After more than a decade as one of Freeview\u2019s stalwart movie channels, Great! Movies is being demoted today in a channel reshuffle that sees it lose its status as a \u201cproper\u201d terrestrial channel.<\/p>\n
Starting September 4, Great! Movies is swapping places with Great! Mystery \u2013 but this isn\u2019t just a simple number change.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s actually happening is that Great! Movies is going from being a channel you can watch with just an aerial to one that needs both an aerial and broadband to work (and a connected Freeview box).<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on Sky, Great! Movies is permanently changing into Great! Mystery.<\/p>\n
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The good news is that Great! Mystery, along with some of the other Great! Channels are getting a content boost.<\/p>\n
The Long Journey from Sony to Great! <\/p>\n
What we now know as the Great! Movies channel started life back in 2014 when Sony Pictures Television bought CSC Media Group and all their free-to-air channels, including what was then called \u201cSony Movies.\u201d<\/p>\n
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For years, Sony Movies sat happily on Freeview Channel 33, showing everything from Hollywood blockbusters to the more obscure stuff from Sony\u2019s massive film library.<\/p>\n
It was part of a family that included Sony Movies Classic, Sony Movies Action, and the seasonal Sony Movies Christmas that popped up every winter.<\/p>\n
Everything changed in May 2021 when American investment firm Narrative Capital bought Sony\u2019s entire UK channel collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n The rebrand to \u201cGreat!\u201d started on May 25th that year, with Sony Movies becoming Great! Movies and all the others following suit.<\/p>\n Since then, Great! Channels\u2019 road has been\u2026 eventful. Great! Real, for example got the chop from both Freeview and Sky<\/a> just five months after its launch, eventually becoming streaming-only.<\/p>\n Then in February 2024, all the Great! channels vanished from Freesat<\/a> without any warning \u2013 a sudden disappearance that left satellite viewers with hardly any movie options and sparked plenty of angry complaints.<\/p>\n What\u2019s Changing Today <\/p>\n Great! Movies, which has lived on Freeview Channel 50 until now, is moving to Channel 61.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Great! Mystery \u2013 previously stuck on Channel 61 as a streaming-only service \u2013 is taking over the much better Channel 50 slot and becoming a full terrestrial channel.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the important difference: Channel 61 operates as a streaming channel, which means you need both a Freeview aerial and a working broadband connection to watch it.<\/p>\n No internet? No Great! Movies. This also means you can\u2019t record it on traditional Freeview boxes like the popular Manhattan T4-R<\/a> \u2013 the streaming nature just doesn\u2019t play nicely with older recording equipment.<\/p>\n Great! Mystery\u2019s promotion to Channel 50, on the other hand, means it becomes a standard over-the-air channel that only needs an aerial<\/a> \u2013 the way most Freeview channels still work.<\/p>\n Similar changes are happening across Sky\u2019s platform today, where Great! Movies (Satellite 321), Great! Movies HD (Glass\/Stream 318), and Great! Movies+1 (Satellite 322) are all permanently rebranding to their Great! Mystery equivalents.<\/p>\n In addition to connected Channel 61, Great! Movies will also continue to be available on the Great! Player \u2013 Narrative\u2019s streaming platform \u2013 which is available on streaming devices such as the Amazon Fire TV sticks<\/a>, and on the web.<\/a><\/p>\n Why the Change? <\/p>\n According to Narrative Entertainment, which runs the Great! network, it all comes down to viewing figures.<\/p>\n \u201cMystery has proved to be really popular since launch,\u201d a spokesperson told Cord Busters, which explains why they\u2019re giving the crime-focused channel the easier-to-access terrestrial slot.<\/p>\n The company also said they\u2019re integrating more movie content into the genre channels (TV, Action, Mystery and Romance\/Christmas), so there\u2019s still plenty of movies across the portfolio.<\/p>\n What\u2019s On Great! Mystery? <\/p>\n Great! Mystery\u2019s success makes sense when you look at what it actually broadcasts.<\/p>\n The channel has built up a decent following with classic detective series like Murder, She Wrote and Castle, plus British crime dramas such as Ruth Rendell Mysteries.<\/p>\n Mystery and crime shows have always done well on television \u2013 they\u2019ve got loyal audiences who\u2019ll happily binge-watch episode after episode.<\/p>\n By giving Great! Mystery the more accessible Channel 50 slot, Narrative is clearly banking on viewers being more interested in detective marathons than the mixed bag of older films that Great! Movies offered.<\/p>\n Christmas Comes Early (Again) <\/p>\n Today\u2019s channel shuffle coincides with another yearly ritual we told you about earlier this week \u2013 the arrival of Great! Christmas.<\/a><\/p>\n The festive channel returns to Freeview Channel 52, Sky 319, and Virgin Media 424, temporarily booting out Great! Romance for its four-month Christmas takeover until January 6.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s highlights include the UK terrestrial debut of Christmas in the Caribbean starring Liz Hurley, plus Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays with Priscilla Presley.<\/p>\n Steve Hornsey from Narrative Entertainment isn\u2019t apologising for the early start: \u201cForget the naysayers, everybody loves Christmas \u2013 and the earlier it starts, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Murder, She Wrote <\/p>\n
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