Foxtel Arts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Country | Australia |
|---|---|
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV 16:9) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Foxtel Networks |
| Sister channels | Foxtel Networks channels |
| History | |
| Launched | 28 March 2015 |
| Replaced | Studio (2015) Foxtel Smooth (2020) |
| Closed | 1 September 2021 |
| Replaced by | Famous |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Foxtel Go | Channel 133 & 806 |
Foxtel Arts was a subscription television arts channel available in Australia on the Foxtel platform.[1]
Foxtel Arts replaced the SBS owned arts channel Studio, and became the third iteration of a dedicated arts channel on Foxtel in six years.[2] The Foxtel owned and operated channel launched at 10am AEST on 28 March 2015.[3] Part of the reason for launching the channel was to give Foxtel the ability to pitch programming to viewers aged over 55, a demographic the service began to pursue in 2014.[4] In addition, the launch came at a time when Foxtel sought to bring more channels 'in-house' in order to obtain more exclusive content deals to increase their competitiveness with new streaming services such as Netflix and Stan.[5]
From 11 October 2017, Foxtel Arts became a part-day channel, and was only broadcast between 6pm and midnight. This was due to a move by Foxtel to enable Foxtel Arts to share the same broadcast bandwidth as Foxtel Smooth, which was in turn only available between midnight and 6pm.[6] It was then reverted to a 24-hour channel on 1 July 2020, following Foxtel Smooth's closure.[7][8]
On 1 September 2021, the channel was closed down and replaced by FOX Docos on channel 129 on both Foxtel and the streaming service BINGE.[9]