Sky Atlantic

Sky have today announced the launch of a new entertainment channel in early 2011.



More details here.

A strong move by Sky, sounds like a great line up and I look forward to seeing how they go about presenting the channel on air. Will be interesting to see what the original commissions are for the channel, presumably separate from Sky 1's new UK dramas and comedies.

Don't know if they will have enough content to offer it 24/7 from launch however, unless they are happy to repeat HBO classics throughout the day, there will be more content if Sky secure deals similar to their HBO one with AMC and Showtime. Discussions are apparently ongoing and if they are successful will presumably be in place before the 2011 launch. I think its possible some of the big premiers on the channel will be commercial free, similar to when The Pacific (which will be repeated on Atlantic) was shown on Sky Movies so it could be uninterrupted.

Stuart Murphy will oversee the channel in addition to his current commitments, while Sky will apparently give Living it's own boss but not it's own commissioning team.

The main thrust of their puff piece is the acquisition of Mad Men series 5.

Err... Lost and 24 anyone?

Both those shows were well and truly off the boil by the time Sky over-bid for them. Mad Men is a great show, but I suspect it may go the same way as the other two.

I suppose if Sky don't have talented enough staff to spot hits before they are a success on other channels then they'll forever be the channel to find shows 3, 5 or 5 years into their run.

That's a bit guff, isn't it?

While I agree, I do find it annoying that there doesn't seem to be the "gentleman's agreement" or whatever it was, where although Sky would get the first showing of an American series a terrestrial channel would show the series 6-8 months later.

Friends for example had a period where it was first shown on Sky One and then 6 months down the line Channel 4 showed the series that had just finished on Sky One.

Nowadays it seems that if you can't afford Sky & the series you enjoy moves off of BBC 2/Channel 4 then tough titties, you have to fork out for it or wait for the DVD.

Sky Atlantic - it sounds like a Holiday firm....

but to put that aside, it doesn't sound too bad, apparently its not going to be a premium service which is good news, and it seems to fill the void nicely with the removals of Bravo and Channel One happening in early 2011.

I hope Sky have picked up Curb your Enthusiasm from Channel 4, as a great loss it would be to FTA, Channel 4 just almost never show it, and when they do it goes out at stupid o'clock, a programme like that would fit this new channel nicely.

Very true, it was a case of "pay up and see it early", which I was quite happy to go along with. For a time where Virgin didn't show Sky 1, I missed a whole lot of programmes and never really returned to them after that.

So it was tough titties for me and for them, ultimately.

Anyhoo, I'll probably find myself watching some some HBO content, as there's usually something good in that stable.

The Guardian seem to think Curb Your Enthusiasm will be shown on Sky Atlantic, presumably when the current deal with C4 runs out, although I think Entourage which is mentioned in the article will be shown from launch.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/01/bskyb-sky-atlantic-mad-men

Not a huge surprise considering Sky have been empire building of late. Surprised though it looks like it'll be a basic channel - I was thinking with the content it's got Sky might be looking at a commercial free HBO style channel for their shows.

Another show poached from FTA TV... glad I don't watch Mad Men, otherwise, I'd probably be mad right now.

BSkyB are running a business, not a public service. What do you expect them to do, only bid for dross that other channels don't want to pick up?

I notice that there is no mention in the press release about the channel being available anywhere other than on DSat.

I know that, but it's still annoying when you start watching a show on free to air TV and it moves to a pay broadcaster.

It doesn't surprise me that this new channel will only be on Sky. They have to keep some channels to themselves, if Virgin had all the Sky channels, Sky would lose a big selling point. Although, something does need to replace Bravo and Channel One on Virgin.

It looks as though the subscription content from Bravo may move to Sky2, and bolster their schedule considerably; while the FTV stuff from Channel One will go to Sky3, having a similar effect.

However, my concern is as to whether Sky will try asking Ofcom to allow the conversion of the Channel One Freeview slot into a Pay-TV channel.

That would be very bad, and rather confirm their reputation as a regulator who rolls-over and jerks with the right movements, when approached by a commercial broadcaster with a big enough and fully-charged cattle-prod.