channels in the uk and ireland . for other uses see sky cinema disambiguation . sky movies redirects here . for the channels in new zealand see sky movies new zealand . sky cinema launched 5 february 1989 owned by sky plc audience share 0.13 % action & adventure 0.08 % comedy 0.08 % crime & thriller 0.21 % disney 0.06 % drama & romance 0.16 % family 0.11 % greats 0.11 % hits 0.16 % premiere 0.03 % premiere 1 0.07 % sci fi & horror 0.03 % select september 2015 2015 09 barb replaced the power station on the bsb service sister channel s challenge pick real lives sky 1 sky 2 sky arts sky atlantic sky cinema box office sky living sky news sky sports sky sports f1 sky sports news hq website www.sky.com skycinema availability satellite sky channels 301 312 sd hd channels 314 330 337 339 340 sd on demand cable virgin media uk channels 401 412 channels 431 433 442 hd sky anytime virgin media ireland channels 301 321 channels 331 341 hd iptv talktalk tv channels 501 511 sd on demand bt channels 501 511 sd on demand streaming media sky go watch live uk & ireland only virgin tv anywhere watch live uk only now tv watch live uk only sky cinema formerly sky movies is the collective name for the premium subscription television film channels operated by sky plc. the sky cinema brand operates across the uk ireland germany austria known as sky film and italy . in the uk & ireland it has over 5 million subscribers via satellite cable and iptv . 1 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 . contents 1 history 1.1 1989 98 early years 1.2 the digital era 1.3 2003 07 rebrand 1.4 2007 16 sky movies goes categorised 1.5 2016 rebrand to sky cinema 2 television channels 2.1 temporary channels 3 advertising and promotion 4 original production 5 pin protection 6 brandings 6.1 1st sky movies channel 6.2 2nd sky movies channel premier branding 6.3 3rd sky movies channel cinema branding 7 references 8 external links history edit 1989 98 early years edit sky movies was originally a single film channel offered as part of sky s original 4 channel package on the astra 1a satellite on 5 february 1989 . citation needed the first film shown on the channel was dirty dancing clarification needed . prior to its launch sky movies signed first run deals with 20th century fox paramount pictures warner bros. domestic pay tv cable and network features columbia pictures entertainment orion pictures and buena vista distribution co. citation needed after one year of broadcasting free to air in february 1990 2 it became the first sky channel to scramble its signal using a card encryption system called videocrypt which rendered the picture totally obscured to anyone attempting to view it without a decoder and smart card . citation needed when sky merged with rival british satellite broadcasting it acquired bsb s the movie channel . with the launch of the second astra satellite astra 1b in 1991 the movie channel become part of the sky package . the first film shown was indiana jones and the last crusade . clarification needed similarly sky movies was made available to viewers on bsb s old satellite on 8 april 1991 replacing music channel the power station . from the re launch of the channel under bskyb the movie channel s ident was made by pdi and heavily based on nbc s film opening used from 1987 to 1993 . clarification needed during 1991 sky movies started broadcasting for 24 hours per day . 3 for a while in the early 1990s the channel carried various non films premium content such as live boxing music concerts and wwf wrestling . this was because at this time all of sky s other channels including sky sports were shown free to air and during this period the channel was often referred to as sky movies plus . when sky sports first became a pay channel on 1 september 1992 sky movies stopped showing non films related programming . citation needed on 1 october 1992 the comedy channel was replaced with sky movies gold a classic movies channel . it was added as a 3 channel sky movies package . rocky was the first film shown on the network . sky movies screen logo with screen 2 the two main channels were rebranded under a common brand on 1 november 1997 . sky movies became sky movies screen 1 and the movie channel became sky movies screen 2 . 4 the digital era edit after a rebrand on 10 september 1998 sky movies screen 1 became sky moviemax sky movies screen 2 became sky premier and sky movies gold was renamed sky cinema . 5 the launch of sky digital from the new astra 28.2 e satellite position in october 1998 was accompanied by a dramatic expansion of channels . 