Sky widescreen plans confirmed

Sky have confirmed the plans to move to more Widescreen programming in the April issue of Sky magazine. Page 40 reports the shift on April 2nd of the Box Office channels and the planned partial shift for the Movie channels in June. In addition the magazine confirms that selected Sky One and Sky One Mix programmes will also be in Widescreen.

Sky's move finally moves them forward on what many in the forums have been hoping for years and predicting since last October. This phased change sounds like a sensible approach slowly ensuring that many (if not most) of the consumers understand the settings needed to get the best from widesceen programmes.

Unlike the home produced sports coverage on Sky's Sports channels - which are in 16x9 with a 4x3 safe zone - the new widescreen channels will be true 16x9 and require people to change the default settings on their digibox.

More on Digital Spy over the coming weeks and months and keep an eye on the forums for discussion on this and related subjects.