Sky is making one of its biggest ever change to its channel family. This means Sky, Virgin Media and BT customers will need to get used to some new channel numbers.
At 6am on Wednesday 1st September 2021, Sky Showcase replaces Sky One. It will feature the best of Sky’s entertainment channels, plus occasional features from Sky Movies and Sky Sports. Effectively, it will do what “Sky Sports Main Event” does for sport. Apart from The Simpsons, all other programmes on Sky Showcase will have regular slots on one of the other Sky channels.
From a programme point of view, Sky Max effectively becomes the ‘new’ Sky One, minus The Simpsons, although Sky Comedy will absorb some of Sky One’s comedy shows.
The changes will trigger a reshuffle across all pay TV platforms: select your provider to find out what’s changing from September 2021:
Sky
On Sky, Sky Max will launch on 113 (114 in Wales). Sky Comedy, Documentaries and Crime all shuffle down one slot. However, Sky Arts is moved down to channel 130 from its current slot on 122. Sky Replay, SyFy, E!, Pick and Challenge remain on their current slots.
| Channel Name | New channel number | Old channel number (where applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Sky Showcase HD | 106 | Replaces Sky One HD |
| Sky Witness HD | 107 | Unchanged |
| Sky Atlantic HD | 108 (109 Wales) | Unchanged |
| Sky Max HD | 113 (114 Wales) | |
| Sky Comedy HD | 114 (115 Wales) | 113 |
| Sky Documentaries HD | 121 | 114 |
| Sky Crime HD | 122 | 121 |
| Sky History HD | 123 | Unchanged |
| Sky Nature HD | 124 | Unchanged (only recently moved to 124) |
| Sky Arts HD | 130 | 122 |
| Sky Replay | 145 | Unchanged |
| E! HD | 151 | Unchanged |
| SYFY HD | 152 | Unchanged |
| Pick | 159 | Unchanged |
| Challenge | 160 | Unchanged |
| Sky History 2 HD | 163 | Unchanged |
| Sky Crime+1 | 222 | 221 |
| Sky Showcase SD | 806 | Replaces Sky One SD |
| Sky Max SD | 813 | |
| Sky Comedy SD | 814 | 813 |
| Sky Documentaries SD | 819 | 814 |
| Sky Crime SD | 820 | 819 |
| Sky History SD | 821 | 820 |
| Sky Arts SD | 826 | 820 |
Virgin Media
On Virgin Media, the HD version of each Sky channel will always be first in the channel list. Sky Max HD launches on 121. Sky Arts moves down the channel list, and can be found at channel 140.
Sadly for cable customers, Sky Atlantic remains unavailable on Virgin Media.
| Channel Name | New channel number | Old channel number (where applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Sky Showcase HD | 109 | Replaces Sky One HD |
| Sky Showcase SD | 110 | Replaces Sky One SD |
| Sky Witness HD | 111 | Unchanged |
| Sky Witness SD | 112 | Unchanged |
| Sky Max HD | 121 | |
| Sky Max SD | 122 | |
| Sky Comedy HD | 123 | 121 |
| Sky Comedy SD | 135 | 122 |
| Sky Crime HD | 136 | 135 |
| Sky Crime SD | 137 | 136 |
| SYFY HD | 138 | 137 |
| SYFY SD | 139 | 138 |
| Sky Arts HD | 140 | 123 |
| Pick | 156 | 165 |
| Challenge | 160 | 164 |
| E! HD | 163 | 139 |
| E! SD | 164 | 140 |
| Sky Arts SD | 165 | 123 |
| Sky Replay | 180 | 160 |
| Sky Witness+1 | 206 | 180 |
| Sky Crime+1 | 207 | Unchanged |
| Sky History HD | 270 | Unchanged |
| Sky History 2 HD | 272 | Unchanged |
| Sky Documentaries HD | 277 | Unchanged |
| Sky Documentaries SD | 278 | Unchanged |
| Sky Nature HD | 279 | Unchanged |
| Sky Nature SD | 280 | Unchanged |
BT TV
(new BT TV package)
| Channel Name | New channel number | Old channel number (where applicable) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sky Showcase SD | 340 | (replaces Sky One SD) | |||
| Sky Witness SD | 341 | Unchanged | |||
| Sky Atlantic SD | 342 | Unchanged | |||
| Sky Max SD | 345 | ||||
| Sky Comedy SD | 346 | 345 | |||
| SYFY SD | 347 | 346 | |||
| Sky Crime SD | 348 | 347 | |||
| Sky Arts SD | 349 | 348 | |||
| MTV SD | 350 | 351 | |||
| Nat Geo SD | 351 | 352 | |||
| Sky Documentaries SD | 352 | 353 | |||
| Sky History SD | 353 | 354 | |||
| Sky Nature SD | 354 | 335 | |||
| Sky Showcase HD | 355 | (replaces Sky One HD) | |||
| Sky Witness HD | 356 | Unchanged | |||
| Sky Atlantic HD | 357 | Unchanged | |||
| Sky Max HD | 360 | ||||
| Sky Comedy HD | 361 | 360 | |||
| SYFY HD | 362 | 361 | |||
| Sky Crime HD | 363 | 362 | |||
| Sky Arts HD | 364 | 363 | |||
| MTV HD | 365 | 366 | |||
| Nat Geo HD | 366 | 367 | |||
| Sky Documentaries HD | 367 | 368 | |||
| Sky History HD | 368 | 369 | |||
| Sky Nature HD | 369 | 372 |
On BT, the changes to Sky’s channels has been used as a trigger to fill in some slots. As a result, MTV and National Geographic have new channel numbers. These changes are exclusively for viewers with the new Now (TV) based BT TV packages. Subscribers on legacy BT TV subscriptions do not have access to these channels.