SKY MOVIES EMBRACES GENRE

Source: Sky Movies.com

Sky Digital Television has re-launched its movies package to embrace genre programming. Thus, as of Wednesday April 4th, instead of having the usual Sky Movies 1, 2, 3... you now get eight film channels dedicated to movies of a specific type: Comedy, Action/Thriller, Drama etc, etc. Plus there is a specific channel for films showing for the first time on Sky aptly called Sky Movies Premiere (channel 301). As a useful addition Sky Movies Premiere +1 (channel 302) runs parallel to this channel one hour later in case you miss the start of any given film. According to the April edition of Sky Movies Magazine up to a total of five new films will be broadcast everyday for a week. For those viewers who work full-time or often have time pressures dictating the duration of their free time, this should prove a handy option as it means you'll get several chances through the week to watch the same film. The new-to-Sky films shown all week will then change to another five fresh premieres every Saturday. For those few who are High Definition ready there are two channels Sky Movies HD1 (channel 311) and Sky Movies HD2 (channel 312) which will show premieres and popular classics in HD format.

Naturally, the cynic in all of us might exclaim "but this is just the same thing as before but repackaged to sound new". Of course you'd be right, however, being a fan of genre cinema I am delighted at the re-shuffle as it saves me the time (and skin on my fingers) of channel flicking as now I can simply look through the dedicated channel to suit my preferred choice. My taste often runs to the darker and more macabre when it comes to films so my first stop will be the all new Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror (channel 307). I also love the pictures often termed "golden oldies" and now I can head straight to Sky Movies Classics (channel 308) or if I'm in the mood for low-budget outside the mainstream original fare there is Sky Movies Indie (channel 310). Sky Movies Modern Greats (channel 309) allows me to re-watch those mainstream hits over and over again and the same model follows for the other channels Sky Movies Comedy (channel 303), Sky Movies Family (channel 305), Sky Movies Action/Thriller (channel 304) and Sky Movies Drama (channel 306).

Significantly, I watch most of my films on DVD anyhow and therefore this revamp to Sky Movies programming shan't be any big shakes. But it should, in theory, make it far easier for me to identify those few films that have passed me by until now and allow me to find out when there due to be shown and on what channel with relatively little effort on my part. Now I suspect these all new genre-themed channels shall prove to be little more than a broad and very loosely assembled assortment of familiar films but if it saves me time then it is a welcome change for the better. Also I'll be quite keen to see how the people responsible for the Sky Movies programming and scheduling categorise the films into the eight different genres. No easy task and I for one have yet to see a video store (yes they still exist) that has managed to accurately impose such a strict system of differentiation. After all one man's thriller is another's man's horror and so on.

For more information on the new look Sky Movies and the full schedules head over to Sky Movies.com