Sky Adds New Movie Channel

Sky Adds New Movie Channel

SKY Television announced today the addition of a new movie channel to its Digital line up. As of Sunday 1st July 2007, SKY Movies Greats will play alongside SKY Movies and SKY Movies 2 and will play 24 hours a day, seven days a week on buttons 20, 21 and 22 respectively.

SKY's two premium movie channels SKY Movies and SKY Movies 2 are programmed from the inventory of all the major Hollywood film studios and a number of the leading independent distributors.

There are only a finite number of first-release films each year so the channels have also been supplemented with the best of the studio's most recent library hits and some made-for-television first-run features.

As SKY's supply deals have strengthened, with more inventory and greater access to libraries, the time seemed right to devote an entire channel to these perennial classics –SKY Movies Greats.

SKY's Director of Entertainment, Travis Dunbar says "As SKY Digital movie subscribers have come to expect greater choice, we felt the addition of another multiplex film service would only supplement our already robust slate of dedicated movie channels, including SKY Movies 1&2, MGM, TCM, Rialto, and our 14 PPV movie channels on SKY Box Office".

Most features selected for this channel are 'modern blockbusters' so you can expect to see everything from the epic action movies of the last two decades including the MAD MAX, DIEHARD and MATRIX trilogies, to romantic classics such as PRETTY WOMAN, GHOST and BEACHES, to comedies like MY BEST FRIENDS WEDDING, GROUNDHOG DAY and the AUSTIN POWERS trilogy, to the Oscar winning dramas that still resonate today such as TITANIC, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and SCHINDLERS LIST.

SKY Television will continue to multiplex all first-run 'premiere' titles over SKY Movies and SKY Movies 2 and the end result should be even greater choice for the SKY Movies subscriber with a third choice of film in most timeslots over the course of a day.

ENDS

About SKY Television
SKY Television (SKY), broadcasting via both UHF and DTH is New Zealand's pre-eminent Pay TV operator, offering a wide range of sports, movies, music, on-demand and general content across more than 80 channels. SKY's channel line-up includes 6 sports channels, 5 movie channels, 7 general entertainment channels, 5 documentary channels, 5 news channels, 4 children's channels, as well as other niche channels. (At 26 February 2007, SKY had 690,994 subscribers).

SKY launched as a three-channel UHF service in 1990, with two further channels added four years later. SKY's UHF signal reaches more than 83% of the country's 1.5 million households. In December 1998 it launched a digital satellite service, extending its reach to the whole country. SKY also offers pay-per-view movies, live events and interactive services including Skybet, the Weather Channel, and games channels Mind Games and Playin' TV.

With the establishment of a new on line DVD rental service and in December 2005, the launch of MY SKY, a new set top box incorporating a personal video recorder, SKY is positioned to bring New Zealand viewers even more entertainment options.

On 8 February 2006, SKY completed the purchase of the New Zealand television business of Prime Television Ltd. The acquisition of a free-to-air channel gives SKY the opportunity to showcase its channels and programmes whilst ensuring that New Zealand consumers can view delayed free-to-air sports programmes such as rugby, rugby league and cricket in primetime.

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