Tag: Sony Movies Classic

Sony Sells UK TV Channels

Sony, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company, has sold its portfolio of UK television channels to US investment firm Narrative Capital. The channels sold include the Sony Channel, Sony Movies, Sony Movies Action, and Sony Movies Classic which feature the Sony brand, and children’s channels Pop, Pop Max, and Tiny Pop.

The use of the Sony brand has not been included in the sale, and as such the Sony brand will be replaced with the Great! brand on the 25th May (2021). The Pop brand is expected to be retained, and the programme line-up is also expected to remain similar in the short term.

The current Sony branded channel line-up formed as recently as January 2020, when the True and Movies4Men brands were discontinued in favour of a rationalised channel line up under the unified Sony brand.

Freeview Updates

There have been a number of changes to the Freeview service over the past few days, which are summarised below.

Taking effect from yesterday (Wednesday 8th January 2020), arts and craft channel Hochanda has reverted to broadcasting between 7am and 7pm on Freeview. The channel started broadcasting 24 hours a day in Autumn 2019, but the cost of extended hours of carriage on Freeview has proven unsustainable.

PBS America has now completely its frequency move, and is now available to 90% of the population on channel 91. As previously announced Paramount Network and 5Spike have now merged into the new version of Paramount Network. Sony Movies Classic has replaced seasonal channel Sony Movies Christmas, with a corresponding change to the +1 channel.

Paramount Network +1 has launched on channel 94, and CBS Justice +1 has launched on channel 69. Both are on the soon to close temporary multiplexes, so have limited coverage and are only available on DVB-T2 (HD, Freeview Play etc) equipment.

Smithsonian Channel (Smithsonian and ViacomCBS joint venture) has changed channel number to 57, and also frequency, meaning the channel now reaches 90% of the population. 5Select has moved up 1 slot to become channel 54, with similar moves for 5Star +1 (now on 55), and 5USA +1 (now on 56).