Sky UK Limited is a British
broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of
Sky Group
Sky Group Limited is a British media conglomerate, media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a division of Comcast, and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ital ...
and from 2018 onwards, part of
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
. It is the UK's largest
pay-TV
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...
broadcaster with 12.7 million customers as of the end of 2019 for its digital
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
TV platform. Sky's flagship products are
Sky Q
Sky Q is a subscription-based television and entertainment service operated by British satellite television provider Sky, as a part of its operations in Austria and Germany, Ireland, Italy and in the UK. The name also refers to the Sky Q set-t ...
and the internet-based Sky Glass, and its flagship channels are
Sky Showcase
Sky Showcase is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021 along with Sky Max. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a division of American media company Comcast.
The channel was announced on 28 July 2021 to replace S ...
,
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
and
Sky Atlantic
Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HBO ...
.
Formed as British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in November 1990 through the merger of
Sky Television and
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with ...
, it grew into a major media company by the end of the decade, notably owning all the television broadcasting rights for the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
and almost all the domestic rights of
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
films. Following BSkyB's acquisition of
Sky Italia
Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an agree ...
and a majority interest in
Sky Deutschland
Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (through Sky Switzerland). It provides a collection of basic and premium digital sub ...
in 2014, its holding company British Sky Broadcasting Group plc changed its name to Sky plc (now
Sky Group Limited).
The UK subsidiary's name was changed from British Sky Broadcasting Limited to Sky UK Limited, and continuing to trade as "Sky".
Sky UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
-owned Sky Group, with its current company directors (including that of
Sky Ireland
Sky Ireland Limited is a subsidiary of Comcast-owned Sky and supplies television, internet and telephony services in Ireland.
Its corporate headquarters are in Dublin which were opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 18 January 2013.
Sky Ireland e ...
) being Executive Vice-President Stephen van Rooyen and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Lyssa McGowen. Its corporate headquarters are at the
Sky Studios
Sky Studios is a production company founded by Sky in June 2019 with assets from the now defunct Sky Vision. It develops, produces and funds original drama, comedy and documentary, and has investments in a number of production businesses in t ...
in
Isleworth
Isleworth ( ) is a town located within the London Borough of Hounslow in West London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane, London, River Crane. Isleworth's or ...
.
History
Origins
The present service can trace its heritage back to 1990, when BSkyB's predecessors
Sky Television and
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with ...
encrypted their respective film channels –
Sky Movies
Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema ...
and
The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel (TMC) is an American premium television network owned by Showtime Networks, a subsidiary of Paramount Global operated through its Media Networks unit. The network's programming mainly features first-run theatrically released ...
which required viewers to get decoding equipment and a subscription to watch the channels. After the two companies merged, subscribers could get access to both channels, and two years later, the sports channel
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
also became encrypted.
Premier League football
In the autumn of 1991, talks were held for the broadcast rights for
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
for five years, from the 1992 season.
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
were the current rights holders and fought hard to retain the new rights. ITV had increased its offer from £18m to £34m per year to keep control of the rights. BSkyB joined forces with the
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to make a counter bid. The
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was given the highlights of most of the matches, while BSkyB paying £304m for the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
rights, would give them a monopoly of all live matches, up to 60 per year from the 1992 season. Murdoch described sport as a "battering ram" for pay television, providing a strong customer base. A few weeks after the deal, ITV went to the High Court to get an injunction as it believed their bid details had been leaked before the decision was taken.
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
also asked the Office of Fair Trading to investigate since it believed Rupert Murdoch's media empire via its newspapers had influenced the deal. A few days later neither action took effect, ITV believed BSkyB was telephoned and informed of its £262m bid, and
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
advised BSkyB to increase its counter bid.
BSkyB retained the rights paying £670m 1997–2001 deal, but was challenged by ONdigital for the rights from 2001 to 2004, thus were forced to £1.1 billion which gave them 66 live games a year.
