SKY Movies (New Zealand)
Encyclopedia
Sky Movies is a group of subscription television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
channels in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
operated by Sky Network Television
SKY Network Television
Sky Network Television Limited , , is a New Zealand pay television service. On 30 June 2011, Sky had 829,421 subscribers, which comprises:*808,617 digital subscribers*20,840 other subscribers...
. The original channel, Sky Movies was launched in 1990. A sister channel, Sky Movies 2 was launched towards the end of the 1990s. This was followed by the launch of Sky Movies Greats in 2007.
Sky Movies
Sky Movies is one of SkySKY Network Television
Sky Network Television Limited , , is a New Zealand pay television service. On 30 June 2011, Sky had 829,421 subscribers, which comprises:*808,617 digital subscribers*20,840 other subscribers...
's movie channels in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. This channel is available on both the Sky UHF and Digital services. Sky Movies plays a schedule of movies back to back 24 hours a day. This schedule is updated each month. New movies are added weekly with the Blockbuster Premiere on Sunday nights and the Thursday Premiere on Thursday nights.
History
Sky Movies was started in 1990 when Sky Television first launched originally only playing movies during afternoons and evenings. 24 hour programming did not start until later in the nineties. In 1993, Sky Television sold the channel to HBO AsiaHBO Asia
HBO Asia is a franchise of HBO in Asia. HBO Asia is now a joint venture of media giants Viacom and Time Warner . Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Studios exited the fifteen year-old HBO Asia premium movie joint venture on January 16, 2008....
. It became known as HBO but later reverted back to its former name Sky Movies, after HBO Asia re-sold the channel to Sky Television. NICAM stereo broadcasting was available on the UHF channel until around 1998 when Sky launched their digital service. Stereo sound is available on the Digital service. Sky Movies was renamed to Sky Movies 1 in 2004 when Sky Movies Max was renamed to Sky Movies 2 but the channel reverted back to the Sky Movies name in 2007 following the launch of Sky Movies Greats.
Widescreen broadcasting was started on the Sky Movies channel for Sky Digital subscribers as of 1 January 2005. Prior to this Widescreen broadcasting was only available on Sky Movies 2, Sky used to run movies in 4:3 format on Sky Movies and the same movies were shown again in widescreen format on Sky Movies 2.
Complaints
During 2007 many users complained due to the vast repetition of movies, as basically the same movies are replayed every day with little to no variation. This resulted in a big loss of Sky's client base with them looking more towards the internet and traditional DVD rental stores to get what they want.Sky Movies 2
Sky Movies 2 is Sky Network TelevisionSKY Network Television
Sky Network Television Limited , , is a New Zealand pay television service. On 30 June 2011, Sky had 829,421 subscribers, which comprises:*808,617 digital subscribers*20,840 other subscribers...
's second movie channel. Sky Movies 2 screens the same schedule as Sky Movies however 2 hours behind. Sky Movies 2 is a timeshift channel
Timeshift channel
A timeshift channel is a television channel carrying a time-delayed rebroadcast of its "parent" channel's output. This channel runs alongside their parent: the term "timeshift" does not refer to a network broadcasting at a later time to reflect a local timezone unless the parent is also available...
.
Sky Movies 2 started when Sky launched their digital service originally known as Sky Movie Max. The name was changed around 2004 to its current name. Originally Sky Movies and Sky Movies 2 ran different schedules with some movies only playing on the one channel. Sky Movies 2 has always broadcast in Widescreen with Sky Movies originally maintaining a standard 4:3 format this was to give viewers a choice of viewing a movie in widescreen or standard format. Sky Movies 2 changed their schedule in 2007 to match that of Sky Movies only shows on Sky Movies 2 are screened 2 hours later than Sky Movies.
Sky Movies Greats
Sky Movies Greats is another one of SkySKY Network Television
Sky Network Television Limited , , is a New Zealand pay television service. On 30 June 2011, Sky had 829,421 subscribers, which comprises:*808,617 digital subscribers*20,840 other subscribers...
's movie channels in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Sky Movies Greats brings the best of the last decade's most memorable blockbusters to the existing movie channel lineup.