Sky Deutschland Launches 24/7 'Star Wars' Channel for Holidays

Star Wars set the bar for lots of things: special effects, box-office receipts, the incorporation of mythological storytelling structure, the number of aliens that can fit comfortably into a bar. But its real legacy is The Deal: Lucas negotiated rights to both the merchandising and the sequels -- deemed worthless by Fox in 1977, but today they are worth billions.

Two weeks of Lucas-palooza for German Jedis

Sky Deutschland, the German pay TV group, is giving Star Wars geeks the ultimate Christmas present.

From Dec. 1 to 14, the broadcaster is turning its Sky Hits digital channel into Sky Star Wars HD, programming all six Star Wars films, as well as Star Wars-themed featurettes and documentaries, on a 24-hour loop. All Sky subscribers in Germany and Austria will have access to the round-the-clock Lucas-palooza.

"We all know that for Star Wars fans it is too long to wait till Dec. 18, 2015 (for the launch of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII)," said Sky Deutschland vp programming Gary Davey, adding he hoped the 24/7 Star Wars channel would make the wait "a bit sweeter."

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The round-the-clock channel was made possible via a deal with Disney and Lucasfilm, which control the rights to the Star Wars movies.

Sky Star Wars HD will show all six Star Wars feature films on a loop in their narratively-correct order, starting with 1999's Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace through to the 1983 classic Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi.

In between the films, the channel will air a total of 20 behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of all six movies as well as two Star Wars documentaries from Emmy winner Kevin Burns: Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy (2004) and 2007's Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed.

Sky Deutschland is Germany's largest pay TV company, reaching around 3.8 million subscribers in Germany and Austria. This summer, Britain's BSkyB agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox $9.1 billion for its majority stake in Sky Deutschland and all of Italian operator Sky Italia to create Europe's largest pay TV group, with 20 million customers.

Twitter: @sroxborough