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

Updated: 20 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 20 September 2026, the evening opens with a full-length George Harrison tribute, Concert For George, at 6:30pm, before a Rolling Stones double bill takes over: Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush at 9:20pm and Stones In Exile closing out the night at 11:20pm. Full breakdown below.

Sky Arts Schedule: Sunday 20 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Sky Arts schedule for Sunday 20 September 2026, on Freeview 11.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Sky Arts today

A Led Zeppelin documentary opens the overnight run just after midnight, followed by the Deep Purple concert film Perfect Strangers at 2am and a short Jethro Tull profile at 4:30am. A Doors documentary from the Classic Albums strand picks up at 5am, before a Rodgers & Hammerstein anniversary concert fills breakfast from 6am and five Tales Of The Unexpected episodes run through mid-morning.

Two Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes carry late morning into midday, when a Cream reunion concert from the Royal Albert Hall takes over at 1pm. An Elvis profile and a Genesis documentary fill the mid-afternoon, before Concert For George opens the primetime line-up below.

Sky Arts tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Sky Arts primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 20 September 2026.

Concert For George — Sky Arts, 6:30pm

Filmed at the Royal Albert Hall a year after George Harrison’s death, this all-star tribute brought together Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty and members of the Monty Python team for a night that mixed heartfelt performances of Harrison’s songs with the humour he was known for among friends. Nearly three hours long, so it fills most of the run-up to primetime on its own.

The Rolling Stones: Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush — Sky Arts, 9:20pm

The first half of tonight’s Stones double bill, capturing a rare small-venue show the band played as a warm-up ahead of a stadium tour. The size of the room changes the mood: less spectacle, more of the band working a room they can actually see the back of.

The Rolling Stones: Stones In Exile — Sky Arts, 11:20pm

A documentary rather than a concert film, tracing how Exile on Main St. came together while the band was living as tax exiles in the south of France. Archive footage and reflections from the band cover a chaotic recording process that still produced one of their most enduring albums.

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?

Concert For George opens the evening at 6:30pm, then a Rolling Stones double bill takes over: Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush at 9:20pm and Stones In Exile closing out the night at 11:20pm. 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 breaks from the usual archive-drama-then-music shape and hands the whole evening to rock tributes and archive concert film: the Harrison tribute Concert For George opens at 6:30pm, then a Rolling Stones double bill carries the rest of the night, a concert film followed by a documentary about the making of Exile on Main St. Standard practice for a channel filling twenty-four hours a day on a mix of its own commissions, licensed concert film and archive drama.

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