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NOW TV channels

By Phil Wilkinson-Jones | Monday, August 16th 2021

NOW TV is one of the biggest and most popular streaming services around – and with good reason. Not only does it offer thousands of movies and box sets on demand, subscribers get access to live Sky channels without being tied into a lengthy contract.

There are five NOW TV memberships to choose from and while it would be expensive to sign up to all of them, individually they each offer pretty good value for money. In this guide we’ll look at the channels included with each NOW TV Membership as well as the sort of on demand content you can expect to see.

NOW TV Entertainment Membership

The NOW TV Entertainment Membership features some of the most popular Sky channels as well as an absolute tonne of TV box sets including some of the biggest TV hits of recent years – we’re talking about the likes of Game of Thrones, Chernobyl and Mare of Easttown. Let’s take a look at the channels on offer.

  • Sky Atlantic – The home of so many of Sky’s biggest shows, with recent hits including I Hate Suzie, Billions and Watchmen. Sky Atlantic isn’t available from Virgin Media, BT or TalkTalk so a Sky TV subscription or a NOW TV Entertainment Membership is the only way to watch it
  • Sky One – Sky One has been showing a mix of comedy, drama,entertainment shows and documentaries for a long old time, and is still the place to catch your favourite episodes of The Simpsons
  • Sky History – Formerly known as the History Channel, Sky History has documentaries, reality shows and big budget dramas such as Vikings
  • Sky Nature – Hundreds of episodes of nature programmes including exclusive David Attenborough documentaries and Ultra HD content
  • Sky Witness – Sky Witness is the new name for Sky Living and features mostly crime or medical-based US drama series
  • Sky Comedy – The home of US comedy on Sky, there are old favourites like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Will & Grace, plus new episodes of long-running sketch show Saturday Night Live
  • Sky Crime – If you’re a fan of true crime documentaries, this is the channel for you
  • Sky Documentaries – This channel features more than 100 award-winning and talked-about documentaries on sporting moments, scandals, celebrities, politicians and more
  • MTV – Does still feature music although MTV is much more about reality TV these days with shows such as Cribs and Ex on the Beach
  • Comedy Central – Another channel bringing you bucket loads of American comedy shows, like Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, and South Park
  • VICE – If you’re familiar with the VICE magazine or website, you’ll have a good idea what sort of content the TV channel is going to carry. Most of it falls in the lifestyle category, but VICE’s shows tend to have an opinion and often focus on aspects of subcultures
  • GOLD – More classic British comedy shows than you can shake a stick at, we’re talking the likes of Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses and Porridge
  • SYFY – Plenty to watch here for fans of sci-fi, horror and fantasy, with shows such as The Magicians, The Expanse and Krypton
  • National Geographic – Documentaries, nature programmes and more based around the themes of adventure and discovery

NOW TV Sky Sports Membership

The Sky Sports Membership gives you access to 11 Sky Sports channels. There are no box sets to be found here but the channels, when not showing live events, have a good range of documentaries, classic clips and big-name interviews.

Sky Sports Premier League

With hundreds of Premier League games shown live every season, this is still the place to watch English football’s top flight, despite the emergence of BT Sport.

Sky Sports Football

Sky Sports’ second football channel focuses on live coverage of international football, the EFL, League Cup, Scottish football and European leagues.

Sky Sports Cricket

The big draw here is that Sky have the rights to England’s Test matches, but there’s also coverage of T20 competitions, the County Championship and more.

Sky Sports Formula 1

The only channel on which to watch live coverage of every race of the F1 season (the British Grand Prix is also shown on Channel 4 for free). All practice and qualifying sessions are also shown live.

Sky Sports Golf

Featuring live coverage of events including the European and PGA tour, the Masters, Open, US Open, PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup.

Sky Sports Racing

This horse racing channel, formerly known as At The Races, features daily tips for those who like a bet, live results, racecards, interviews and more.

Sky Sports Action

Sky Sports Action features live coverage of NBA, Rugby Union & League, Darts, badminton, NFL and more.

Sky Sports Main Event

Features the big events from the dedicated sports channels in one place and serves as an additional place for live content when there are, for example, two Premier League games being shown live simultaneously.

Sky Sports Mix

As the name suggests, there’s a bit of everything on here. Includes a lot of the sports that don’t have a dedicated channel like Rugby Union, Rugby League, swimming, basketball and tennis.

Sky Sports Arena

Another channel showing a mix of sports, including darts, superbikes and boxing.

Sky Sports News

Headlines and breaking news from the world of sport. The channel’s coverage of football’s transfer deadline day is always popular, as is Soccer Saturday as Jeff Stelling keeps you up to date with all the latest scores.

NOW TV Sky Cinema Membership

The Sky Cinema Membership gives you access to 11 live channels and also includes thousands of movies available to watch on demand. Here’s the full list of channels – we won’t attempt to go into detail describing them because the names speak for themselves.

  • Sky Cinema Premiere
  • Sky Cinema Hits
  • Sky Cinema Action
  • Sky Cinema Animation
  • Sky Cinema Family
  • Sky Cinema Comedy
  • Sky Cinema Sci-Fi Horror
  • Sky Cinema Thriller
  • Sky Cinema Greats
  • Sky Cinema Drama
  • Sky Cinema Select
  • Sky Cinema Premiere+1

The names are correct at the time of writing. Sometimes Sky either changes one of these names or adds an additional channel to celebrate a holiday, a particular film franchise or a new release. Recently there has been Sky Cinema Christmas, Sky Cinema Harry Potter and Sky Cinema Star Wars.

NOW TV Kids Membership

There are six live channels, Sky One, Sky Nature, and National Geographic included with the NOW TV Kids Membership as well as literally thousands of episodes available on demand. There’s loads to keep the little ones entertained including Henry Danger, Unikitty, Moominvalley and The Bureau of Magical Things. The full list of live channels is as follows:

  • Boomerang
  • Cartoonito
  • Cartoon Network
  • Nickelodeon
  • Nick Jr
  • NickToons

NOW TV hayu Membership

There are no live channels included with the NOW TV Hayu Membership but it does give you access to the latest episodes of top US reality TV shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Million Dollar Listing New York, Backyard Envy and Get A Room with Carson & Thom. There are more than 5,000 episodes available altogether so you can binge watch to your heart’s content.

Frequently asked questions

How long is a NOW TV subscription?

The Entertainment, Sky Cinema, Kids and hayu membership all last for a month and then automatically renew, but can be cancelled at any time. The Sky Sports membership can be bought either as a monthly membership or a day membership that lasts 24 hours and costs a one-off fee.

Is NOW TV cheaper than Sky?

Yes, in most cases NOW TV is a cheaper way of watching Sky channels than by signing up to Sky TV, although you miss out on all the other benefits that come with having a Sky Q set top box.

Does NOW TV have free channels?

No, in order to watch any live channels on NOW TV you’ll need to subscribe to one of the memberships we’ve outlined above. If you have a NOW TV set top box, you will be able to access subscription-free apps such as BBC iPlayer and All4, although you do need a TV licence to watch anything on the iPlayer.

On what devices can I watch NOW TV?

You can watch NOW on over 60 different devices, including a smart TV, laptop, tablet or phone. You can stream NOW content on newer Smart TVs, Amazon Fire, Google Chromecast and most newer gaming consoles. You can also access the NOW TV app via a TalkTalk or BT YouView box.

Can you get a free trial of NOW TV?

Yes, you can have a free seven-day trial of the Entertainment, Sky Cinema, Kids or hayu membership. The memberships then renew automatically unless you cancel. There’s no free trial available for the Sky Sports membership.

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