The original Sky Movies channel was started on 18 May 1990 when Sky Television was first launched. When Sky Movies began, it initially screened two hours of 'general entertainment' programming from noon until 2pm (such as
Ask Dr. Ruth,
Loving,
The Beachcombers, ''
America's Top 10, Wild World of Animals
, Fun in the Sun
and The Ewoks''). These programmes were followed by movies from 2pm until around midnight. By September, general entertainment programming was dropped and movies ran from noon until around midnight, with an extra midnight movie on Friday and Saturday nights. From mid-December 1990 until January 1992, Sky Movies aired from noon until around 2am daily. Sky Movies commenced 24-hour programming in February 1992, initially on weekends and during public holidays, then expanded to 24-hour, seven-day-a-week programming on 1 January 1997. In 1993, Sky Television sold the channel to
HBO Asia. It became known as
HBO, but later reverted to its former name Sky Movies, after HBO Asia re-sold the channel to Sky Television. NICAM stereo broadcasting was available on the UHF channel until around 1998 when Sky launched their digital service. All current Sky Movie channels broadcast in at least stereo sound. A second movie channel, Sky Movies Max was released in 1999 after Sky launched their digital satellite service. All future Sky Movies channels that were launched were available on the Sky Digital platform only, the original movie channel was the only channel to ever broadcast on the now discontinued UHF analogue service. Sky Movies Max broadcast in widescreen 16:9 format from 2002 onwards. Sky Movies also broadcast in widescreen 16:9 format on Sky Digital from 1 January 2005 onwards, however it continued to broadcast in 4:3 on the UHF service. Sky Movies was renamed Sky Movies 1 in 2004 and Sky Movies Max was renamed Sky Movies 2. Sky Movies 1 reverted to the Sky Movies name in 2007 following the launch of Sky Movies Greats. At the same time, Sky Movies 2 became a time-shift channel, screening the same movies as Sky Movies, just 2 hours behind. Sky Movies 2 remained a time-shift channel until 2013. In 2008 Sky launched the HD service called My Sky HDi, as a result of which, some Sky Movie channels became available in
High Definition. To receive Sky Movies channels in HD, the Sky subscriber is required to upgrade his or her Sky decoder to a My Sky HDi decoder. The subscriber must also pay a monthly fee for an HD access ticket which allows the subscriber to receive selected Sky channels in High Definition. All Sky Movies channels are currently broadcast in HD. On 1 November 2013, Sky rebranded their movie channel line-up with new logos. The original Sky Movies channel became Sky Movies Premiere and Sky Movies 2 became Sky Movies Extra, an additional channel Sky Movies Action was also introduced. On 7 May 2015 Sky and
the Walt Disney Company announced the launch of Sky Movies Disney, dedicated to Disney family movies launching on 1 July 2015. On 23 June 2021, Sky's movie channels and schedules were updated, resulting in more variety and fewer repeats. Sky Movies Vintage ceased to operate from 2 August 2021, with vintage films (from the 1940s to the mid-1970s) moving to Sky Movies Classics. Sky Movies Extra was rebranded as Sky Movies Comedy on 9 August 2021, and on the same date a new channel, Sky Movies Collection, was launched to screen films to fit a regularly updated theme (replacing Sky Movies Pop-Up). ==Channels==