Four new channels are coming to Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin on Tuesday, May 25, dedicated to movies and TV shows. The channels, branded under the “Great!” name, will be replacing Sony’s old channels.
As we reported last week, Sony has sold its UK channels – “Sony Movies”, “Sony Movies Classic”, “Sony Movies Action”, “Sony Channel” and the “Pop” kids TV platform, to American investment firm Narrative Capital.
Sony’s channels, which were available for free on a variety of platforms, used to mainly offer old(ish) and classic movies, as well as classic (for lack of a better word) TV shows like Murder, She Wrote, T.J. Hooker, Hart to Hart and more.
The new channels will – for now at least – be rebranded versions of the same channels, with the same type of content, with Sony continuing to be a licensing and distribution partner for the channels.
Plus, as they did before, the new channels will only support Standard Definition content for now, with no HD broadcasts.
Something GREAT! is coming…
💜 #GREATmovies
❤️ #GREATaction
💛 #GREATclassic pic.twitter.com/1bs1VF5aoE— GREAT! movies (@greatmoviesuk) May 17, 2021
Reportedly, Narrative is planning to eventually build a free (with adverts) Video on Demand platform, presumably with additional content – but the company was not available for comment at this time.
Although the channels are keeping their old numbers, some Freeview devices might need a manual retune, in order to see the new names – but that depends on your specific device. See our recommended Freeview recorders here.
What’s On The New GREAT! Channels?
The four new content channels, which retain the same channel numbers as the Sony channels they’re replacing, are:
Great! Movies
Freeview: Channel 33 / Freesat: Channel 302 / Sky: Channel 321
Replaces “Sony Movies”. Free to watch blockbusters, contemporary hits, cult classics and feature film favourites, including:
- Blade Runner 2049, starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.
- Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic featuring Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron.
- Fury, war drama starring Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman.
- Baby Driver: A heist comedy directed by Edgar Wright and starring Ansel Elgort and Jon Hamm.
GREAT! Movies Classic
Freeview: Channel 51 / Freesat: Channel 303 / Sky: Channel 319
Replaces “Sony Movies Classic”. Home for timeless cinema and modern movie making, with quality films available for repeated enjoyment including:
- Oliver!, the Oscar-winning musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic tale.
- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn’s classic comedy.
- Shadow Of A Doubt, another Hitchcock classic, starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten.
- Psycho, the classic Hitchcock thriller starring Anthony Perkins.
GREAT! Movies Action
Freeview: Channel 41 / Freesat: Channel 305 / Sky: Channel 323
Replaces “Sony Movies Action”. A no-holds-barred action movie channel with favourite heroes from classic John Wayne westerns to cult Jean-Claude Van Damme actioners, and some you’ve never heard of before, including:
- The Mountain Road, a classic war film starring James Stewart and Lisa Lu
- Flight Of Fury, with action star Steven Seagal battling enemy terrorists.
Great! TV
Freeview: Channel 49 / Freesat: Channel 142 / Sky: Channel 157
Replaces “Sony Channel”. Drama and entertainment with a familiar mix of scripted series, nostalgic drama and popular gameshows, including series such as:
- Charlie’s Angels
- Starsky & Hutch
- Who Wants to Be A Millionaire
- M*A*S*H
Every year, in the run-up to Christmas, Sony also used to replace Sony Movies Classic with Sony Movies Christmas. The same will presumably happen this year, with Great! Movies Christmas.
Hi. Why can I only get one GREAT channel and not all of them?
Sony made a commercial decision to move them in July 2019 to Local multiplexes which are only broadcast from a limited number of main transmitters serving large urban populations, the signals are lower power and beamed towards those urban areas. See https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/channel-listings-industry-professionals for which channels are carried on which multiplexes. Because of geographical limitations, some areas have to use relay transmitters which only transmit the 3 main PSB multiplexes
Totally agree. Subtitles are a must these days for many people, even those with good hearing. Lots of programmes have so much ‘background’ noise and feature actors and actresses who speak quickly, it is impossible to tell what they are saying !!
Correct, totally correct.
That “background” muzak can be so annoying especially when it takes over from the dialogue. Sound engineers are allowed to play to their own egos. That’s not right.
Great, New Not. Same old rehashed programmes, so what’s new.
Will all the new channels have 1hr time shifts on virgin media
Ive tryed getting Channel 51 for a long time now and still I can’t get it is there any reason why I can’t get it on my smart yv
Thank you for your help.