Following a lengthy legal battle with the European Commission, which deemed the exclusivity of the rights to be against the interests of competition and the consumer, BSkyB's monopoly came to an end from the
2007–08 season. In May 2006, the Irish broadcaster
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...
was awarded two of the six Premier League packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters. Sky picked up the remaining four for £1.3bn.
In February 2015, Sky bid £4.2bn for a package of 120 premier league games across the three seasons from 2016. This represented an increase of 70% on the previous contract and was said to be £1bn more than the company had expected to pay. The move has been followed by staff cuts, increased subscription prices (including 9% in Sky's family package) and the dropping of the 3D channel.
Sky Multichannels
In September 1993, BSkyB launched
Sky Multichannels
Sky Multichannels was a package of analogue television services offered by BSkyB on the Astra satellites at 19.2° east from 1 September 1993 to 27 September 2001, which started off with 15 channels before expanding to over 40.
History Overv ...
which was the present digital platform's analogue predecessor. Sky Multichannels was a subscription package that gave access not only to Sky's channels but also to those of third-party broadcasters.
The service started on 1 September 1993. It was based on an idea by then CEO
Sam Chisholm
Samuel Hewlings Chisholm Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (8 October 1939 – 9 July 2018) was a New Zealand-born Australian media executive who was a significant figure in the Australian media.
Career
Chisholm attended King ...
and chairman
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
of converting the company's business strategy to an entirely fee-based concept. The new package included four channels formerly available
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
, broadcasting on Astra's satellites, as well as introducing new channels.
The service continued until the closure of BSkyB's analogue service on 27 September 2001,
due to the expansion of the Sky Digital platform after its launch three years before. Some of the channels did broadcast either in the clear or soft encrypted (whereby a Videocrypt decoder was required to decode, without a subscription card) before their addition to the Sky Multichannels package.
Within two months of the launch, BSkyB gained 400,000 new subscribers, with the majority taking at least one premium channel as well, which helped BSkyB reach 3.5 million households by mid-1994.
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, (born 8 March 1943) is an English television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 ( ...
criticised the operations in front of the Select Committee on National Heritage, mainly for the lack of original programming on many of the new channels.
Launch of Sky Digital
BSkyB's digital service was officially launched on 1 October 1998 under the name Sky Digital, although small-scale tests were carried out before then. At this time the use of the Sky Digital brand made an important distinction between the new service and Sky's analogue services. Key selling points were the improvement in picture and sound quality, increased number of channels and an interactive service branded
Open...., later called
Sky Active
Sky Active was the brand name for interactive features on Sky Digital and was available in the UK and Ireland. It enabled a viewer to interact with TV content, respond to an advertisement or access internet-based services.
History and techn ...
. BSkyB competed with the
ONdigital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...
(later ''ITV Digital'') terrestrial offering and cable services. Within 30 days, over 100,000 digiboxes had been sold, which helped bolster BSkyB's decision to give away free digiboxes and mini dishes from May 1999.
In addition to most channels from the Sky Multichannels package, many of which broadcast additional hours on Sky Digital, Sky Digital launched several new channels that were exclusive to the digital offer.
The switchover from analogue to digital proceeded relatively quickly. In 1998, there were 6 million 'multichannel' TV homes in the UK (i.e. homes that watch television other than the traditional analogue terrestrial), and over half of these homes watched television using BSkyB's analogue service. BSkyB's digital service surpassed the analogue service in terms of subscribers in late 1999.
By June 2000 the service had 3.6 million subscribers, which gave BSkyB 8.988 million subscribers across all platforms. This substantial growth reflected BSkyB's 34% share of viewers in multi-channel homes (up from 13.4% in 1999).
BSkyB's analogue service ended in October 2001, and the digital service would eventually be marketed as just 'Sky'.
By June 2005, the number of digital subscribers increase to 7.8m, while it produced 38,375 hours of sport in 2005.
In November 2005, in partnership with
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
,
Sky Mobile TV
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
was launched which was the UK's first commercially available mobile TV service.
Vodafone live!
