Sky Cinema

Logo used since 2020
Country	Germany
Broadcast area	Germany Austria Switzerland
Programming
Picture format	576i (16:9SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Ownership
Owner	Sky Deutschland
Sister channels	List of Sky Deutschland channels
History
Launched	February 1991

Sky Cinema is a German set of movie channels owned bySky Deutschland.

The different channels in the package mostly have their origins in the analogue Premiere channel which started broadcasting in 1991 and the movie channels of theDF1 platform started in 1996. The movie package on the DF1 platform consisted ofCine Action,Cine Comedy,Romantic Movies,Star*Kino andWestern Movies.^[1]

When DF1 and Premiere merged to form the platform "Premiere World" in October 1999, it movie package, which was called "Movie World", consisted of thePremiere channel and13th Street as well as the former DF1 channelsStar*Kino,Cine Action,Cine Comedy,Sci Fantasy andRomantic Movies while Western Movies closed.^[2]

This structure remained until July 2001 when Premiere World relaunched their packages and brought all the channels they owned under the Premiere umbrella brand.^[3]

• Premiere was extended to three channels:Premiere 1,Premiere 2 andPremiere 3
• Star*Kino renamedPremiere Star
• Cine Comedy renamedPremiere Comedy
• Sci Fantasy renamedPremiere Sci-fi
• Cine Action renamedPremiere Action
• Romantic Movies was closed down and replaced withPremiere Action-X, a sister channel ofPremiere Action

In May 2002, "Premiere World" became simply "Premiere". At the same time, the themed movie channel were replaced by the numbered movie screensPremiere 4 throughPremiere 7 whilePremiere Action-X closed.

On 1 August 2006, the channels were overhauled again.Premiere 1 toPremiere 4 became part of a package called "Premiere Blockbuster", which also includedDisney Channel.Premiere 5,Premiere 6 andPremiere 7 were closed down and replaced byPremiere Filmclassics andPremiere Filmfest. They became part of a package called "Premiere Entertainment", which also includedPremiere Serie,Premiere Krimi andPremiere Nostalgie.^[4]

"Premiere Blockbuster" and "Premiere Entertainment" merged and became "Premiere Film" in on 1 July 2008.^[5]

On 4 July 2009, Premiere was relaunched and became Sky Deutschland. All Premiere channels were renamed. The movie channels got the following names:^[6]

• Premiere 1 split into two channels:Sky Cinema andSky Action
• Premiere 2 becameSky Cinema +1
• Premiere 3 becameSky Cinema +24
• Premiere 4 becameSky Comedy
• Premiere Filmclassics becameSky Cinema Hits, now "Sky Hits"
• Premiere Filmfest becameSky Emotion
• Premiere Nostalgie becameSky Nostalgie

The Premiere Film channels were sold withDisney Channel andFox Channel. When Sky was relaunched, those two channels were moved to the Sky Welt package, while theMGM Channel andDisney Cinemagic took their place.Premiere Krimi was moved to the Sky Welt package and becameSky Krimi.

With the relaunch, the channels adopted the searchlights-themed graphics, used by the BritishSky Movies channels since 2007, with the logos replaced by those of German counterparts. Sky Cinema uses Sky Movies Premiere's ident, while Sky Action uses Sky Movies Action & Thriller's, Sky Emotion uses Sky Movies Drama's, Sky Nostalgie uses Sky Movies Classics', Sky Comedy uses Sky Movies Indie's (not the Sky Movies Comedy's), and Sky Cinema Hits uses the original idents of Sky Movies HD 1 and 2.

When the channels where rebranded, there was only one high-definition simulcast channel, Sky Cinema HD. It was joined by two more HD simulcasts on 13 August 2010, Sky Cinema Hits HD and Sky Action HD.^[7]

On 11 March 2020, Sky Cinema was revamped with new and renamed channels:^[8]

• Sky Cinema and Sky Cinema +24 became Sky Cinema Premieren and Sky Cinema Premieren +24. Sky Cinema +1 will close.
• Sky Cinema Comedy, Nostalgie, Emotion and Hits were replaced by Sky Cinema Family (SD/HD), Sky Cinema Best Of (SD/HD), Sky Cinema Special (HD), Sky Cinema Thriller (HD), Sky Cinema Fun (SD), and Sky Cinema Classics (SD).
• Sky Cinema Action continued to broadcast, in HD and SD as before.

On 11 April 2024, Sky Cinema saw its linear lineup of channels reduced in order to put more efficience on its video on demand service:^[9]

• Sky Cinema Premieren +24, Sky Cinema Thriller and Sky Cinema Fun were closed.
• Sky Cinema Premieren was renamed to Sky Cinema Premiere and Sky Cinema Best Of was renamed to Sky Cinema Highlights.
• Warner TV Film andParamount+ are now offered free of charge.

The Sky Cinema package includes six Sky-branded channels:

• HD versions of all channels are available except for Sky Cinema Classics.
• Warner TV Film andParamount+ are also offered free of charge.

Movies are broadcast in the 16:9 widescreen format with both German and original audio, when available.In order to watch movies in high-definition, payment is required for Sky HD, another set of programs. By booking this set, the channels fitting into the other booked sets, such as Sky Sport are decrypted as well.

• Official website

• Sky Deutschland
• Sky television channels
• Television channels and stations established in 1991
• Television stations in Germany
• Television stations in Austria
• German-language television stations
• 1991 establishments in Germany

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2016
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles using infobox television channel
• Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia