Sky One to close after 39 years as Sky shakes up channel lineup

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 1d

Sky is to replace Sky One with a new channel called Sky Showcase in the latest realignment of its channel portfolio.

Sky has announced that it is closing down Sky One and launching a new channel called Sky Showcase in the latest realignment of its channel portfolio.

The new service will take over Sky One's plum 106 slot on the Sky EPG and will aim to highlight programming from across all of Sky's channels, including Sky Atlantic, Sky Cinema and Sky Arts, in a similar fashion to the Sky Sports Main Event channel.

The Simpsons - a staple of Sky One's schedules over its lifetime - will migrate to Sky Showcase after Sky One's closure.

Sky Max logo © Sky

A new channel, Sky Max, will launch to house Sky One's general entertainment programming such as A League of Their Own and dramas such as A Discovery of Witches. The station will launch on Sky EPG number 113, demoting Sky Comedy down the listings.

The genre-specific channels launched over the last two years - including Sky Crime, Sky Documentaries, Sky Comedy and Sky Nature - will all remain alongside Sky History, Sky Witness, Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic, while the Sky Replay channel will be dropped.

"We'd like to think of it as a bit of a time for a reset," Jamie Morris, Sky's director of programming strategy, told Variety. "It's been a really successful year [for Sky One], so the content is stronger than ever. We just want to make our portfolio offering as clear as possible to customers."

The new channels will launch on September 1, coinciding with the premiere of the Never Mind The Buzzcocks revival and the return of The Russell Howard Hour.

Sky's non-branded channels - Challenge, Syfy and E! - are all expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Sky One launched in Europe in 1982 - six months ahead of Channel 4 - under the original name Satellite Television, before being rebranded Sky Channel in 1984 and then Sky One in 1989.

New Sky EPG numbers in full - effective September 1:

Sky Showcase – 106
Sky Max - 113
Sky Witness – 107
Sky Atlantic – 108
Sky Comedy - 114
Sky Documentaries - 121
Sky Crime - 122
Sky History - 123
Sky Nature - 124
Sky Arts - 130
E! – 151
SyFy - 152