Sky Atlantic
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Sky Atlantic

Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited that launched in 2011 and broadcasts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel airs original British-produced dramas like Fortitude, Tin Star, and Gangs of London but is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States. It has held the domestic rights to HBO programming since 2011, which is set to expire in early 2026, and has previously held the domestic rights to Showtime programming from 2016 to 2021. It is exclusively available on the Sky satellite TV platform (including Sky Go and Now).

Sky Deutschland broadcasts a German-language version of the channel in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, while Sky Italia broadcasts an Italian-language version of the channel in Italy. Their programming is also dominated by acquired series, usually dubbed in the domestic language. The Italian channel also premieres Sky Originals produced in the country, like Gomorrah, The Young Pope, and ZeroZeroZero.

It was announced on 25 October 2010 that Sky Atlantic would launch on Sky channel 108, which was previously occupied by Sky 3. Sky Atlantic launched on 1 February 2011 on Sky in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

At launch, Stuart Murphy was the director of programmes for Sky One, Sky Two, Pick and Sky Atlantic. On 5 May 2011, Elaine Pyke, the head of drama at Sky, was promoted to director of Sky Atlantic, reporting to Murphy. Programmes on the channel are also offered to Sky customers via on-demand channels including the On Demand and Sky Go services and Now. Both BT TV and Virgin Media had held talks with Sky over the new channel but have been unable to agree a carriage deal, in Virgin's case due to pricing.

A one-hour timeshift of Sky Atlantic started broadcasting on 20 September 2012 on channel 173 as Sky Atlantic +1. It moved to channel 170 on 9 June 2015 as part of a reshuffle which also included the closure of Sky 3D, Sky Livingit becoming Real Lives and Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 merging to become simply Sky Arts. It moved to channel 217 on 18 July 2017 as part of the Sky Sports reshuffle which included Sky Sports Mix moving to entertainment, and again to 208 on 1 May 2018 as part of Sky's major EPG reshuffle due to Sky Atlantic being channel 108.

Sky Atlantic was available in both standard definition and high definition, the latter on Sky Atlantic HD. Sky Atlantic also utilises the HD swap bouquet system developed by Sky, which switches SD channels with HD channels for HD Pack subscribers, meaning Sky Atlantic HD is on channel 108 and the standard definition version appears on channel 808.

Sky Atlantic VIP was a rewards channel for subscribers of Sky TV who had been with Sky for two or more years and for subscribers who had the Sky Original Bundle (later Sky Entertainment pack, then Sky Signature pack). The HD version also required the HD pack in the UK and the Sky Box Sets pack in Ireland. The channel only broadcast brand new episodes of a popular show a week or so before being shown on the main Sky Atlantic channel. An example of this is when episodes of Riviera were shown first on Sky Atlantic VIP, then a week or so later on Sky Atlantic. Sky Atlantic VIP was under Sky VIP's "See-It-First" offer. Sky VIP is a rewards programme for long-term Sky subscribers. When the channel was not broadcasting a brand new episode of a programme, the channel was off-air resulting in the channel being on-air only for a few hours per week. The channel only broadcast adverts for programmes on Sky channels. The SD version was on Sky channel 994 with the HD version on channel 995. The channel closed on 12 June 2019.

In January 2024, select programming begun being simulcast on Sky Showcase.

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