Sky Arts to become a free to air channel from September

[stereohaven]

I couldn't see this mentioned elsewhere, apologies if it is and I missed it.

Sky Arts, the UK’s only channel dedicated to arts and culture, is to be made free for everyone this September, supercharging its mission to increase access to and drive participation in the arts, at a vital time for the cultural sector.

With a renewed focus on bringing more of the arts to more people, Sky Arts will embark on an ambitious programme of activity to support and champion the arts – putting artists, creatives, and public participation centre stage on a channel that everyone across the UK can watch on Freeview.

The move to become free-to-air will include a bold new slate of original programmes and increased and deepened partnerships with artists and arts organisations, providing them with a platform to create and showcase their work. And to support new talent, the channel will launch a series of bursaries worth £30,000 each, that will see leading figures from the arts support and mentor diverse and emerging new artists.

Full information here: Sky Arts to become a free to air channel 

The channel number on Freeview (and therefore YouView), is to be confirmed.

Although the channel is moving out from behind the paywall, Sky Arts On Demand’s library of 2,000 hours of content will remain exclusive to Sky and NOW TV customers (which includes via BT TV).

[ney]

The HD version of Sky Arts will still remain on Sky and via Now TV.
It's only the SD version of the channel that's becoming free to air on Freeview.

Darren

[zulu17]

Currently it seems far from clear to me;

Whether it  Sky Arts) is available to everyone on Freeview will depend upon which multiplex it is transmitted on.  No indication given so far as to which multiplex is to be used. 

The announcement does indicate that the Sky Arts ondemand content will remain as part of the Now Tv Entertainment pack. No mention as to whether a linear channel option is to remain available on the Now TV App to offer a better quality stream that is available on the Freeview stream. Some of the compression  and bit rates of SD channels on the commercial multiplexes seem to focus on cramming as many channels as possible rather than quality.

Then looking at the BT TV Now Entertainment live channels and recording. Will either or both those Sky Arts  multicast  delivered channels (SD) and (HD) be removed from the  EPG ? Will recordings made on the BT TV Youview  box remain playable ? Normally if  Now TV removes a  linear TV channel the recordings related to that linear  channel cease to be playable, is this going to occur here or will it be that as Sky Arts is to remain part of the Now TV Entertainment pass the recordings will still be playable.

[stereohaven · Accepted solution]

I forgot to update this but in case anyone hadn’t heard, Sky Arts will be in SD on channel 11 on Freeview (and BT TV), with Pick moving to channel 34. It will be on Freesat as well on channel 147.

The SD and HD versions remain on 348 and 363 respectively for the time being if you have the appropriate NOW TV powered entertainment pack and HD add on.

[barnpiece]

Just noticed that Sky Arts is now available on Freeview channel 11.

Richard