"To improve the HD, Sky is using a new internal master format that provides a third more pixels and four times the number of colour shades of the current HD offered."
Movies on Sky already look pretty good in HD, didn't realise the current mastering has room for that amount of improvement.
It was used for a while post-1998 to refer to what had been Sky Movies Gold, wasn't it?
I think really an issue facing Sky, over the next few years, is that the linear Sky Movies/Cinema service will probably become seen as old hat compared to the likes of Netflix/Amazon. I appreciate not everyone can get broadband. However I have to wonder what sort of usage the old NVOD Sky Box Office has these days. Other than when I accidentally stumble upon it when flicking through the Sky EPG I do forget it even exists.
Sky Movies Gold was renamed Sky Cinema in 1998 and then Sky Movies Cinema in 2002 (when they added the word 'Movies' to all their channels), before going back to Sky Cinema again in 2003 by which time there were two channels.
It was then Sky Movies 1-9 (later 1-10) and Sky Cinema 1-2 until the 2007 relaunch when the channel numbers were dropped and each channel was given a specific genre name instead. Sky Cinema 1-2 merged to become Sky Movies Classics, which closed in 2013 to make way for the new Sky Movies Disney channel (itself replacing Disney Cinemagic). From Wiki: "Sky Movies Modern Greats was rebranded as Sky Movies Greats and Sky Movies Indie became Sky Movies Select. The content of the three former brands was merged into Select and Greats."
If you think that's confusing, that's just the brand history of Sky Cinema, let alone the rest of the Sky Movies channels…
I loved that era of Sky's presentation. everything flowed and looked so slick. Their looks since have been disjointed and a bit of a mess. I'm glad it seems to be returning to that more standardised look/feel for all the channels.
I feel I'm on my own here but I actually don't like the current idents. It's a great piece of video on its own, but you can only watch it so many times before you get bored of it. And considering there's only one, granted with different durations, it gets more tired more quickly.
I think really an issue facing Sky, over the next few years, is that the linear Sky Movies/Cinema service will probably become seen as old hat compared to the likes of Netflix/Amazon. I appreciate not everyone can get broadband. However I have to wonder what sort of usage the old NVOD Sky Box Office has these days. Other than when I accidentally stumble upon it when flicking through the Sky EPG I do forget it even exists.
Speak for yourself. I tend to go looking for something to watch and find a film I like and catch what's left on the Sky Movies channels rather than go on demand and look for one. Far less convenient. Then again, it's a different story if I want to go out of my way to watch a whole film.
I think really an issue facing Sky, over the next few years, is that the linear Sky Movies/Cinema service will probably become seen as old hat compared to the likes of Netflix/Amazon. I appreciate not everyone can get broadband.
Broadband is pretty much universally available (99.9%), sure you don't mean fibre instead?
Sky on demand downloads through broadband, though if you really wanted to you can get it through mobile internet as well.
Netflix and Amazon streaming is all very well but you need a decent internet connection especially for HD content, whereas Sky downloads to the box and you play it from there. On slower internet connections you can therefore still get some form of on-demand programming, though it will take longer to get to the point where you can play it straight through without stopping, which on fibre in my experience is usually after 1% of the download.
Can't see the linear Sky Cinema channels going any time yet. Although I have VoD, I have watched the genre based channels, especially during themed segments, such as the current Sky Movies Superheroes.
Sadly we're not as far advanced as the UK in terms of broadband availability over here, I have a couple of relatives in rural areas who if they want broadband would have to fork out for a relatively expensive satellite subscription or a package with one of the mobile providers. For some that isn't even an option, 4G availability tend to disappear outside cities and there's plenty of rural areas you'll get EDGE at best.