[interestednovice]

There was also the third purpose in the Sky Travel/early Sky Three era, of selling package holidays...

I view that as an extension of purpose two (monetise the channel, without cannibalising other Sky services).

[Rex]

The DOG staying on is an odd choice. Sky Arts is FTA and they don't keep the DOG on constantly for that. Unless that's about to change too?

Well since then - Sky Mix now has the DOG disappearing like most of Sky's channels. So that definitely won't be changing.

[Stuart]

Well since then - Sky Mix now has the DOG disappearing like most of Sky's channels. So that definitely won't be changing.

I suspected that was always going to be the case after a short while. I think it was just to emphasise the change of for the first few weeks for people channel surfing.

[CCFG]

Sky Mix SD at 12070 H (Ireland) and 12148 H (United Kingdom) has ended. Sky Mix now only in HD on and off the EPG on satellite.
rxtvinfo.com 

Sky turns off Sky Mix SD satellite signal > RXTV info
A week after launching its first permanent free-to-air HD channel, Sky has disco…
  Source: rxtvinfo.com

[frasergj]

Sky Mix SD at 12070 H (Ireland) and 12148 H (United Kingdom) has ended. Sky Mix now only in HD on and off the EPG on satellite.
rxtvinfo.com 

Don't seem to have ended quite yet, got the Ireland version on right now via Manual Tuning on My Q box...

[Stuart]

Don't seem to have ended quite yet, got the Ireland version on right now via Manual Tuning on My Q box...

The article does say they re-uplinked it the following day, but it remains off the EPG on DSat in the UK/RoI. Apparently it's easy to pick up across Europe, whereas the HD version is in the UK/RoI spotbeam.

[frasergj]

The article does say they re-uplinked it the following day, but it remains off the EPG on DSat in the UK/RoI. Apparently it's easy to pick up across Europe, whereas the HD version is in the UK/RoI spotbeam.

Yeah looks like the article has been updated since I read it earlier. Either the original removal was premature or something still needed it (it isn't being picked up and rebroadcast on Freeview or something?)

[mixchris]

Well since then - Sky Mix now has the DOG disappearing like most of Sky's channels. So that definitely won't be changing.

I find it odd that Sky have this practice, I would've thought in this multi-channel / digital / streaming age that they'd keep the DOG on their channels on permanently like Sky Sports & Sky News.

[WillPS]

I find it odd that Sky have this practice, I would've thought in this multi-channel / digital / streaming age that they'd keep the DOG on their channels on permanently like Sky Sports & Sky News.

I think the idea is that they don't give viewers of entertainment content a worse picture than what they'd get via streaming (via Sky or elsewhere).

Of course, there's still the small matter of advert breaks which continue to worsen the experience... guess that's a harder problem to solve.

On live content it's pretty normal for the screen to be covered in stuff so it'd be a bit weird if they didn't add a logo to it.

[mixchris]

I think the idea is that they don't give viewers of entertainment content a worse picture than what they'd get via streaming (via Sky or elsewhere).

Of course, there's still the small matter of advert breaks which continue to worsen the experience... guess that's a harder problem to solve.

On live content it's pretty normal for the screen to be covered in stuff so it'd be a bit weird if they didn't add a logo to it.

Considering how small Sky have made their DOGs, I can't see how it'd worsen the entertainment offering. They keep them alive on Challenge and formerly Pick. Sky's ad breaks have got to be the worst.