Sky to Launch SoHo2 in November

Sky TV has yet to officially announce this but it will launch a third HD entertainment service in November that will be the sister channel of SoHo.

Sharp-eyed reader/contributor Clint spotted the initiative on, of all places, a Sky customer help web page.

Here’s what it says:

Sky announces the launch of SoHo2 – a sister service to accompany New Zealand’s home of premium drama and entertainment, SoHo.

SoHo2 will launch at 6pm on Wednesday 7 November.

SoHo2 viewers can look forward to the return of vampires to the small screen with A Discovery of Witches, Camping, Sally4Ever, The Bisexual, Vida, Just Another Immigrant and Sweetbitter.

SoHo2 At A Glance:

● SoHo2 will launch at 6.00pm on Wednesday 7 November.

● SoHo2 will be available on Sky Channel 210, which will sit next to SoHo on the Sky Box guide.

● SoHo2 will be available to all current SoHo customers at no additional cost.

● SoHo and SoHo2 content is broadcast uncut and commercial free.

● SoHo and SoHo2 content is broadcast in HD.

Judging from the titles released so far, it would appear to be a SoHo Lite, with a schedule comprising shows that don’t quite measure up to SoHo’s standard for premium drama and which tend towards the alternative.

Not that SoHo has always lived up to its premium branding, with trite like Knightfall and Britannia creeping into its schedule.

With the explosion in “peak TV” or scripted drama, SoHo2 is something Sky should have launched a couple of years ago so it could nab the rights to fare that has since been snapped up for this territory by streaming services.

The new channel will also help Sky to maximise its licensing deals by being able to use content that otherwise would fall through its programming cracks.

And hopefully Sky’s first entertainment HD channel since The Zone (now Sky Box Sets) will lead to Sky 5 at last going HD.

Here’s what critics say of some of the SoHo2 premieres:

➢➢ A Discovery of Witches: “Adapted from Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy, A Discovery of Witches is kind of Harry Potter and Morse boiled up together with eye of Twilight and toe of Being Human tossed in, too. If historical fantasy is your thing then I imagine you’re in heaven. Or hell, or wherever it is a historical fantasist most wants to be.” (The Guardian.)

➢➢ Camping: “[Is] Sky Atlantic’s new sitcom the funniest thing I’ve seen in years? Laughter is better, less hollow and more satisfying, when it comes from a place of deep trauma – though it helps that the writer of this series is the superbly twisted Julia Davis.” (The New Statesman.)

➢➢ Vida: “The rare drama series to focus on Latino characters — who are female and/or queer, no less — Vida only somewhat lives up to the colour, richness and excitement maybe promised by its title (the Spanish feminine noun for ‘life’). Starz certainly deserves a big gracias for disrupting Hollywood’s #SoWhiteMale status with this scrappy half-hour, which showrunner Tanya Saracho has said reflects her mission to introduce ‘the brown queer perspective’ to TV.” (Variety.)

➢➢ Just Another Immigrant: “The British standup comedian Romesh Ranganathan has drawn acclaim for his sly observations about race relations, cultural representation and fatherhood. But this special is not a stand-up show. It’s a docuseries following his decision to uproot his family and go to the United States. He rebuilds parts of his life from scratch while embarking on his version of Get Him to the Greek, booking a gig at the storied Greek Theater in Los Angeles and trying to sell it out in just three months.” (New York Times.)

➢➢ Sweetbitter:  “Restaurant series don’t have a great track record. Kitchen Confidential, based on the Anthony Bourdain book and starring Bradley Cooper, died after four episodes on Fox in 2005. Feed the Beast, which co-starred David Schwimmer, lasted exactly one season on AMC in 2016. Sweetbitter succeeds best when offering an amusingly tart portrait of some Manhattan strivers whose abundance of attitude compensates for the reality that they’re earning a living making, as one character says, ‘ourselves feel small so our [patrons] feel big.'” (New York Post.)