Another cut for Sony Crime

Sony has made a further cut back to its ill-fated Crime channel as the broadcaster continues to lose interest in the service.

Sony Crime+1 on Sky channel 279 was closed today, leaving just the main channel live on Sky channel 179, as well as via Virgin Media.

Sony Crime was launched in a blaze of publicity at the beginning of last year, launching free-to-air on all major TV platforms, with a high profile mix of crime drama and factual series. Disappointing ratings led to the channel being dropped from Freeview, moved down the Sky channel list and being stripped of its drama series in favour of a pure factual-reality based schedule at the end of June.

In September, all of its sister channels were rebranded and relaunched in a move that included True Entertainment becoming Sony Channel and Movies4Men becoming Sony Movies Action, leaving just Sony Crime with unchanged branding.

The current remaining schedule now consists of a handful of series being shown back-to-back.