Vodafone live! was the brand name for the multimedia portal service of mobile phone operator Vodafone, offering news content, picture messaging, instant messaging, email, and downloadable ringtones and games. The service officially launched on 24 O ...
customers with
3G enabled handsets would receive the service.
2010s
Sky's direct-to-home satellite service became available in 10 million homes in 2010, Europe's first pay-TV platform to achieve that milestone. Confirming it had reached its target, the broadcaster said its reach into 36% of households in the UK represented an audience of more than 25m people. The target was first announced in August 2004, and since then an additional 2.4m customers had subscribed to Sky's direct-to-home service. Media commentators had debated whether the figure could be reached as the growth in subscriber numbers elsewhere in Europe flattened.
In December, the UK's parliament heard a claim that a subscription to Sky was 'often damaging' to welfare recipients, along with alcohol, tobacco and gambling.
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MP
Alec Shelbrooke
Alec Edward Shelbrooke (born 10 January 1976) is a British Conservative politician who has been Member of Parliament for Elmet and Rothwell since 2010. He served as Minister of State for Defence Procurement in the Ministry of Defence from Se ...
was proposing the payments of benefits and tax credits on a "Welfare Cash Card", in the style of the American
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people. It is a federal aid program, ad ...
, that could be used to buy only "essentials".
In 2016, Sky launched its new TV and entertainment service called
Sky Q
Sky Q is a subscription-based television and entertainment service operated by British satellite television provider Sky, as a part of its operations in Austria and Germany, Ireland, Italy and in the UK. The name also refers to the Sky Q set-t ...
.
On 1 March 2018, it was reported that Sky UK had concluded successful negotiations with
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
to offer Sky subscribers access to its international streaming service.
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
, the largest cable TV provider in the United States, outbid
21st Century Fox
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...
, on 22 September 2018 in an auction for control of Sky UK. On 4 October 2018, Fox sold their stake to Comcast, giving the latter a 76.8% controlling stake. On 12 October 2018, Comcast announced it will compulsorily acquire the rest of Sky after its bid gained acceptance from 95.3% of the broadcaster's shareholders with the company being delisted by early 2019. Sky was delisted on 7 November 2018 after Comcast acquired all remaining shares.
2020s
On 17 September 2020, Sky Arts became the first premium Sky channel to become available on the free to air terrestrial Freeview service, joining Sky News and a couple of channels which trace their linage back to
Flextech
Living TV Group was a British television consortium originally called Flextech before becoming a subsidiary of British Sky Broadcasting, with Challenge still broadcasting.
Living TV Group had several owned channels, available in the United K ...
(
Pick and
Challenge).
On 28 July 2021, Sky announced that its flagship channel
Sky One
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...
would shut down on 1 September, to be replaced by two channels;
Sky Showcase
Sky Showcase is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021 along with Sky Max. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a division of American media company Comcast.
The channel was announced on 28 July 2021 to replace S ...
, showing a mixture of content from other Sky Channels, and
Sky Max
Sky Max is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021 along with Sky Showcase. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a subsidiary of Comcast.
The channel was announced on 28 July 2021 to replace Sky One, which had been ...
, showing Sky's original programming and entertainment previously shown on Sky One.
On 7 October 2021, Sky announced a new all-in-one TV set called Sky Glass. It is designed to support streaming of Sky TV and streaming service shows over WiFi, eliminating the need for a satellite dish or box. It launched on 18 October 2021, with three sizes available: 43-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch.
In October 2022 Comcast announced that it had written off 8.6 billion of its valuation of Sky, with its third-quarter sales dropping 14.7 percent to $4.3bn
Services
Digital terrestrial television
Sky initially faced competition from the
ONdigital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...
digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...
service (later renamed
ITV Digital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...
). ITV Digital failed for numerous reasons, including, but not limited to numerous administrative and technical failures, nervous investors after a large downturn in the advertising market and the
dot com crash
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
, and Sky's aggressive marketing and domination of premium sporting rights.
