Sky Atlantic

Sky Atlantic is a television channel owned by British Sky Broadcasting, which launched on 1 February 2011 on Sky in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sky Atlantic is available in both standard definition and high definition, the latter on Sky Atlantic HD. Stuart Murphy extended his responsibilities to become director of programmes for Sky1, Sky2, Pick TV 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 Sky Anytime+ and Sky Go services. Both BT Vision and Virgin Media had held talks with BSkyB over the new channel but have been unable to agree a carriage deal, in Virgin's case due to pricing.

It was announced on 25 October 2010, that Sky Atlantic would launch on Sky channel 108, which was previously occupied by Sky3. 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 173.

Programming
Sky Atlantic relies heavily on screenings of US television programmes, with 40% of all programming coming from HBO. Although the channel mainly screens dramas, there are blocks in the schedule dedicated to comedies, movies and a showcase of content from Sky Arts. Sky have also committed to commission at least six UK programmes per year for the channel.

The launch of Sky Atlantic followed the broadcaster's £150m, five-year deal to snap up the exclusive UK and Irish TV rights to HBO's entire archive, new HBO programming and a first-look deal on all co-productions. The deal does not cover programmes with pre-existing agreements with other broadcasters, such as the first-run rights to Eastbound & Down and True Blood on FX, until their licence expires. Sky is also understood to have bid at least 25% more than the BBC to acquire Lionsgate Television's Mad Men. On 5 January 2011, Sky secured Blue Bloods and The Borgias for Sky Atlantic in a deal with CBS Studios International.


 * 24 - (seasons 7 and 8 only)
 * Angels in America
 * Awake
 * Battlestar Galactica
 * Big Love
 * Blue Bloods
 * Boardwalk Empire
 * Bored to Death
 * Curb Your Enthusiasm
 * Empire Falls
 * Enlightened
 * Entourage
 * ER
 * Falcón
 * Flight of the Conchords
 * Friday Night Lights
 * Funny or Die Presents
 * Game of Thrones
 * Generation Kill
 * Hit & Miss
 * House
 * How to Make It in America
 * Hung
 * In Treatment
 * Inside the Actors Studio
 * Luck
 * Mad Men
 * Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge
 * Mildred Pierce
 * Networks of Power
 * Nurse Jackie - (season 3 only)
 * Prison Break - (season 4 only)
 * Seinfeld
 * Six Feet Under
 * Smash
 * Star Trek: Enterprise
 * Star Trek: The Next Generation
 * Star Trek: Voyager
 * Tell Me You Love Me
 * The Borgias
 * The British
 * The Mind of the Married Man
 * The Newsroom
 * The Pacific
 * The Sopranos
 * The Wire
 * The X-Files
 * Thirtysomething
 * This is Jinsy
 * Treme
 * True Blood
 * Veep
 * Weeds

Most watched programmes
The following is a list of the ten most watched shows on Sky Atlantic, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB up to 18 March 2012. The number of viewers does not include repeats.