Sky to Launch the Frankenweenie of HD Family Movie Channels

July 29, 2013 3 Comments

Sky’s just announced another half-hearted HD initiative that will satisfy only those who want to ring-fence children’s movies from adults’.

Starting with the next school holiday break, Sky will launch a “pop up” family movies channel that will occupy the Channel 35 slot while the kids aren’t going to school (September 28-October 13).

You could dub it the “Frankenweenie” of HD channels given it’s cobbled together from premieres, current titles and library films and will screen only part of each day, from 6am until the end of the 7pm blockbuster movie.

“Until now we have had so many family blockbusters that have sat amongst the adult genres so it is great to be able to give the family content a home of its own,” Sky’s director of programming Travis Dunbar says of the initiative.

Sky Movies Family will be available to domestic customers with the basic package and Sky Movies subscription, and will be broadcast in HD for those with the HD Access Ticket.

The channel will return for a longer period over the Christmas break (December 27-January 26) and will resume at the end of each school term in 2014.

Any HD measure Sky offers is welcomed but the satcaster also needs to urgently lift its game with adult fare beyond more marathon sports coverage, such as devoting six HD/SD channels to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (July 23-August 3).

Rialto Channel, The Box and UK TV are long overdue for an HD facelift while launching Sky Movies Classics in SD was unbelievably shortsighted.

If ever there was a reason to offer a channel in HD, it was a vintage movies service teeming with titles that aren’t yet on Blu-ray.

In the meantime, here’s what you can expect to see on Sky Family Movies:

  • Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
  • The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret Unicorn
  • Arthur Christmas
  • Brave
  • The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
  • Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
  • Dr Seuss’ The Lorax
  • Fairytale: A True Story
  • Frankenweenie
  • Happy Feet 2
  • Hotel Transylvania
  • Ice Age 4: Continental Drift
  • Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
  • Judy Moody & Not the Bummer Summer
  • Labyrinth
  • Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
  • Monte Carlo
  • Mrs Doubtfire
  • The Muppets
  • Nanny McPhee
  • Pirates! Band of Misfits
  • Puss in Boots
  • Robots
  • Smitty
  • Spy Kids 4
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3 Responses to “Sky to Launch the Frankenweenie of HD Family Movie Channels”


  1. Warning: preg_replace(): Unknown modifier '/' in /home/customer/www/screenscribe.net/public_html/wp-content/themes/headlines/includes/theme-comments.php on line 66
     July 29, 2013 at 1:07 pm

    If they ever decide to update channels, then they should try Turner Classic Movies (TCM), which in the US is a premium movie channel that, as well as the old black-and-white and colour 4×3 classics, shows the large screen blockbusters from the 1950s-1980s in full HD and DD5.1 sound. The version we get here is quite rightly called “Turner Crappy Movies”.

  2. July 29, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    Sky should turn Prime into HD 🙂

  3. July 29, 2013 at 8:08 pm

    We watch non-sport channels and movies. It frustrates me that Sky thinks only mainly sports should be HD, and then does all those extra channels for special sporting events in HD (that we ALL pay for in higher basic package costs). So they can do the HD, but won’t. No competition = don’t give a toss.

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