While Sky had been excluded from being a part of the ONdigital consortium, thereby making them a competitor by default, Sky was able to join ITV Digital's
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
replacement,
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
, in which it holds an equal stake with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
,
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
and
Arqiva
Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters ...
. Prior to October 2005, three Sky channels were available on this platform:
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
,
Sky Three
Pick (formerly Sky 3 and Pick TV) is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Sky UK.
History
Sky Three launched on 31st October 2005. It was essentially a barker channel for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky One and its other s ...
, and
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British pay television, paid television sports news channel run by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast.
History
Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and lat ...
. Initially, Sky provided
Sky Travel
Sky Travel was first launched on 3 October 1994 (and later in 2003 relaunched as Sky Travel Shop) and showed extensive programmes about travel, adverts for travel agencies, and documentaries, with Sky Travel Shop being the adverts for travel ag ...
to the service. However, this was replaced by
Sky Three
Pick (formerly Sky 3 and Pick TV) is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Sky UK.
History
Sky Three launched on 31st October 2005. It was essentially a barker channel for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky One and its other s ...
on 31 October 2005, which was itself later re-branded as 'Pick TV' in 2011.
On 8 February 2007, Sky announced its intention to replace its three free-to-air digital terrestrial channels with four subscription channels. It was proposed that these channels would offer a range of content from the Sky portfolio including sports (including English Premier League Football), films, entertainment and news. The announcement came a day after
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...
confirmed that it would launch in March as a subscription service on the digital terrestrial platform, and on the same day that NTL's services re-branded as
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
. However, industry sources believe Sky will be forced to shelve plans to withdraw its channels from Freeview and replace them with subscription channels, due to possible lost advertising revenue.
Video on demand
Sky initially faced increased competition from telecommunications providers to deliver pay television services over existing telephone lines using
ADSL
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...
. Such providers are able to offer "triple-play" or "quad-play" packages combining landline telephone, broadband Internet, mobile telephone and pay television services.
To compete with these providers, in October 2005, Sky bought the
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
Easynet
Easynet was a managed services provider and delivered integrated networks, hosting and unified communications services to organisations globally.
The company was later renamed Easynet Global Services, and a sister company, Easynet Connect, was fo ...
for £211 million. This acquisition allowed Sky to start offering a Sky-branded broadband service as well as a "
triple play
In baseball, a triple play (denoted as TP in baseball statistics) is the act of making three outs during the same play. There have only been 733 triple plays in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1876, an average of just over five per season.
Th ...
" package combining satellite television, land-line telephone and Broadband service. Sky also offers some streaming live TV channels to a computer using Microsoft's
Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich web applications, similar to Adobe Inc., Adobe's Run time environment, runtime, Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for a v ...
.
In early 2012, Sky released an update to its
Sky Anytime
On Demand was the brand name of a range of video on demand services from Sky UK designed to compete with rival companies such as Virgin TV or BT TV as well as internet television services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
On Demand, prev ...
service. This update offers customers the chance to buy and rent films from the
Sky Store
Sky Store is a service operated by Sky Group in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland that offers movies and TV shows via video streaming or DVD and Blu-ray Disc by mail. It originally launched in 2012 by Sky UK offering ov ...
.
On 26 September 2012, Sky relaunched its "Anytime+" on-demand-via-broadband service as "On Demand" as the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
's
iPlayer
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...
joined the line-up of channels offering catch-up TV on the company's
Sky+ HD
Sky+ HD was the brand name of the High-definition television, HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky (UK and Ireland), Sky to be viewed. For the first two ...
box – linked to a router, the signal from which was recorded before viewing. The BBC was making the preceding week's programmes available alongside
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's
All 4
All 4 is a video on demand service from the Channel Four Television Corporation, free of charge for most content and funded by advertising. The service is available in the UK and Ireland; viewers are not required to have a TV licence—required ...
,
Channel 5 and the partly BBC Worldwide-owned
UKTV
UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through ...
, as well as Sky's own channels.
Sky Go
Sky Go is provided free of charge for Sky (satellite TV) subscribers and allows them to watch channels live and on-demand through an internet connection on a computer or mobile device.
