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Performance and Mainstreet rebranded

Sky Arts logo
  • Posted at 5:15pm
  • 04 October 2008
  • by DoctorDigital-RT
  • 3 comments

Q I subscribed to Sky solely to receive the channels Performance and Mainstreet, both oases of top-quality music. But several weeks ago, Performance disappeared, and then Mainstreet followed suit. What's happened?
Roger Dickinson, via email

A When Performance closed in July, its sister channel, the more rock-oriented Mainstreet, continued (Performance's old slot was taken by Sky Arts +1). But then Mainstreet did indeed stop broadcasting rather suddenly, on 10 September - after our listings for the following week had gone to press! It's being rebranded as Rock-On TV, but it's not clear yet when the new-look channel will return - it'll be this month at some point. In the meantime, you might enjoy Sky Arts 2, which launches on 20 October. It promises a mix of opera, classical music, dance and fine arts, with the original Sky Arts - or Sky Arts 1 as it will be called - carrying contemporary and cult films, documentaries, rock concerts and dramas.

**

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Comments

  • Posted on 13 July 2009
  • at 4:07pm
  • by DoctorDigital-RT

FAO Tom - At least most and very probably all current US series are shot in widescreen but that doesn't mean you'll see them that way here. Many UK digital channels solely broadcast in the old 4:3 size and that's even though Ofcom requires all adverts to be made in widescreen. This is why you'll often see channels suddenly go letterboxed for the ad breaks.

Some 4:3 channels do, sometimes, show widescreen series in a letterbox but it's also common to see them get it wrong. I was watching a film the other night and although it was letterboxed because it was widescreen, the left and right sides were cut off. It was extremely apparent because the credits were saying things like "idescreen productio".

More often, and equally bad but arguably less distracting, 4:3 channels here may show versions of the widescreen series made for the old 4:3 size. LivingTV screened Veronica Mars this way, but then it also edited the episodes so it's hard to know who to blame first.

It's all down to the capacity of the channel, whether it technically has enough capacity to show a full-size widescreen picture. Yet there's also frustrating confusion: the first DVD season sets of House and How I Met Your Mother, amongst others, were released in the UK in the cropped 4:3 format. This is particularly galling because they were correct in America and the US routinely releases both a widescreen and a 4:3 version of films on DVD.

US shows on the terrestrial channels here, though, are shown correctly.

  • Posted on 13 July 2009
  • at 3:28pm
  • by Tom

Does digital TV mean widescreen? Many US TV shows still appear to be in 4x3 format.

  • Posted on 29 January 2009
  • at 9:47pm
  • by MikShari

I am really letdown by the service Zone Horror gives ie:

Repeats,up to 3 times for crap films(the one that has this crazy female with syringes on her fingers and 3 couples running around a deserted factory getting picked off,the Nazi zombie lake(3times)The Evil Dwarf made for the views of naked females all strung out on an opiate. And others I can't remember and Beastmaster its worse than Buffy the Vampire slayer its not the BeeB but Virgin Media c'mon Richard you can do far better than this

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