Sky have announced plans to scrap Bravo and Channel One (formerly Virgin 1), thus increasing the budget of Living by 25%. This comes after their recent acquisition of Virgin Media's suite of digital channels, now known as the Living TV Group. What does this mean for viewers? Well, I would assume Sky will incorporate the best of Channel One and Bravo's programming into their existing channels. If so, Spartacus: Blood & Sand, Sons Of Anarchy, Chuck, White Collar, and the upcoming Hawaii Five-0 could transfer to Sky1 next year.
One question though: was it worth rebranding Virgin1 if the channel was to be scrapped before the year's out? No wonder it was given such an unnimaginative new name!
What do you make of this surprising move? Will you mourn the loss of those two channels? While it's more than likely their best shows will re-appear somewhere else, not everything will. Would Sky be interested in the likes of Deadliest Warrior, for example? And now that Sky own so many digital channels, we're losing a sense of competition in the digital marketplace.
Update: The reason for Bravo's demise is apparently because Sky believe it covers the same demographic as Sky1, but lacks the reach and prestige of their existing channel. Similarly, Sky believe that Channel One/Virgin 1 was too similar to Sky3. They also plan to move Challenge to Channel One's slot on Freeview.
