Youth channel Rapture has joined the Sky Digital line up on Astra, increasing its carriage by a third to approximately 5.7 million homes including analogue satellite and cable. Rapture, owned jointly by United News and Media and Telewest, has been allocated Channel 187 in the EPG – in the Entertainment, rather than Kids, category. "We’re not a children’s channel, not only in our view, but in Sky’s view as well. There’s a clear distinction between children’s channels and channels like Rapture," said commercial director Robert Ditcham. Rapture is targeting the 16-24 age group. "The EPG is a lever and we’re not going to get two downhearted that we’re on page three."

Significantly Rapture will not be a part of a specific Sky package, but will instead transmit in-the-clear. For the time being Rapture will continue to broadcast on weekends only (1000-1800) before extending to a seven-day-a-week operation in the new year.

Rapture also has analogue carriage on the Astra 19 degrees East platform, sharing with Film Four, and UK cable networks where digital distribution deals have also been negotiated. It is anticipated that Rapture will drop its dedicated cable distribution feed on Intelsat 605 at 27.5 degrees West during January. Instead cable operators – as has been the case with the majority of other programmers joining Sky Digital – will have to take the signal from Astra 2A.