Depending on where you are in the country determines what channels you can receive. There are 15 HD channels on Freeview, but I can only receive 6 of them. (BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, CHANNEL 4, CHANNEL 5 and CBBC.
It depends on your area transmitter. Ofcom freed up the 700MHz bandwidth to allow for wider 4G/5G mobile phone coverage. Some transmitters didn’t have the ‘space’/connections available to run the 5G channels and Freeview/HD channels resulting in loss of some channels. In other cases a new Aerial was required after the 5G retune to get some of the channels back. I lost quite a few channels, as I live in a rural area, and don’t expect to get them back. 5G trumped TV viewing as as far as bandwidth is concerned.
You are only partly correct in some of what you say. Most of the former Sony – now Great! channels are on Local multiplexes. These are only transmitted from a limited number of main transmitters, primarily beamed towards highly populated urban areas. Those transmitters are also often lower power than the main PSB multiplexes. If you don’t get a “Local” station at LCN 7 (or 8 in some areas) then you won’t get most of the Great! channels.
I’m in one of the rural areas. Prior to the bandwidth change for 4G/5G my local area Transmitter did provide all the ‘Sony’ channels, however after the change we only received 2 of them Sony Movies (now Great Movies) and Sony Movies Action (now Great Movies Action) Sony Classic and others were no longer available. We also lost a number of other channels. When I used the term ‘space/connections’ I meant Multiplexes, there were no longer as many available to carry/transmit all the channels. I had to have a new aerial installed, free under the ‘in-home assistance’ provided by DMSL, in order to view most of the channels after the change.
I’m afraid your reply is partly mistaken in what happened, when and why. Being in a rural area is irrelevant, it’s a case of whether the area is served by a main transmitter that has a Local multiplex. As previously mentioned, Local multiplexes are only broadcast from a limited number of main transmitters. I’ll provide some history with links to other webpages that have details.
On the 27th June 2019, a number of Sony’s channels – then called True Movies, True Entertainment, & etc. were moved by Sony to Local Multiplexes reducing coverage (and transmission cost!), they were previously on ArqA & B multiplexes which covered around 90% of the country. Sony then “rebranded” all it’s movie channels on the 10th September 2019.
Unfortunately due to a number of changes to Freeview’s own website and DigitalUK, the official listing of the changes is no longer available, and some of the links in pages referring to the changes no longer work. Freeview also are in the habit of removing the details of older changes from their site!
Over a similar period in 2019 a number of transmitters where changing UHF channels as part of the 700MHz Clearance programme (for 4G/5G). Some of these meant that the new UHF channels were in a different aerial group to the original ones, so in weaker signal areas, new aerials were needed by some people to continue to receive the available multiplexes – you were obviously one of those.
Details of Sony’s changes are referred on the following –
https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/comment/93888438#Comment_93888438
https://ukfree.tv/extras/inreplyto/894343
The following is the best summary –
https://ukfree.tv/extras/inreplyto/895716
https://www.geektown.co.uk/2019/07/31/sony-rebrands-uk-channels-creates-uks-first-free-to-air-movie-network/
https://ukfree.tv/extras/inreplyto/907418
Transmitters in parts of the SouthWest, West Country and parts of South Wales were affected by the out of group changes in this period – examples are Huntshaw Cross, Mendip, Carmel to name just 3.
Additionally a number of transmitters in the SouthWest lost the two temporary multiplexes COMs 7&8 which means they lost some HD, SD and +1 channels, this had nothing to do with “space” because of 4/5G, it was purely to do with the masts and transmitter equipment. COM8 has since closed for commercial reasons at the remaining 25 Main Transmitters at the end of June 2020. COM7 will close by the end of June 2022 at the latest, that IS to do with “space” for 4/5G
Freeview lists which channels/LCNs are carried on which multiplex, there’s a link in one of the posts linked above. If you know which transmitter you get your signals from, I should be able to give more technical information.
I hope that the new owners introduce subtitles to some or all of their content. Sony didn’t offer any subtitles, disgusting discrimination in 2021. Most films & shows already have subtitles available so hardly much of an effort to display them!
I’m with you on that front. If they can release films and tv boxsets on DVD and Blu-ray with multiple language subtitles, then they can provide subtitles on their channels. I suffer with partial hearing loss, so struggle to watch some programmes.
Absolutely agree. It was disgraceful that a brand like Sony could ignore something so basic in 2021
I second that