TELLY obsessives must watch out for an upcoming TV guide shake-up due in days.
It’ll affect millions of Sky and Virgin Media TV customers across Britain.
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Sky has announced several rebrands that affect Virgin Media watchers with the same channels.
Three will be affected, but it follows a heavy of April of channel closures, rebrands, and temporary swaps.
The latest batch of changes are due to kick off on Friday, May 2 – that’s later this week.
It begins with Sky Horror, which is being renamed to Sky SciFi/Horror.
This is a switch back from a previous “temporary change”, according to Sky.
That’ll affect channel 311 on Sky Satellite, Glass, and Stream.
Second is Sky Apocalyptic, which is “temporarily” being changed to Sky Favourites HD.
You’ll find that channel on 302 for Satellite, Glass, and Stream.
And finally there’s Sky Cinema Action, which is getting a temporary rebrand to become Sky Heroes.
On Satellite, it’s on 307/851, and just on 307 for Glass and Stream.
Ultimately Sky may decide to make even more TV guide changes in May.
The broadcasting giant typically only announces channel swaps for Sky customers for the week ahead.
So any changes expected in mid-to-late-May wouldn’t have been announced yet.
These TV guide shake-ups can take place for a number of reasons.
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Sometimes Sky will be forced to close channels – either due to a lack of interest, or because the channel operator has decided to pull it.
Sky will often rebrand channels due to demand, to test a content type, or to tie in with an event or holiday (like Easter weekend).
The TV titan made dozens of these changes in April, including the permanent closure of several channels.
Shut-down channels included POP Max, POP Max HD, POP Max+1, Sky History+1, and the satellite broadcast of Sky History 2 HD.
SKY’S APRIL CHANNEL CHANGES
Here’s the full list of changes we saw in April…
Tuesday, April 1
- U&W HD ROI closes on satellite only – the SD remains at 132
- U&W HD closes on satellite only – the SD remains at 132
- U&Yesterday HD closes on satellite only – the SD remains at 155 – 161 in ROI
- U&Alibi HD moves from 130 to 120 on Glass and Stream only in England, NI and Wales. They remain unchanged in Scotland and ROI
- U&Gold HD moves from 131 to 121 on Glass and Stream only in England, NI and Wales. They remain unchanged in Scotland and ROI
- U&Dave HD moves from 132 to 130 on Glass and Stream only in England, NI and Wales. They remain unchanged in Scotland and ROI
- U&W HD moves from 133 to 131 on Glass and Stream only in England, NI and Wales. They remain unchanged in Scotland and ROI
- U&Drama moves from 134 to 132 on Glass and Stream only in England, NI and Wales. They remain unchanged in Scotland and ROI
- U&Yesterday HD moves from 161 to 133 on Glass and Stream only in England, NI and Wales. They remain unchanged in Scotland and ROI
- U&Eden moves from 162 to 134 on Glass and Stream only in England, NI and Wales. They remain unchanged in Scotland and ROI
- GINX TV HD moves from 419 to 417 on Glass/Stream only in the UK
- MUTV HD moves from 420 to 418 on Glass/Stream only in the UK
- LFCTV HD moves from 421 to 419 on Glass/Stream only in the UK
- Premier Sports 1 HD moves from 419 to 417 on Glass/Stream only in ROI
- Premier Sports 2 HD moves from 420 to 418 on Glass/Stream only in ROI
- GINX TV HD moves from 421 to 419 on Glass/Stream only in ROI
- MUTV HD moves from 422 to 420 on Glass/Stream only in ROI
- LFCTV HD moves from 423 to 421 on Glass/Stream only in ROI
Wednesday, April 2
- TV Warehouse moves from 676 to 673 on satellite only
- Cruise1st.tv moves from 681 to 675 on satellite only
- Sky History 2 HD closes on satellite – the SD moves to 163 in the UK and 168 in ROI and NI – HD channel remains on Glass/Stream
Thursday, April 3
- Sky Gangsters (Satellite 309 – Glass/Stream 309) changes name to renames to Sky Thriller HD (reverting from a temporary change)
- Sky Books To Screen (Satellite 302 – Glass/Stream 302) renames to Sky Adventure/ SkyAdventureHD (temporary change)
Friday, April 4
- Sky Family (Satellite 306/850 – Glass/Stream 306) renames to SkyHarryPotter / HarryPotterHD (Temp)
- Sky Hits (Satellite 303 – Glass/Stream 303) changes name to The Hobbit HD (Temporary change)
TRY THESE SKY TRICKS!
