Everything you need to know about Sky Cinema
Dan Howdle
Sky Cinema, and before it Sky Movies, has been a staple of the British TV scene for years. But how do you get it? And what do you actually get for your money if you choose to sign up? We have the answers.
What is Sky Cinema?
Sky Cinema is a collection of subscription film channels and on-demand movies that can be added to the basic Sky TV service. It is available to Virgin Media TV subscribers directly, and via the streaming service NOW TV. For BT TV and TalkTalk TV customers, an optional NOW TV membership add-on is available.
The service was launched in 1989 as Sky Movies and changed its channel line-up numerous times before rebranding as Sky Cinema in 2016.
What does Sky Cinema offer?
Sky only really refers to Sky Cinema in terms of its headline features, so let’s have a look at them, one at a time.
- 12 dedicated channels – Sky Cinema offers 12 channels, the majority showing movies from a particular genre, and all in HD as standard. At the time of writing these channels are called Action, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Greats, Hits, Premiere, Premiere+1, Sci-Fi Horror, Select and Thriller, although they are often temporarily rebranded in honour of an event, season or movie release.
- Movies on demand – As well as the traditional channels, Sky Cinema gives you access to thousands of movies on demand. These are grouped into various categories and range from old classics to new releases.
- A premiere every day – Sky Cinema shows a new movie premiere every day on, you guessed it, the Premiere channel. Films shown as premieres are also available to watch on demand. Premieres include the biggest and best blockbusters from Hollywood and beyond.
- Movies in HD – All of the Sky Cinema are in HD quality as standard. We’re pointing this out because for some other Sky channels, you have to pay extra to watch in HD.
- Sky Go app – Sky TV subscribers can download the free Sky Go app to watch their favourite shows on their phones, tablets or laptops on a 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi connection. Sky Mobile customers can watch Sky TV on the go without using their data. Sky Cinema subscribers get free Sky Cinema pack content on the Sky Go app, giving users access to thousands of films on-demand on the go.
- Sky Cinema Originals – In a bid to catch up with rivals like Netflix and Amazon, Sky started acquiring exclusive rights and commissioning original films in 2018. Since then, Sky Original films have won multiple awards, and increased viewership across the UK and Ireland. Films released under the Sky Cinema Originals tag are available for Sky Cinema customers to watch at home, on-demand, and exclusively on Sky.
- Pop-up channels – As well as its main line-up of channels, or sometimes temporarily taking the place of an existing channel, Sky Cinema occasionally launches a ‘pop-up’ channel or movie collection to celebrate a major film release, event or season.
How to get Sky Cinema
Sky Cinema is often thought of purely as something you can add to a Sky TV subscription. It is that, but there are other ways of getting Sky Cinema if you get your TV service from another provider. A word of warning, though: Adding Sky Cinema on Virgin or BT costs a bit more than it does on Sky TV, so unless it’s already included in the package, consider getting a NOW TV Sky Cinema Membership instead.
Sky Cinema on Sky TV
Adding Sky Cinema to Sky TV is fairly simple. If you’re a new customer you’ll need to start with Sky Signature, as this is the basis of all Sky TV packages, which includes Sky TV plus Netflix. Then you can add Sky Cinema to your basket, or choose from the pre-bundled deals for new customers. Prices may change during your contract period, or upon renewal.
If you’re already a Sky TV customer, you can add Sky Cinema to your package but this will mean starting a new 24-month minimum term on your TV subscription.
Sky Cinema on Virgin Media TV
Virgin Media customers can add Sky Cinema to their TV package and get all the same benefits as Sky TV customers, including access to your Sky TV content on the go using Virgin’s TV Go app. Sky Cinema is included as standard in some of Virgin’s TV packages including the Bigger bundle + Movies bundle, the Bigger bundle + Sports and Movies bundle and the Ultimate Volt bundle.
Sky Cinema on BT TV
Sky Channels are included in BT’s VIP, Big Entertainment and Entertainment TV packages. If you aren’t on one of these plans, or if you’re a BT fibre broadband customer, you can add NOW Cinema Membership to your TV package, which works as a monthly rolling subscription.
Copper customers on one of BT’s new flexible packages with the NOW Cinema Membership can watch via the NOW app, but won’t be able to watch on your BT TV box and the content can’t be recorded.
Sky Cinema on TalkTalk TV
TalkTalk offers access to Sky Cinema, and other Entertainment and Sports channels with a NOW Membership – all with no contract, and available to existing customers for a small monthly fee. At the time of writing, you cannot stream NOW TV content on TalkTalk TV’s 4K Box, but their website says it will be available soon.
NOW TV Sky Cinema Membership
The most flexible way of watching Sky Cinema is to get a NOW TV Sky Cinema Membership, as you can cancel whenever you like. You get all the features of Sky Cinema except for the Sky Cinema app, but this is hardly a problem as you’ll be able to watch on any device that supports the NOW TV app.
What else does Sky offer?
Sky Cinema isn’t the only thing you can add to a basic Sky TV subscription, which now includes Netflix as standard. Here’s a breakdown of the other options, each of which costs an additional monthly fee and some of which come with their own minimum term contract.
- Broadband – There are three Sky broadband packages – Broadband, which promises average speeds of 11Mbps, Broadband Superfast with average speeds up to 61Mbps, and Broadband Ultrafast, which offers up to 145Mbps. All three come with 24-month contracts.
- Sky Sports – You can add the Sky Sports add-on to get all eight of the Sky Sports channels in HD as standard. The Sky Sports add-on provides access to hundreds of live football games, along with live cricket, golf, and F1.
- BT Sport – UEFA Champions League and UFC fans can add Sky’s BT Sport add-on to get access to BT 1, 2, 3 & BT Sport ESPN.
- Kids Pack – The Kids Pack features 8 dedicated kids channels including Nickelodeon and Nick Jr., as well as more than 10,000 episodes available to watch on demand. Sky’s Kids Pack includes Family Settings for parents to limit content or screen time
- Disney+ – The Disney+ pack provides access to Disney’s exclusive streaming content, including over 1000 movies, series, Originals & more.
- HD Pack – The basic Sky TV package only comes with standard viewing quality. In order to watch popular channels like Sky Atlantic and Sky One in HD you’ll need to add the HD pack, which provides a vivid viewing experience in HD with over 40 live channels.
- Sky Mobile – Sky Mobile isn’t only available to Sky TV customers, but they do get more out of it. This includes the ability to stream Sky TV on your Sky Mobile without using any data.
- Sky Go – Sky Go lets you watch your Sky TV content on your phone or tablet – that’s live channels and on-demand stuff. To watch on two devices concurrently and have the ability to download programmes onto your device, you’ll need Sky Go Extra, which costs a few pounds a month.
- Sky Glass – Sky recently launched their new Sky Glass offering, which is a monthly subscription service including the TV along with the streaming content directly from Sky. The service offers over 140 channels and is ‘plugged’ directly into Sky’s services, so you don’t need a Q box, satellite dish, or any other hardware other than the TV (and a quick broadband connection).
