Credits roll on Sky Movies as Sky Cinema is born

Sky

Sky Movies is getting its biggest shake-up ever, with a new name, new look and range of new features.

First up, the name: Sky Movies is becoming Sky Cinema, a rebranding that will apply to all of its European movie services. This will help Sky to better negotiate deals that work across all its territories, it says.

This renaming will coming in on July 8, debuting with a premiere of Spectre to celebrate the birth of Cinema - and from then on there'll be a new premiere every day. Sky promises a much bigger library of movies going forward, including a 20% increase in its on-demand range.

There will be Ultra HD movie content on the new service by the end of the year, but Sky isn't being any more specific on timing. We're told we'll hear something in the next few weeks.

Cinema experience

Sky also promises a stronger lineup of world cinema titles as more exclusive temporary pop-up film channels, covering areas such as Disney Pixar, Star Trek one and even Tom Hanks. Sky will also be bringing back the Harry Potter and Star Wars channels - hooray!

It has announced it's also improving the quality of the HD experience, with four times the color shades than it's had in the past.

Sound is now richer and closer to the cinema experience, says Sky, while new features like recommendations and a watch list are designed to make it easier to find films.

In addition, Sky is also killing the HD subscription from July and adding it in as standard to all Sky Cinema customers who are on the Sky or Virgin Media platforms.

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.