Comcast-owned European pay-TV giant Sky is overhauling its UK channel portfolio, retiring its flagship Sky One after nearly 40 years and launching Sky Showcase in its place.
Sky Showcase will replace Sky One at 106 on the TV guide and will be the home of a curated selection of Sky’s content from across its portfolio, including Sky Nature and Sky Arts.
The channel will “hero” episodes of dramas including the upcoming series Wolfe, documentaries like Hawking, and U.S. imports such as NBC’s Young Rock.
Elsewhere, Sky is launching Sky Max, which will house the broadcaster’s general entertainment output. Dramas like A Discovery of Witches and panel shows including A League of Their Own will sit here.
The last major change is beefing up Sky Comedy with original scripted shows that originally sat on Sky One. The channel will feature the likes of Code 404 next to U.S. giants, such as Curb Your Enthusiasm.
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Sky director of programs Jamie Morris said linear television remains a powerful platform through which Sky customers discover new shows. Indeed, Sky said 56% of Sky One shows were discovered through the TV guide this year.
“I still think the TV guide is a brilliant discovery tool,” Morris said. “Replacing Sky One with Sky Showcase just allows us, higher up the EPG, to surface more originals and more breadth of content.”
Here’s Sky’s new-look portfolio:
Sky Showcase
Sky Max
Sky Witness
Sky Atlantic
Sky Comedy
Sky Documentaries
Sky Crime
Sky History
Sky Nature
Sky Arts
Sky Kids
