Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has acquired Film24’s slot on Sky’s electronic programming guide and is preparing to launch its own UK channel in early 2011.

Canis Media – which acquires and sells EPG slots on Sky’s satellite platform – brokered the sale of Film24’s channel slot at 157 on Sky’s EPG to Sony Pictures Television, and is now working with the firm on the channel’s “day-to-day management”.

Sony currently offers video on-demand content on BT Vision and owns a 50% stake in Virgin Media’s FilmFlex VOD service, but it has never launched a standalone channel in the UK.

It is expected to launch a UK version of AXN, which is already available on many other European pay TV operators.