ITV Encore launches on Sky

ITV Encore has today launched on Sky. The new channel is the broadcaster’s first major return to Pay-TV for more than a decade, it is exclusive to Sky customers.
ITV Encore, which aims to be a showcase for the “best of contemporary British ITV drama”.

The centrepiece of the launch of the channel, ITV’s first major return to Pay-TV since the collapse of ITV digital more than a decade ago, will be the airing of Broadchurch for the first time since its original transmission more than a year ago.
ITV has scheduled the award-winning eight part drama in double bills from Monday through Thursday.
The broadcaster has also lined up Mrs Biggs, which tells the story of Ronnie Biggs and the Great Train Robbery from the viewpoint of his former wife, and the final four stories in David Suchet’s 25 years playing Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

“Drama is a genre that we know audiences love and we have worked with some fantastic talent, both on and off screen, to build a really strong stable of series and serials over the years,” said the ITV director of television, Peter Fincham. “ITV Encore will give viewers the opportunity to revisit, or indeed discover, a wealth of ITV drama from recent times.”

The schedule will also include The Ice Cream Girls, adapted from Dorothy Koomson’s novel, and biopic Lucan, starring Rory Kinnear. Whitechapel and DCI Banks will air from their first series.
Later this year ITV intends to launch a new female-focused, free-to-air channel, called ITVBe, which will become the home of shows including The Only Way is Essex.
The channel is not available on any other platforms.