Just noticed from my TV magazine that Sky Atlantic are running three of their best series from episode one in each case starting on Monday lunchtime with The Wire at 12.05pm, The Sopranos at 4.25pm then Game of Thrones at 7.45pm. They are all on daily after that.
Sky Comedy is doing the same with Veep at 5.30pm, Curb Your Enthusiasm at 6.40pm then Sex and the City at 7.50pm. Again these are on daily after Monday.
Set your series links up if you want to rewatch any of these.
Will these programmes be cut for daytime viewing or is Sky on a mission to see how far they can push beyond the Ofcom Code in regard of pre-watershed broadcasts?
As you correctly surmised, Sky has instituted mandatory pre-watershed PIN protection for these daytime broadcasts.
I believe this is the first time Sky has used such PIN protection on entertainment channels (i.e. beyond the usual application for subscription film channels) following the years-long consultation with Ofcom to widen the scope of PIN protected content.
The grand experiment seems to have lasted a week. A flurry of complaints to the Sky help forums questioning the necessity of mandatory PIN entry during daytime broadcasts may have killed off (for now, at least) the ability to watch more 'adult' content during timeslots legislated to be child-friendly.