Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, films, documentaries and music (such as opera performances and classical and jazz sessions).

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.

Nick Lord won the first series and was awarded a commission to paint Hilary Mantel for the British Library.

[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.