Sky Arts TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Sky Arts Tonight

Published: 12 September 2026

Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated arts channel: live concerts, gallery and biography documentaries, its own painting competitions, and plenty of archive drama besides. It has been free-to-air since 17 September 2020, when it arrived on Freeview and Freesat alongside its existing Sky and Virgin Media carriage. There’s no subscription and no account needed to watch it.

Tonight, Sunday 13 September 2026, is another music-led evening, though a quieter one than a full documentary run: the concert film Andre Rieu: Romantic Paradise opens early evening at 6:10pm, then a repeat broadcast of Breakfast At Tiffany’s takes the 8pm slot. Queen: Rock The World follows at 10:15pm, and the weekly country strand Opry Live closes out the night at 11:30pm. Full breakdown below.

Sky Arts Schedule: Sunday 13 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Sky Arts schedule for Sunday 13 September 2026, on Freeview 11.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Sky Arts today

Overnight runs the concert film Pink Floyd: P.U.L.S.E from 1:10am, then a Led Zeppelin instalment of Classic Albums at 4am carries the schedule towards breakfast. A Who edition of the same strand fills 5am, and the documentary Pavarotti In Central Park takes over at 6am.

Five Tales Of The Unexpected episodes run through mid-morning, then two editions of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour take late morning. The circus spectacular Cirque Du Soleil: Varekai fills 1pm, before a repeated Who episode of Classic Albums and The Who: Live At Hyde Park carry the rest of the afternoon ahead of the evening below.

Sky Arts tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Sky Arts primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 13 September 2026.

Andre Rieu: Romantic Paradise — Sky Arts, 6:10pm

The Dutch violinist and his Johann Strauss Orchestra perform in Tuscany, working through a mixed programme that runs from waltzes to Nino Rota’s love theme from The Godfather.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s — Sky Arts, 8pm

A repeat outing for the 1961 romantic comedy, with Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly and George Peppard as the writer who moves in downstairs. The feed marks it “new”, but this is a familiar film getting another airing, not a fresh release.

Queen: Rock The World — Sky Arts, 10:15pm

A documentary built around the band recording their sixth album and preparing a US tour, mixing archive footage from 1977 with supplementary material shot in 2017.

Opry Live — Sky Arts, 11:30pm

The weekly broadcast from Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, tonight featuring Chris Young, Gary Sinise & the Lt Dan Band, and Sara Evans. It’s flagged as new in the listings, but this is the regular strand rather than a one-off launch.

What kind of shows are on Sky Arts

Live concerts and music documentaries

Concerts get the money and the camera crews, from arena nights with Andre Rieu down to something as small as Nicola Benedetti & Friends. Classic Albums goes through a record’s studio history track by track, usually with someone who was there at the mixing desk soloing the parts. The Discovering strand does the same job for careers rather than records.

Its own arts competitions

Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year are the channel’s best-known commissions: amateur and professional painters working against the clock on a real sitter or a real view, judged by a rotating panel that has included Kate Bryan, Kathleen Soriano and Tai-Shan Schierenberg, with Stephen Mangan hosting. The jeopardy is real because the deadline is real, which is more than most competition formats can say. Watercolour Challenge, now running as an archive repeat, is the lighter version: three amateurs, one scene, four hours.

Archive drama and classic film

The two Hitchcock strands and Tales of the Unexpected are anthology drama, built on twist endings rather than continuing storylines, which is exactly why they survive being shown out of order at half past one on a midweek afternoon. The Movies puts short introductions in front of older features so daytime viewers get some context first.

How to watch Sky Arts

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Sky Arts across the main UK television platforms:

Virgin Media, Sky and Freely channel numbers can vary slightly by region and box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

There’s no free standalone web player for Sky Arts in the way some other free-to-air channels offer one. Existing Sky TV customers can stream it through the Sky Go app at no extra cost, while anyone can add a NOW Entertainment Membership to watch Sky Arts live plus its substantial on-demand library, though that membership carries its own monthly cost.

Sky Arts streaming and catch-up

The linear schedule is the catch-up service. Sky Arts repeats its concert specials and music documentaries often, usually around an anniversary or whenever an artist is back in the news, so a missed broadcast tends to come round again within a few months. Worth checking the listings rather than assuming it has gone.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is Sky Arts on Freeview?

Sky Arts is on Freeview channel 11, with no subscription or account needed to watch it.

Is Sky Arts free to watch?

Yes. It’s been free-to-air since 17 September 2020, when it launched on Freeview and Freesat. There’s advertising during programmes, but no fee to watch the live channel on any platform.

What’s on Sky Arts tonight?

Andre Rieu: Romantic Paradise opens early evening at 6:10pm, then a repeated Breakfast At Tiffany’s takes 8pm. Queen: Rock The World follows at 10:15pm, and the weekly Opry Live closes the night at 11:30pm. Full times are in the schedule table above.

Can I watch Sky Arts online for free?

Only through an aerial, dish or existing Sky/Virgin box. There’s no free web stream for a phone or laptop. Existing Sky customers get Sky Go at no extra cost; everyone else would need a paid NOW Entertainment Membership for Sky Arts live plus its on-demand catalogue.

Verdict

Sky Arts earns its keep, mostly. Nothing else on free-to-air British television commissions arts programming at this scale, and the concert strand is the sort of thing a subscription service would happily charge for. The archive drama filling the daytime is comfortable rather than essential, and there is an awful lot of it.

Sunday’s evening leans on music again, but more lightly: Andre Rieu’s Tuscan concert opens at 6:10pm, then a repeat of Breakfast At Tiffany’s takes the 8pm slot rather than a fresh documentary. Queen: Rock The World runs at 10:15pm, and the weekly Opry Live closes out the night. Standard practice for a channel filling twenty-four hours a day on a mix of its own commissions, licensed film and archive footage.

Related: BBC Four TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week