Great! Movies

Great! Movies
Country	United Kingdom
Broadcast area	United Kingdom; Ireland
Headquarters	London, England
Programming
Picture format	576i 16:9 SDTV
Timeshift service	Great! Movies +1
Ownership
Owner	Sony Pictures Television (2012–2021); Narrative Entertainment UK Limited (2021–present)
Sister channels	Pop; Pop Max; Great! TV; Great! Action; Great! Romance; Great! Real
History
Launched	3 May 2012; 12 years ago
Replaced	Movies4Men 2 (Sky); Movie Mix (Freeview)
Closed	18 October 2023 (+1 on Freeview)
Former names	Sony Movie Channel (2012–2019); Sony Movies (2019–2021)
Links
Website	greatnetwork.com/movies
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview	Channel 34
Streaming media
Samsung TV Plus	Channel 4991

Great! Movies (stylised as GREAT! movies)^[1]^[2] is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited that broadcasts across the UK and Ireland showing films and related content. The channel is transmitted on most of the major broadcast platforms in the UK - terrestrial, satellite and cable. The channel is only broadcast in standard-definition.

History

Launch and transmission on satellite

The Sony Movie Channel brand was made available outside the US for the first time when a British version of the station launched on the Sky platform in the UK and Ireland on 3 May 2012 (2012-05-03).^[3]^[4] To release Sky guide slots for the launch of SMC and its +1 timeshift, Movies4Men 2 and its +1 service were closed (and thus lost by Freesat viewers).

At launch and until 2018, SMC was broadcast on a free-to-view basis, meaning that access to channel was only available to those with a Sky viewing card, and although no subscription payment was required to view the channel, it was unavailable to Freesat devices.

On 10 January 2017, Sony Movie Channel was added to Freeview and Virgin Media, replacing Movie Mix, which already broadcast some of the same content.^[5] In preparation for the switch, Movie Mix and SMC had been broadcasting an identical schedule in the final days prior to the transition.

Sony Movie Channel became fully free to air on satellite on 13 August 2018, in preparation for its full launch on the Freesat programme guide on 9 October 2018.^[6] To permit SMC's launch on Freesat, Sony reorganised their other movie channels on the guide: Movies4Men +1 was no longer listed on the Freesat guide as a result of the addition of SMC, though remains freely available for manual tune-in. Encryption was also removed from Sony Movie Channel +1 at the same time, though this was not added to the Freesat full guide.

On 24 July 2019, it was announced that the channel will be renamed as Sony Movies from 10 September 2019.^[7]

Great! Movies

On 25 May 2021, the channel rebranded as Great! Movies as the channel was acquired by Narrative Capital/Narrative Entertainment.^[8]

On 9 November 2022, Narrative Entertainment UK Limited announced the launch of a FAST version of Great! Movies, to stream on Samsung TV Plus, the new FAST network has the same branding as the linear channel, but a different schedule. A FAST version of Great! Movies Christmas was also launched.^[9]

In June 2023, the channel launched an on demand service known as Great! Player, available via the red button on Great! Movies on Freeview.^[10]

On 18 October 2023, Great! Movies +1 was replaced by Great! Movies Extra on Freeview channel 61.

On 20 March 2024, Great! Movies Extra was replaced by Great! Real on Freeview channel 61.