On 29 May 2009, it was confirmed that
Sky Go
Sky Go is a streaming television service from Sky Group provided free for Sky TV subscribers in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, it complements Sky TV by allowing subscribers to watch live and on demand Sky TV via an internet connec ...
would be made available on the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
. In November 2011 Sony Computer Entertainment struck a deal with Sky to bring some of its shows to the
PlayStation Store
The PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital media store available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via the PlayStation Network.
The store offers a range of downloadable content ...
Video Store. Users are able buy individual TV episodes in SD or HD. On 3 December 2014, Sky Go became available on the
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
under the name "TV from Sky", followed by the
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
on 29 January 2015.
Sky Broadband
On 1 March 2013, it was announced that Sky would buy
O2's and
Be's broadband services from
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...
for £180 million upfront plus another £20 million once customers have been transferred. Telefónica said the deal would allow it to concentrate on providing better mobile services, including rolling out 4G.
Sky offers superfast broadband, Sky Fibre, using ADSL2+ technology and fibre-optic, which are provided by
Openreach
Openreach Limited is a company wholly owned by BT Group plc, that maintains the telephone cables, ducts, cabinets and exchanges that connect nearly all homes and businesses in the United Kingdom to the national broadband and telephone network. I ...
.
Sky Mobile
On 21 October 2016, it was announced that public pre-registration for Sky's new mobile network, Sky Mobile, would take place from 31 October 2016. The network will operate as a Full
MVNO
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile ...
, utilising the
O2 radio access network infrastructure, and O2's full network speeds and 4G+.
On 5 January 2017 Sky Mobile went live to the public across the UK. Coining itself as the Smarter Network, with tariffs mainly focused on data rather than traditional calls & text, effectively saving consumers money in wasted unused minutes and texts. 1GB data costs £10.00 per month while 5GB costs £15.00 per month with 10GB data costing £20.00 per month. With all those data tariffs, the customer can choose from two different call & text packages with the 'Pay as you use' costing 10p per minute of calls and 10p per text message sent or £10.00 per month for Unlimited Calls & Texts. The Unlimited Calls & Texts package is free for new or existing Sky TV customers using the Sky Mobile network. Since it was launched Sky has reduced the cost of its tariffs with, as of March 2021, 2GB now starting for £6.00 per month, 8GB for £10.00 per month, 10GB for £12.00 per month, 25GB for £15.00 per month, 30GB for £20 per month and 60GB for £30 has and they have also expanded the Sky VIP offering to mobile plans. They have also expanded the "piggybank" facility to allow customers to "cash-in" piggybank data to bring the monthly cost of a phone down.
As of 30 March 2017, Sky Mobile is offering handset deals. Products are available from manufacturers such as
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
LG and
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
.
Sky Talk
Sky Talk is a fixed-line telephone service, with options for pay-as-you-go or bundled call minutes.
Sky Store
Sky Store has a library of films from Sky Cinema that can be rented or bought, either via an app or physical DVD/Blu-ray copies by post. Sky Store is available on Sky Q boxes as well as through apps on devices such as computers and mobile devices. It is available to anyone with a compatible device and does not require a Sky TV subscription.
NOW
An over-the-top contract-free television service from Sky. The service is provided on a NOW device or through an app on selected computers, mobile devices, set-top boxes and smart TVs. NOW is separate from the core Sky TV service.
Products
Sky Digibox
Sky launched with a set-top box known as the
Sky Digibox, using the Slogans ''"What do you want to watch?", "Entertainment your way"'' and the current slogan ''"Believe in Better"''.
[''Believe in Better''](_blank)
sky.com This was followed by Sky+, a
digital video recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
with an internal
hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
which allows viewers to 'pause live television' (by switching from a live feed to a paused real-time recording that can be restarted at any point) and schedule programs to record in the future.
