End Of An Era: Sky Kills Off One Of Its Oldest Channels

Sky is pulling the plug on one of its longest-running repeat channels, with Sky Replay set to disappear from the EPG at 6am on Thursday, October 30, 2025.

The closure affects Sky Replay, Sky Replay ROI, and Sky Replay HD across all platforms – meaning the channel will vanish from both Sky’s satellite service (channel 152) and Sky Glass / Stream (channel 160, or 156 in the Republic of Ireland).

For anyone wanting to mark the occasion with a strong coffee, the final programme to air on Sky Replay will be 6ixth Sense with Colin Fry at 5:30am on Thursday morning.

Not exactly a blockbuster finale, but then again, Sky Replay has spent the last few years recycling content rather than making headlines.

The closure, officially announced today, comes just a couple of weeks after a major channel reshuffle on Sky, which saw 14 channels moved around (see the full list below).

A Channel with Many Lives

Sky Replay has had quite the journey since its original inception. The channel first launched way back on December 9, 2002 as Sky One Mix, serving as a catch-up service for Sky One.

Back then, it broadcast from noon to midnight and even featured a children’s block called “Animix” in the afternoons.

The channel went through several identity changes over the years – becoming Sky Mix in 2004, then Sky Two in 2005 (reviving an even older brand name from 1996), before settling on Sky Replay in August 2020.

The idea was straightforward enough: give viewers another chance to catch programmes from Sky Max (formerly Sky One) and Sky Witness if they’d missed them the first time around.

In the early days of Sky Replay, the channel would show these programmes just hours or days after their original broadcast – functioning as a sort of linear catch-up service.

But here’s the thing – by early 2025, that catch-up function had been quietly dropped. Instead, Sky Replay became little more than a holding pen for shows with expiring rights and endless loops of older content.

If you’ve stumbled across the channel in recent years, you’ve probably seen Stargate SG-1 (which was apparently on a five-year time loop), Highway Patrol, Border Patrol, or various other factual programming that had long since had its day on Sky’s primary channels.

The Age of On-Demand

In 2025, the existence of a dedicated repeat channel does feel rather quaint, doesn’t it? We live in an era where nearly everything is available on-demand (or recorded) whenever you fancy rewatching it.

Sky’s own platforms offer catch-up services, and most of us have become accustomed to pressing a button and having entire box sets at our fingertips.

It’s why +1 channels – those that simply broadcast the same content an hour later – have been steadily disappearing from our EPGs.

They made perfect sense 15 or 20 years ago when you genuinely might miss the start of a programme and want to catch it an hour later. Now? Just rewind it, or stream it later. Problem solved.

Sky Replay falls into the same category. If you want to rewatch an episode of a show from Sky Max or Sky Witness, you don’t need a separate channel showing it at an arbitrary time three days later – you can just fire up the on-demand service and watch it whenever suits you.

Of course, there will be some viewers – particularly older customers with legacy equipment – who don’t have access to on-demand features and might have relied on Sky Replay.

But let’s be honest: Sky’s primary channels already broadcast their fair share of repeats anyway. Sky Max, Sky Witness, and the rest regularly schedule older episodes and series, so it’s not as if repeat content is disappearing entirely.

There just isn’t much need for a dedicated repeats channel anymore.

Sky Mix: The Exception That Proves the Rule

Now, you might be wondering about Sky Mix – another Sky channel that also shows repeats and older content. Why is that one sticking around whilst Sky Replay gets the chop?

The answer is simple: Sky Mix serves a completely different purpose. Unlike Sky Replay, which was a subscription channel on Sky’s satellite platform, Sky Mix is a free-to-air channel on Freeview (channel 11).

It acts as a showcase, giving non-subscribers a taste of Sky’s programming catalogue.

Sky Mix features Sky Originals, films, and acquired titles from Sky Atlantic and Sky Witness – essentially functioning as an advert for Sky’s paid services.

The hope is that viewers will watch an older series or a few episodes of something they enjoy, and be tempted to subscribe to get access to the newer stuff.

Sky Replay, by contrast, was aimed at people who were already paying for Sky – and who already had access to all those shows through other means.

What’s Filling the Gap?

Following Sky Replay’s closure, Sky Sci-Fi will be shuffling down the EPG on satellite only, moving from channel 139 (or 140 in Scotland) to take over Sky Replay’s old slot at channel 152. On Sky Glass and Stream, Sky Sci-Fi will remain on channel 116.

It’s worth noting that this channel closure follows other recent reshuffles across Sky’s platforms.

Earlier this month, there was a significant reorganisation of Sky’s kids channels on satellite, with numerous channels moving to new EPG positions.

The full list of changes – all affecting satellite only – includes:

• Nick Jr. Too (UK & ROI services) moved from 613 to 612
• POP moved from 614 to 613
• Tiny Pop moved from 615 to 614
• Nickelodeon+1 moved from 616 to 615
• RTÉ Jr (ROI) moved from 617 to 616
• POP+1 moved from 618 to 617
• Tiny Pop+1 moved from 619 to 618
• Nick Jr+1 moved from 622 to 619
• Nickelodeon HD (ROI) moved from 623 to 620
• RTÉjr (NI) / Cúla4 HD (ROI) moved from 624 to 621
• Nick Jr HD (ROI) moved from 625 to 622
• BabyTV moved from 626 to 623
• Cúla4 HD (NI) moved from 627 to 624
• Nick Jr. HD moved from 645 to 643

For satellite viewers with young children, it means retraining your muscle memory if you regularly hop straight to a specific channel number.

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