6 sky premier 2 through 4 sky moviemax 2 through 5 and sky cinema 2 along with sky premier widescreen at the time the only channel devoted to showing widescreen films were all launched exclusively on digital satellite . citation needed 1 july 2002 saw yet another re branding exercise . the sky premier channels were renamed sky movies premier the sky moviemax channels became sky movies max and the sky cinema channels became sky movies cinema . citation needed eventually in june 2003 sky listened to demands for more widescreen films . the sky movies premier widescreen channel was closed and the majority of films on the remaining channels were shown in widescreen . citation needed 2003 07 rebrand edit on 1 november 2003 the sky movies premier and sky movies max channels were all brought under one banner as sky movies 1 through 9 . at the same time sky movies cinema 1 and 2 became sky cinema 1 and 2 . citation needed from 30 january 2006 sky movies 9 and the new sky movies 10 started broadcasting from 5 pm to 3 am . they were pin protected meaning that for the first time 15 rated films were able to be shown as early as 5 pm . with the launch of sky hd the two channels were also available in a high definition format . citation needed 2007 16 sky movies goes categorised edit sky movies logo from 2010 to 2016 from 4 april 2007 sky movies channels were revamped with each channel covering a different genre . sky cinema 1 and 2 merged to become sky movies classics . 7 the names of the new channels became sky movies premiere sky movies premiere 1 sky movies comedy sky movies action & thriller sky movies family sky movies drama sky movies classics sky movies sci fi & horror sky movies modern greats sky movies indie sky movies hd1 and sky movies hd2 . three of the hd channels have launched already before the other . citation needed sky later made sky movies hd1 and hd2 available to subscribers without hdtv equipment through two channels simulcasting the same content in sdtv format . these channels were known as sky movies sd1 and sd2 . these channels were renamed sky movies screen 1 and screen 2 in february 2008 . the hdtv channels were renamed sky movies screen 1 hd and screen 2 hd accordingly . 8 as of 20 march 2008 an additional high definition film channel called sky movies premiere hd which is a high definition simulcast version of the current sky movies premiere channel was added after many requests for the channel from sky hd subscribers . original research 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 . 9 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 . 10 11 on 26 march 2010 a new sky movies showcase channel replaced sky movies screen 1 carrying 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 . 12 the sky movies hd channels launched on the virgin media platform on 2 august 2010 . 13 sky movies classics hd launched on 9 august 2010 exclusively on sky . 14 the channel was added to virgin media on 4 october 2011 . original research smallworld cable added the sky movies hd channels to their line up in the first quarter of 2012 15 followed by upc ireland on 16 august 2012 . 16 on 28 march 2013 sky movies disney was launched effectively replacing disney cinemagic as part of a multi year film output deal between sky and the walt disney company . 17 sky movies disney marks the first time that disney has been involved in a co branded linear films channel anywhere in the world . 18 new disney movies are available on sky movies disney around six months after they have ended their cinema run . to facilitate the channel sky movies classics ceased broadcasting while sky movies modern greats was rebranded as sky movies greats and sky movies indie became sky movies select . 19 20 the content of the three former brands was merged into select and greats . 21 2016 rebrand to sky cinema edit on 15 june 2016 sky announced that sky movies would rebrand as sky cinema on 8 july ; marking the return of its uk namesake since 1998 and originally part of sky movies . this change aligns the service s naming with those of sky s film services in other regions in consort with sky plc s takeover of sky deutschland and sky italia . to compete with subscription video on demand services sky announced that the re branded service would premiere a new film each day and that it would expand the service s on demand library . sky also announced plans to launch a 4k ultra high definition feed later in the year . 22 23 television channels edit as of july 2016 the current sky cinema channels are sky cinema premiere sd 1 hd sky cinema hits sd hd sky cinema star wars sd hd sky cinema disney sd hd sky cinema family sd hd sky cinema action & adventure sd hd sky cinema comedy sd hd sky cinema crime & thriller sd hd sky cinema drama & romance sd hd sky cinema sci fi & horror sd hd sky cinema select sd hd temporary channels edit sky regularly gives one of their movie channels a temporary rebrand to air different kinds of seasonal or promotional programming . examples of this have in the past included a channel dedicated to christmas movies 24 the james bond film series 25 and the academy awards . 26 advertising and promotion edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message all of the sky cinema channels have always carried commercials between films although the films themselves are uninterrupted . additionally some strands and seasons are sponsored . all