Sky Movies (1989-1997)

Background

Sky Movies was originally launched as part of the Sky Television package on 5 February 1989, alongside a relaunched Sky Channel (later Sky One), Sky News and Eurosport. A year following the channel's launch, the channel became encrypted, and was the first pay television channel of its kind in the United Kingdom. The channel gained two sister networks - fellow British Satellite Broadcasting rival The Movie Channel which became part of Sky following the BSB merger, and Sky Movies Gold, which replaced The Comedy Channel in 1992.

Throughout 1990-1992, the network was referred to as Sky Movies Plus when select sports (mainly WWF wrestling pay-per-view events) were added until the launch of Sky Sports in April 1991.

The channels remained as is until 1 November 1997, when Sky Movies and The Movie Channel were rebranded as Sky Movies Screen 1/2 while Sky Movies Gold remained the same.

1st ID (5 February-April 1989)

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Visuals: Same as the standard Sky Channel ident at the time, except the large orange word "MOVIES" zooms down below the logo.

Technique: CGI done by Pacific Data Images on an SGI 4D/25.

Audio: Initially, the same synth theme (composed by Frank Gari) the Sky Television variant used, but eventually got its own music track of a funky sounder.

2nd ID (April 1989-31 August 1993)

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Visuals: The screen rotates through a neon structure that lights up to form the Sky Movies logo. The structure is lit up in various bright colours.

Trivia: The ident's theme and format are similar to that of an NBC ident used at the time.

Later Variant: Following the merger of British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television to form BSkyB on 2 November 1990, the ident was slightly updated. This time, the footage slightly zooms out to reveal a black background with the text "BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING" on the bottom. A later revision zoomed the logo further with a shadow effect below.

Technique: CGI by Harry Marks of Marks Communications.

Audio: The same funky-sounding track from the previous ident.

3rd ID (1 September 1993-31 October 1995)

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Visuals: The Sky logo forms as with the other channels. However, once the logo forms, a green box appears behind the sky logo, and the word "MOVIES" in a tall, narrow font appears below as a clapperboard stripe appears on the bottom. Duplicates of "Sky Movies" and orange swirls appear in the purple background once the logo forms.

Technique: CGI by Novocom/GRFX.

Audio: A portion of the 1993 Sky Symphony. The announcer says "From the Sky satellite network, this is Sky Movies".

4th ID (1 November 1995-31 October 1997)

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Visuals: The standard Sky ID package used at the time. The Sky stripe is magenta with a clapperboard on the bottom that animates, and the silk background is a light yellow/orange with a film reel canister behind it.

Later Variant: From 1 September 1996, the logo was slightly modified: the background became orange without the film reel canister, while the Sky stripe became dark orange/brown without the clapperboard.

Technique: CGI by Novocom.

Audio:

• 1995-1996: A portion of the 1995 Sky Symphony, with a very serious tone. A clapperboard sound plays after the logo forms. The announcer says "This is Sky Movies, part of the Sky Television/Satellite Network."
• 1996-1997: A sample from Peter Siedlaczek's "Orchestral Colors". The announcer says "This is Sky Movies."

Sky Movies (1989-1997)

Sky Movies Screen 1 ►