Great! TV
Great! TV (stylized as GREAT! tv)[1][2] is a British-English language general entertainment channel in the United Kingdom owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. It originally launched as Sony Entertainment Television on 7 April 2011.[3] However, it was closed on 6 February 2018 and replaced by Sony Crime Channel. It was brought back for a second time on 10 September 2019 when it replaced True Entertainment. The relaunched Sony Channel had different idents and programming than the former due to inheriting some programming from its predecessor True Entertainment and on 25 May 2021, following Narrative Capital's acquisition of Sony's channels, it was rebranded as Great! TV.
Country
Great! TV +1
Sony Pictures Television (2011–21)
Narrative Entertainment UK Limited (2021–present)
7 April 2011 (original)
10 September 2019 (relaunch)
Original
Film 24 (SET)
Open Access 3 (SET +1)
Relaunch
True Entertainment
6 February 2018 (original)
Sony Crime Channel (original)
Sony Entertainment Television (2011–16)
Sony Channel (2016–21)
Channel 50
Channel 62 (+1)
Sony Entertainment Television (2011–2016)
Sony Channel (2016-2018)
Sony Channel (2019–2021)
Sony Channel +1 (2019–2021)
Programming[edit]
Original[edit]
The original Sony Channel was aimed at women aged between 25 and 54 and broadcast a range of dramas and comedies, including Hawthorne, Huff, and 'Til Death.[11] Sony Entertainment Television also brought UK series Hustle and Hotel Babylon, along with the last season of Las Vegas and reruns of Crossing Jordan, Dawson's Creek, My Boys, Ned and Stacey, and NewsRadio.[12] It also showed movies from SET's parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment, such as The Da Vinci Code, All the King's Men, Marie Antoinette, and Philadelphia. From September 2011, Holby City began airing on Sony Entertainment Television.[13]
On 16 May 2012, Sony Entertainment Television began showing BBC Spy drama Spooks from series 1.[14] It was announced on 2 August 2012, that Sony Entertainment Television acquired the rights to broadcast Hot in Cleveland in the UK and Ireland, and it showed season 3 on 14 September 2012, season 1 and season 2 had already been broadcast on Sky Living.[15] The channel also broadcast the American sitcom Community,[16] ITV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl and the BBC's highly successful Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars. The channel started to broadcast the UK TV premieres of various other programmes including The Night Shift, Saving Hope, Younger, Satisfaction and Orange Is the New Black. Paranormal content on the former channel included Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International and Celebrity Ghost Stories. In 2017, the channel began to broadcast repeats of America's Got Talent.
Relaunch[edit]
The relaunched Sony Channel (which later became Great! TV) retained some programming from its predecessor channel, True Entertainment, but added more Sony-owned programmes to the schedule.