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

Updated: 16 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, Wednesday 16 September 2026, leans on archive drama before the documentary takes over: two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes and two Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes run back to back from 6pm, then The Lost Leonardo takes the 8pm hour. Two Beyond The Brush episodes follow at 9:55pm and 10:25pm, and The Nineties and a Mannerism documentary close out the night. Full breakdown below.

Sky Arts Schedule: Wednesday 16 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Sky Arts schedule for Wednesday 16 September 2026, on Freeview 36.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Sky Arts today

Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story opens the overnight run at 1:55am, followed by an episode of National Trust: Garden Treasures at 3:50am and Painting Birds With Jim And Nancy Moir at 5:05am. LSO: Inaugural Concert 2024 fills breakfast from 6am, before two Joy Of Painting episodes lead into two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes and two Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes through mid-morning.

Discovering: Christopher Plummer and U2: Classic Albums fill late morning into midday, before two more Tales Of The Unexpected episodes, an Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Painting Birds With Jim And Nancy Moir carry the afternoon. Discovering: Jeff Bridges at 4pm and Portrait Artist Of The Year 2024 at 5pm close out the day ahead of the evening line-up below.

Sky Arts tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Sky Arts primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 16 September 2026.

Tales Of The Unexpected — Sky Arts, 6pm & 6:30pm

Two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes open the evening back to back, the anthology’s trademark twist endings landing at 6pm (series 5, episode 12) and 6:30pm (series 5, episode 13).

Alfred Hitchcock Presents — Sky Arts, 7pm & 7:30pm

Alfred Hitchcock Presents takes over for a second double bill at 7pm (series 1, episode 32) and 7:30pm (series 1, episode 33), ahead of the evening’s main documentary.

The Lost Leonardo — Sky Arts, 8pm

The Lost Leonardo fills the whole 8pm hour, the feature documentary following the disputed Salvator Mundi painting through auction houses, private buyers and lingering doubts over its real authorship.

Beyond The Brush — Sky Arts, 9:55pm & 10:25pm

Two Beyond The Brush episodes run back to back from 9:55pm (series 1, episode 3) and 10:25pm (series 1, episode 4).

The Nineties — Sky Arts, 10:55pm

The Nineties continues its cultural retrospective at 10:55pm (series 1, episode 2).

Art’s Wildest Movement: Mannerism — Sky Arts, 11:55pm

The night closes at 11:55pm with Art’s Wildest Movement: Mannerism, tracing the deliberately exaggerated, artificial style that followed the High Renaissance (series 1, episode 3).

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 36, 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?

Two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes and two Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes open primetime from 6pm, then The Lost Leonardo takes the 8pm hour. Two Beyond The Brush episodes follow at 9:55pm and 10:25pm, and The Nineties and a Mannerism documentary close out the night. 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.

Tonight’s evening keeps to a familiar shape: archive drama first, documentary second. Two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes and two Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes fill the run-up to primetime, then The Lost Leonardo takes the whole 8pm hour, before two Beyond The Brush episodes, The Nineties and a Mannerism documentary carry the night from 9:55pm. Standard practice for a channel filling twenty-four hours a day on a mix of its own commissions, licensed film and archive drama.

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