In its early days, it was owned and managed by a public partnership (Artsworld Channels) including Sir Jeremy Isaacs.

[2] Sky subsequently bought out the remaining shareholders (including Isaacs) and in June 2005 took full control, reducing the staff further, and dropping the channel's premium subscription fee shortly afterwards.

[4] This resulted in all of BSkyB's wholly owned channels carrying the Sky name (until Pick TV was launched and Virgin Media Television – which included Challenge – was acquired).

[citation needed] Picks included a Franz Ferdinand documentary entitled Rock it to Rio, a concert performance by Damon Albarn's new band The Good, the Bad & the Queen as well as documentaries and films on Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Rachel Whiteread and Elvis Costello.

[citation needed] In 2013, Sky Arts launched Portrait Artist of the Year, a painting competition series presented by Frank Skinner and Joan Bakewell.

[8] The first series was won by Nerine McIntyre and she was awarded a commission to paint the scene made famous by John Constable at Flatford.

As of 2024, series on Sky Arts[27][28] include Classic Albums,[29] The Great Songwriters[30] and Guy Garvey: From the Vaults,[31][32] with the channel also having picked up repeats of Alfred Hitchcock Presents,[33] Tales of the Unexpected[34] and The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross.

[36] In addition, episodes of the Grand Ole Opry,[37] the long-running American country music programme,[38] and albums documentary series Record On[39][40] have turned up in the schedules on an ad hoc basis, with the Record On episode concerning The Specials, A Message to You,[41] being scheduled as a one-off programme in a night of music shows,[42] alongside documentaries about The Clash[43] and X-Ray Spex.

[citation needed] This channel focused on high brow programme and featured classical music, opera, dance, fine arts programming and reruns of Tales of the Unexpected.

[45] On 9 June 2015, at 06:00 UTC+1 (05:00 UTC), Sky Arts 2 closed after showing its final classical music programme followed by promos for the new merged channel.