and Searching for My Son. Whilst older ITV programmes such as Redcoats and Airline are regularly shown on the channel.
Over the last few months there has not been much content from sister channel Sky1 on the channel. However recently, Sky1 shows are re-appearing on the schedule. The next major programme to air on the channel from Sky1 currently is Journeyman and Kate Thornton's Hello goodbye in July. In June, Deadwood began a repeat airing having already been shown on Sky3 previously.
Rebrand
On 31 August 2008[1] Sky Three, along with its sister channels Sky One and Sky Two, rebranded in the biggest on air change in Sky One's 20 year history. The rebrand saw the logo change from the written "three" to the number "3" as well as a tweak to the Sky part of the logo. It retained it's pink logo. There was a fresh set of idents with complementing the rebrand. At the Edinburgh Television festival, Richard Woolfe said in an interview to Digital Spy[2], Sky3 will become female orientated and be home to bigger entertainment shows and dramas. Since the rebrand Richard Woolfe has moved to Five and the new director of channels Danny Cohen is wanting to change the focus of the entertainment channels towards comedies. The Idents feature pink particles, Sky1 has blue gem solids while Sky2 has Green liquid.
Sky3 sampling weekend
From 18-20 September 2009, Sky3 will be breaking away from its normal programming schedule and showing the types of programming available to pay TV viewers. Programming from likes of Sky1, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Living, ESPN and MTV will feature including the 2007 hit film, I am Legend from Sky Movies and Live Guinness Premiership rugby from Sky Sports will be available.This is the first time that such programming has been available to Freeview and Freesat from Sky homes.
External links
- TV Listings at sky.com