Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

I've not seen Universal channel mentioned which would suggest that could be on its way out.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

That's a great spot. Obviously it could be an accidental omission, but it adds to the previous speculation from some people that Universal Channel content was being shifted to Sky Witness (that seemed to be based on one show at the time).

Crime drama could be being shifted off Universal Channel to make Sky Witness the only crime drama channel in Sky's (updated) portfolio, turning Universal Channel into the "true" crime channel.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

I've seen some documents suggesting universal might be moving to a movie channel.
All speculation ofcourse at this point.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Sky trying again with an comedy channel?

I was the big of the old one back in the early 1990.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dt-UTkizr4

It was an part time channel (4pm - 12midnight) with Asia TV (Now Zee TV (6am to 4pm) and an other channel (I forgot it name) The Comedy Channnel only broadcast for an year (October 1991 to October 1992) to make way for Sky Movies Gold to launch.

It stop broadcasting due to the deal BSkyB had with the BBC at the time for all the Made by BBC comedy shows. Sky took the deal over when Sky with buying BSB.

The BBC wanted them back to launch UK Gold (Now Gold) in November 1992.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Given they have mentioned HBO and Showtime as sources for the comedies in their press release, I think they've realised that the public associates Sky Atlantic with drama and have decided the comedies broadcast there are probably getting overlooked as a result.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

It that October 2019 channel launches on Virgin Media I think it safe to say the other one will also launch on Virgin next year.

Look like Sky Two and Real Lives will be axe.

Sky Two > Sky Comedy
Real Lives > Sky Crime (Viewers will not see anything new bar the name of channel)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

It was probably not mentioned because Universal is not a 'Sky branded channel' which is what the others listed in the press release were.

It is quite possible we will see some reorganisation of channels or channel names with the Comcast takeover, but I have not picked up that Universal are going anywhere yet.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

From official press release
No mention of Universal.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Certainly possible, but would Sky want a film channel of that type?

There has been a "film" channel spun out of Universal Channel previously, Movies24 and Movies24+ started when Universal was still Hallmark-branded and broadcasts the romantic "TV movies" Hallmark used to show before the rebrand.

Given Sony's True Movies shows this type of thing but might not continue to after it is rebranded as Sony Movies Classic (their press release suggests it will be showing films that have been shown in cinemas) then Movies24/+ will have the market pretty much to itself.

Sony's upcoming Movies4Men and True Movies rebranding (due September 10th I think) suggest they both will be showing cinema releases, so any Universal movie channel would have quite a lot of competition (i.e. Sony Movies Classic and Sony Movies Action combined with original Sony Movie Channel and Film4), though obviously would be showing different films as they have access to different film libraries.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

I see what you mean, thanks.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

I'm wondering if Universal would become a Film channel should the other movie studios remove their films from the Sky Cinema package.

In this scenario Sky could have a basic entertainment package and then one a few pounds more offering Universal movies.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

This is my thinking too, with more and more studios seeming to want to go it alone.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Every media company offering their own service is going to hurt the likes of Film4. They only have a tiny library of their own.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Also no mention of Movies 24 and Sky Sports.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

The article was talking about Sky's entertainment portfolio so I'm not surprised Sky Sports wasn't mentioned.

Maybe a future Universal channel could show Movies 24 films in the daytime with Universals biggest box office movies at primetime.