Got Sky Q? There are some handy tricks worth knowing about…
Find your lost TV remote
If you can’t find your Sky Q remote, don’t panic.
Just press the Sky Q logo on the front of your TV box.
It’s actually a button that will trigger your TV remote’s built-in ringer.
You’ll get 30 seconds of beeping to find where you’ve dropped it. Hint: it’s probably under the sofa cushion.
Search movies by quotes
You might have already used voice search for controlling TV playback – but your remote’s microphone has another clever trick.
It turns out that you can say movie quotes into the remote and Sky will find the film for you.
This is handy if you can’t remember the name of a top movie or show.
Here’s a list of movie quotes to try on Sky.
Save lost recordings
Have you ever deleted something you’d recorded on Sky, only to regret it later?
Or maybe someone in your family removed something without telling you – sparking a massive row.
Don’t panic: you can get them back.
Just go to Recordings > Manage > Deleted and then simply hit Undelete on the item that you want to resurrect.
If you do that, it’ll return to your Recordings section as good as new.
Picture Credit: Sky
Monday, April 7
- Sky The Hobbit (Satellite 303 – Sky Glass/Stream 303) changes name to Sky Hits / Sky Hits HD (reverting from temporary change)
Thursday, April 10
- Sky History+1 (Satellite 223 (224 Scotland)) closes permanently
Monday, April 14
- MTV Hits (Satellite 351 – Glass/Stream 351) rebrands to Club MTV
Friday, April 18
- Sky Hits (Satellite 303 – Glass/Stream 303) changes name to The Hobbit HD (Temporary change)
Tuesday, April 22
- Sky Adventure (Satellite 302 – Sky Glass/Stream 302) renames to Apocalyptic HD (temporary change)
- Harry Potter (Satellite 306/850 – Sky Glass/Stream 306) renames to Sky Family/Sky Family HD (reverting from a temporary change)
- Sky Sci-Fi & Horror (Satellite 311 – Sky Glass/Stream 311) renames to Sky Horror HD (temporary change)
- Sky The Hobbit (Satellite 303 – Sky Glass/Stream 303) changes name to Sky Hits / Sky Hits HD (reverting from temporary change)
- POP Max (Satellite 615) closes permanently
- POP Max HD (Sky Glass/Stream UK 215 (NI & ROI 216)) closes permanently
- POP Max+1 (Satellite 628) closes permanently
- Tiny Pop moves from 618 to 615 on satellite only
- POP+1 moves from 619 to 618 on satellite only
- Tiny Pop+1 moves from 629 to 619 on satellite only
Friday, April 25
- Sky Family (Satellite 306/850 – Sky Glass/Stream 306) changes name to The Hobbit / The Hobbit HD (temporary change)
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Saturday, April 26
- Sky Hits (Satellite 303 – Sky Glass/Stream 303) renames to SkyIndianaJones / IndianaJonesHD (temporary change)
Monday, April 28
- Sky Indiana Jones (Satellite 303 – Sky Glass/Stream 303) changes name to Sky Hits / Sky Hits HD (reverting from temporary change)
- Sky The Hobbit (Satellite 306/850 – Sky Glass/Stream 306) changes name to Sky Family / Sky Family HD (reverting from a temporary change)
Sky will likely release even more TV channel swaps next week.