Sky Arts goes live on Freeview
September 17, 2020
UK DTT platform Freeview has welcomed the latest arrival to its free-to-air channel line-up – Sky Arts.
The channel, which broadcasts a wide range of programming focused on theatre, art, music and culture, has recently announced a whole suite of new shows for the autumn. These include Tim Marlow’s Sky Arts Late, Danny Dyer on Harold Pinter, No Masks from Theatre Royal Stratford East, photography show Rankin’s 2020 and Goldie: The Art That Made Me. This is alongside returning favourites such as Melvyn Bragg’s The Southbank Show and Portrait Artist of the Year.
According to Freeview, Sky’s decision to make the channel free to everyone in the country shows how important it is for content that contributes to the cultural and universal core of the nation to be freely available to all citizens of the UK.
Sky Arts is launching in slot 11 on the TV Guide and sit alongside channels from the public service broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – who already contribute thousands of hours of arts and culture programming that is universally and freely available in over 18 million Freeview homes.
“We are delighted to have Sky Arts join the Freeview family giving our viewers access to an even wider variety of high-quality content,” declared Owen Jenkinson, Freeview’s Marketing Director. “Sky’s decision to take Sky Arts free-to-air demonstrates the enduring power of free TV available to all.”
“We believe that everyone should have access to the arts and that the more people you encourage to participate, the more creative and vibrant our industry and society becomes,” added Philip Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts. “That’s why from today, we’re throwing open the doors to make Sky Arts free for everyone to watch, becoming the only place on Freeview dedicated solely to arts and culture. Our mission is to provide a platform to stimulate participation and to inspire the next generation of artistic talent.”
Freeview says it is is proud to include one of the UK’s few channels dedicated to arts and culture at the heart of its offering to the TV nation. “Taking Sky Arts free-to-air will enable millions of homes to enjoy what the channel has to offer. As Sky themselves say: art is for everyone. The way to reach everyone is through Freeview,” it concludes.