Sky Movies
Sky Movies is the collective name for the premium subscription television film channels operated by Sky plc.
The Sky Movies brand operates across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria (known as Sky Film) and Italy. In the UK & Ireland it has over 5 million subscribers, via satellite, cable and IPTV. In addition to the television channels, it has an interactive 'red button' service, a website (sky.com/movies) and in 2005 launched a 3G mobile service via Vodafone.
History
1989-1998: Launch and early years
Sky Movies was originally a single film channel offered as part of Sky's original 4-channel package on the Astra 1A satellite on 5 February 1989. The first film shown on the channel was Dirty Dancing. Prior to its launch, Sky Movies signed first-run deals with 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Domestic Pay TV, Cable and Network Features, Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Orion Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution Co.
After one year of broadcasting free-to-air, in February 1990 it became the first Sky channel to scramble its signal, using a card-encryption system called VideoCrypt which rendered the picture totally obscured to anyone attempting to view it without a decoder and smart card.