Sky Movies name change...again

DS: Minor name tweak for Sky Movie Channels

Yes, Sky Movies will be getting a minor name refresh in february, the SD and HD branded channels will become Sky Movies Screen 1/2 and Sky Movies Screen 1/2 HD.

I wish Sky would keep a name for their Movie channels, we originally had...

Sky Movies, The Movie Channel, Sky Movies Gold (1989-1997)
Sky Movies Screen 1/2 Sky Movies Gold (1997-1998)
Sky Premier, Sky Moviemax, Sky Cinema (1998-2002)
Sky Movies Premier, Sky Movies Max, Sky Movies Cinema (2002-2003)
Sky Movies 1-9, Sky Cinema (2003-2007)
Sky Movies Premiere, Sky Movies (theme), Sky Movies SD/HD (2007-present)

a case of back to the future? again..., all we need is The Movie Channel and Sky Movies Gold to come back and then all brand names have appeared almost twice.

I did reckon the "Screen x" naming convention would return, nice to see originality is the name of the game over at BSkyB.

The sooner Sky realises that most people don't care what their channels are called the better.
It's all rebrand rebrand rebrand

Exactly. Why chop and change all the time? Up till March / April this year, the Sky Movies channels were branded Sky Movies 1 to 9. Then suddenly they chose the (IMO) pointless exercise of theming them (one type of film per channel), and calling them by thematic names, e.g.

Sky Premiere
Sky Action/Thriller
Sky Family
Sky Modern Greats
etc.

Just put them back as Sky Movies 1 to 9, I say, and keep them that way permanently. They've kept Sky Sports 1 to 3 as Sky Sports 1 to 3, so why can't they keep the film channels as Sky Movies 1 to 9.

ps At least calling them Sky Movies 1 to 9 means I can code them SM1 to SM9, easier than the SMA, SMF, SMP etc. for the thematic Sky Movies names.

Sky Movies 7 is a hell of a lot easier than Sky Action and Thriller or whatever they're called - you have ridiculous names with the current set up. Just use the simple names, it saves everyone hassle!

but if you want action and thriller you go to Sky Movies action and thriller
it not that hard

I believe the point is that channel loyalty is incredibly low. People don't tend to switch to Sky Movies Action & Thriller in the hope of seeing a movie they like - they just watch whatever's showing whatever they want to see wherever that may happen to be. The brand itself becomes almost irrelevant. The biggest argument against this constant rebranding is patently the difficulty in adhering to a standardised code of abbreviation, however.

God not this again!

I wonder how long these names will last!

I don't really mind the name changes, but to keep viewer numbers up, you'd have thought they'd have at least promoted word of mouth, which I have to say was a lot easier back in the numbered days...

When I used to tell people (usually the folks):
"Film X is on Sky Movies 7 tonight"
That would result in "Oh that film's on now, on Sky Movies 7 I think. Channel 307" [Watch]

whereas now I say:
"Film X is on Sky Movies Action and Thriller tonight"
Which usually results in "Oh that film's on now, on Sky Thriller... or something... what channel's that? It's 3 something... oh forget it."

I know it's a far-fetched example, but even I, who would usually surf Sky by simply entering channel numbers (as I know a lot of people do) haven't got a clue where Sky Movies Action and Thriller is, but knew (fairly obviously) where Sky Movies 7 was

I can understand dedicating their many channels to a specific genre - it does make sense - but I have to admit I watch a hell of a lot of the HD/SD channels, which are just a mix of good films, just like the good old numbered channels used to be

I'd argue most people when going through movie channels are more likely to start at 301 and scan through them or use the sky guide unless they know something they want to watch is on.

I find it much easier to know I can watch a thriller on Sky Action and Thriller or a comedy on Sky Comedy. I can only imagine they're renaming these channels because people don't get what SD means calling it screen 1 and having it also avaliable in HD makes more sense.

I don't watch enough films to subscribe to Sky Movies, but I don't understand why there is so much unsatisfaction with the titles of the channels. For me, they seem logical.

My favourite genre is comedy, so I would know which channel will always be showing a comedy film, obviously Sky Movies Comedy and I would go to that first.

I think categories work well with films, but a similar system would not work for sport in my opinion. Sky Sports could probably sustain a Sky Sports Football channel, but with the little amount of other sport shown live, the other channels would become filled with highlights that people would already have seen.

The name change is only for the two HD channels and it makes sense really - Sky Movies SD 2 doesn't make much sense to the average viewer I suspect.

At first they had the genre channels and the two HD channels, but then they made the decsion to make the two HD channels also available in standard definition to non-HD viewers. So for SD viewers there were the genre channels plus these two other ones showing a mix of films, it didn't matter to them that they were chosen because they were available in HD (this was especially important at first when Sky didn't have HD deals with all the studios and didn't have as many HD movies available as they do now).

Instead it'll be Sky Movies Screen 1 (or 2) and the HD version will be Sky Movies Screen 1 HD. It isn't a massive name change or rebranding of Sky Movies as a whole. Just changing the name of these two channels to something that makes a bit more sense to the average viewer.

Plus I think it's a bit of tidying up in advance of launching more HD movie channels, so they can just add "HD" to the end of the channel name - for example Sky Movies Premiere HD which is probably on it's way soon.