Country United States | ||
Launched October 1, 2010 (2010-10-01) Owned by Sony Pictures Television Picture format 480i (SDTV)
576i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV) Audience share UK:
0.04%
0.02% (+1) (September 2016 (2016-09), BARB) Slogan Sony Movie Channel is All About Movies. | ||
Sony Movie Channel is an American television channel that was launched on October 1, 2010 (2010-10-01). Owned by the Sony Pictures Television subsidiary of Sony Corporation, its programming consists entirely of films from the Sony Pictures Entertainment library (including content from Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics among others), which are broadcast unedited, and remastered in 1080i high definition. It is the only television channel in the United States run by Sony Corporation that is wholly owned by the company.
Contents
Program blocks and theme weeks
A program block on the channel is "Killer Mandays", a double feature of horror films on Monday nights. From 000000002017-11-06-0000November 6–November 12, 2011 (2011-11-12) the channel aired a week-long salute to Bollywood films.
United States
Sony Movie Channel is available nationally on DirecTV and Dish Network, and regionally on AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS. DirecTV and Dish Network also offer "Sony Movie Channel Everywhere", which allows viewers to watch its movies through its website for no additional cost. The channel is also available through streaming for owners of the Sony Network Media Player.
Sony Movie Channel is also available on Sony's PlayStation Vue platform included with the Elite and Ultra plans.
Canada
On May 31, 2012, Hollywood Suite announced it would re-brand its high-definition channel Hollywood Festival as a Canadian version of Sony Movie Channel on September 4, 2012 as part of a new licensing arrangement with Sony Pictures. The channel was discontinued on November 3, 2015, as part of the re-formatting of Hollywood Suite's channels to use decade-based formats.
United Kingdom and Ireland
The channel was made available outside of the US for the first time on Sky in the United Kingdom and Ireland on May 3, 2012 (2012-05-03). While it is only available in standard-definition, it is accompanied by a one-hour timeshift channel. The channel formerly airs the Animax block every Monday night. As a free-to-air channel, supported by advertising, it is subject to standard UK broadcasting rules, which means that films shown between 5.30am and 9pm are often edited to make them suitable for pre-watershed slots. After 9pm, the rules are more relaxed and films will generally not be censored.
On January 10, 2017, the channel replaced Movie Mix on the Freeview and Virgin Media platforms, becoming free-to-air for the first time. Movie Mix had been broadcasting an identical schedule in its final days prior to the transition.