The name’s 007. Sky Movies 007.
7 August 2012 tbs.pm/1302
A couple of years ago we’d probably all have read the story, scratched our heads and wondered if April Fools Day had come several months too early. Sky are to launch a film channel called Sky Movies 007, showing nothing but James Bond films? Come on, that can’t be real, you’d think.
But that was a couple of years ago. Now is now. Now is an era where we can seemingly watch TV to ever decreasing areas of niche-ness. We’ve had wider genre based channels for some time – food, gardening, every element of religion possible to have. And then there’s the sport channels – At the Races, Sky Sports F1. What is Sky Movies 007 (available in HD of course) but the next logical step?
Sky will be showing the 22 official films, along with the two other Bond films that didn’t come out of the Eon Productions empire. That’s getting on for at least 50 hours of films, if shown back to back.
Okay, Sky Movies 007 will only be on air for a month. It’s a big style marketing gimmick and little more Bond is, without doubt, a valuable commodity for Sky. ITV – who had held the broadcast rights for 40 years until its satellite based rival nabbed the rights – never seemed to tire of showing them. Barely had they finished showing the whole season and they were starting from the beginning again. With Sky Movies 007, the broadcaster can trumpet their new purchase loudly and proudly on the nations billboards.
But the fact that they are launching it all does make you wonder where TV is going next. Cash in the Attic TV anyone? And how long before Dave launches a channel called Dave on the Dwarf – a Red Dwarf themed channel showing nothing but Red Dwarf? Only time will tell.
You Say
5 responses to this article
David Hastings wrote 7 August 2012 at 2:17 pm
I think a Dave Gear showing non-stop guess-what will almost certainly happen if Sky Movies 007 gets more than a few viewers.
Plus, come to think of it, it’s also a bit of a mystery why there wasn’t an actual “Sky Simpsons” channel a few years back (rights-related perhaps?), especially when Sky One was occasionally given that nickname due to the frequency of repeats at the time.
Darren Gomes wrote 8 August 2012 at 3:39 am
The big question though, is what does it mean for the five main free channels? Pre-digital, the terrestrial channels would have had a separate contract to Sky and the other satellite broadcasters, so exclusive deals with the likes of Sky meant the satellite channels could get first dibs on new films, but it didn’t stop the terrestrials making a bid for them for network broadcasts after that. Now the terrestrials are digital, among all the other channels, will they now be prone to being blocked out by subscription channels and will it mean new films won’t get broadcast on the free channels if they become the exclusive property of the pay channels? Will those of us who refuse to subscribe to Sky have to make do when the bones are thrown to us via PickTV after a few years, if at all?
Andrew Bowden wrote 8 August 2012 at 9:46 am
Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that for some big film franchises such as Star Wars and Harry Potter.
I would be surprised if we see it for all films as I can’t necessarily see someone like Sky spending all that money to do it. But then I’ve been wrong before…
Arthur Murgatroyd wrote 15 August 2012 at 10:18 pm
“But the fact that they are launching it all does make you wonder where TV is going next.”
When there are TV stations such as “Paver Shoes TV”, a free to air 24-hour TV station showing nothing but footwear shopping, or Ocean Finance TV dedicated to getting viewers to take out a loan, it is obvious where TV has already gone — round the U tube and now rapidly descending the waste pipe.
If people did not watch these stations and buy the products, or pay high monthly fees to the BSkyB corporation, none of these abominable wasters of the electromagnetic wave frequency spectrum would ever be considered.
Never underestimate the low intellect of the average TV couch potato.
Also remember that with the explosion of multi-channel TV looking for ever decreasing shares of advertising revenue and the abundance of Internet media (YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix etc) that gimmicks such as Sky Movies 007 are the death throes of conventional linear broadcast TV.
Jerry Ralph wrote 16 August 2012 at 12:37 pm
Anyone who has watched the rise and *rise* of S*y over the years won’t be at all surprised. After all, wasn’t satellite tv itself a **niche** market in the beginning?
For those of us who have lived through the change from 1 or 2 channel B&W 405 lines to today’s over-inflated market, the only real question is “Why not before now?” IMHO it will only be a matter of time before the current linear-based channels (ie the old terrestrials) will find themselves in the niche market – and children will ask “Dad, what is BBC 1/2/ITV?”