“Our station portfolio is strongly geared to the wishes of our customers and is regularly adjusted accordingly,” explained the pay-TV provider on Tuesday.
As a reaction to the changed user behavior, two channels will disappear from the Sky portfolio at the end of the month: Kinowelt.TV and Stingray Classica. While Kinowelt.TV has been showing a colorful mix of films from all over the world around the clock since 2004, the Stingray Classica channel, launched in 1996 under the name Classica, focused on operas, ballet and classical concerts. Both channels were only available in SD.
Sky provides a replacement
At least film fans will be well served on Sky even after Kinowelt.TV has been switched off, both via the existing channels and via the planned streaming service Paramount+, which is scheduled to start in 2022 and will be activated for all customers of the cinema package at no additional cost. Others, not even Sky customers, can book the streaming offer. You can get a subscription to the Sky Ticket streaming service here. (Advertisement)
So far, there is no substitute for the 24/7 Stingray Classica program. It is also unclear how Sky will use the vacated channel slots in the future.