Sky launches Sky Cinema, promising daily premieres and HD as standard
Mark Whelan
Staff Writer

Sky has revealed details of its brand new movie channel, Sky Cinema.

Sky Cinema will hit TV screens on July 8th, bringing with it more blockbusters, more independent movies, better sound quality, HD as standard and more on-demand content.

The new channel will replace Sky Movies and promises to bring viewers “even closer to the movies”. We went along to the Sky Cinema press launch last week, here’s what we learned.

A new movie premiered every day

The replacement of Sky Movies with Sky Cinema is much more than a mere re-naming exercise. The new channel will premiere a new movie “every day of the week, every week of the year”, in the words of Sky Cinema’s European Director, Ian Lewis. And that’s 75% more premieres than is available on the outgoing Sky Movies.

There are some big names lined up for these daily premiere slots, with ‘Spectre’ due to hit subscribers’ screens on July 8th, ‘Steve Jobs’ to be available from September 18th and ‘The Danish Girl’ to come out on October 23rd.

Sky has a good track record of securing exclusivity for new releases, with 45 out of the 50 biggest movies from 2015 being made available on Sky for nearly a full year before they were available anywhere else.

But it’s not just blockbusters that Sky will be focusing on from July 8th, there will be an increased number of independent and international movies available too. In fact, every Wednesday at 10pm, Sky Cinema will have a ‘World Cinema’ slot, which will show critically-acclaimed international movies, such as ‘El Ardor’, ‘Theeb’ and ‘Tangerines’.

So, whether you’re a fan of box-office-shaming mainstream movies, or the most critically-acclaimed flicks from around the globe, Sky Cinema is aiming to have you covered.

Enhanced viewing experience

In addition to the improved movie selection, Sky Cinema has announced a number of improvements to the viewing experience for subscribers.

HD will now be provided to all customers as standard, and those who have been paying for HD until now will get it for free from July 8th. And Sky Q customers will have access to Ultra HD viewing quality before the end of the year.

Sound will improve too.

Sky will soon be taking its movies’ audio tracks directly from the studios in which they were made, which will mean “louder bangs and quieter whispers” for all!

Pricing

Despite the improvements to selection and viewing experience, Sky Cinema will not cost any more than Sky Movies. In fact, existing customers who currently pay for HD will actually pay €10 less every month now that HD is due to be provided as standard.

The Sky Original Bundle comes with 67 channels, including Sky Cinema, and costs €46 a month for the first 12 months and €57.50 thereafter.

To get even more channels, customers can sign up for the Sky Variety TV bundle with Sky Cinema for €53.60 a month for the first 12 months and €67 a month thereafter.

Each of these deals is available for sign up now on bonkers.ie.