Makes sense. They're owned by Chart Show Channels, and all their other stuff is FTA- something I'm greatful for, as The Vault are running old episodes of The Chart Show. It makes the money payed for my motorised setup worthwhile on its own.
I thought they were sold off to EMAP some time ago?
Sky only contracted out the operation of the channels to EMAP, they are still owned by British Sky Broadcasting. That said, they are nothing like they were at launch. Sky launched Skuzz, Flaunt and The Amp to offer something different to the other music channels. When they gave up trying to do that and transferred control to Emap (who promptly renamed The Amp to Bliss and turned all 3 channels into clones of their others) one does wonder why they didn't just sell them off.
Anyway, this move has probably been made to increase the number of decent channels on their Freesat offering (incidentally, recent blurb states that Sky Two and Sky Three are now provided on Freesat - is this actually the case?) - it's channel lineup is still quite poor.
Anyway, this move has probably been made to increase the number of decent channels on their Freesat offering (incidentally, recent blurb states that Sky Two and Sky Three are now provided on Freesat - is this actually the case?) - it's channel lineup is still quite poor.
Sky Three is available FTV. Sky Two is still a subscription based channel.
Sky Three is available FTV. Sky Two is still a subscription based channel.
I'm not surprised that Sky Two is still subscription based. On weekend afternoons (the only time I see it) it virtually operates as "Sky One + 2 Hours".
Anyhow, although Freeview certainly doesn't need another music channel I believe Sky have space for one more channel in their allocated bandwidth. Well, in theory at least - it's possible they are still restricted to just three channels.
Sky were permitted 75% of space on Mux C, and currently use 60% of it, with the other 40% used by UKTV History and E4+1. If, like Mux D a sixth channel was added and used by Sky, they'd still be under the 75% threshold (67%).
Chart Show Channels Ltd operates the channels on Sky's behalf, and in return Sky provides the advertising solution across the Chart Show Channels.
Aside from that, I don't think that the channels are even half as good as they were when they first launched. The look of the channels wasn't tacky and naff, the music was different and they were pretty cool!
I especially liked Scuzz back in the day. Nowadays, it's a bit rubbish really.
As for the latest logos across the channels - they're absolutely shocking. Like something that a troll on these forums would come up with.