In later years the
Sky+
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In th ...
box and then the
Sky+ HD
Sky+ HD was the brand name of the High-definition television, HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky (UK and Ireland), Sky to be viewed. For the first two ...
box replaced the original
Digibox
The Digibox is a device marketed by Sky UK in the UK and Ireland to enable home users to receive digital satellite television broadcasts (satellite receiver) from the Astra satellites at 28.2° east. An Internet service was also available ...
. The first photos of a prototype Sky HD box began appearing in magazines in August 2005. Sky launched
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
services in May 2006. All Sky+ HD boxes incorporate a version of Sky+ using a 300GB, 500GB, or 1TB hard drive (of which 160GB, 250GB or 500GB are available to the user) to accommodate the necessary extra data.
Sky+
Sky initially charged an additional subscription fee for using a Sky+ PVR with their service; waiving the charge for subscribers whose package included two or more premium channels. This changed as of 1 July 2007, and now customers that subscribe to any Sky package have Sky+ included at no extra charge. Customers that do not subscribe to Sky's channels can still pay a monthly fee to enable Sky+ functions. In September 2007, Sky launched a new TV advertising campaign targeting Sky+ at women. As of 31 March 2008, Sky had 3,393,000 Sky+ users.
In January 2010 Sky discontinued the Sky+ Box, limited the standard Sky Box to Multiroom upgrade only and started to issue the Sky+ HD Box as standard, thus giving all new subscribers the functions of Sky+. In February 2011 Sky discontinued the non-HD variant of its Multiroom box, offering a smaller version of the SkyHD box without Sky+ functionality.
Sky+ HD
Sky launched its
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
service,
Sky+ HD
Sky+ HD was the brand name of the High-definition television, HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky (UK and Ireland), Sky to be viewed. For the first two ...
, on 22 May 2006. Prior to its launch, Sky claimed that 40,000 people had registered to receive the HD service. In the week before the launch, rumours started to surface that Sky was having supply issues with its set-top box (STB) from the manufacturer
Thomson Thomson may refer to:
Names
* Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin
* Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson
Businesses and organizations
* SGS-Thomson Mic ...
. On Thursday 18 May 2006, and continuing through the weekend before launch, people were reporting that Sky had either cancelled or rescheduled its installation. Finally, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
reported that 17,000 customers had yet to receive the service due to failed deliveries. On 31 March 2012, Sky announced the total number of homes with Sky+ HD was 4,222,000.
In early 2012, Sky released an update to its Sky Anytime service. This update offers customers the chance to buy and rent films from the
Sky Store
Sky Store is a service operated by Sky Group in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland that offers movies and TV shows via video streaming or DVD and Blu-ray Disc by mail. It originally launched in 2012 by Sky UK offering ov ...
. In June 2012, Sky launched a new EPG for Sky+ HD boxes. The update included a new modernised look and improved functionality. As of 1 October 2012, Sky Anytime was rebranded as Sky On Demand which included
ITV Player
ITVX (formerly ITV Hub) is a British online video-on-demand service operated by ITV plc, ITV. The service offers predominantly features content from ITV1, as well as ITV Digital Channels, ITV Digital channels and some licensed content. The serv ...
and
Demand 5
My5 (previously Five Download and later Demand 5) is the brand name of video-on-demand services offered by Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. The service went live on 26 June 2008. It is owned by Paramount Global and operated by their Paramou ...
.
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...
followed in late autumn with 4oD which changed to
All 4
All 4 is a video on demand service from the Channel Four Television Corporation, free of charge for most content and funded by advertising. The service is available in the UK and Ireland; viewers are not required to have a TV licence—required ...
on 30 March 2015, and launched in early 2013.
Sky 3D
Sky began to broadcast programmes in
3D in April 2010. This included new 3D channels, including a ''Sky Sports 3D'' and ''Sky Movies 3D''. Sky previously experimented with 3D broadcasting by broadcasting an
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
vs
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
football game live in 3D in nine pubs situated throughout the United Kingdom.
Sky Q
On 18 November 2015, Sky announced
Sky Q
Sky Q is a subscription-based television and entertainment service operated by British satellite television provider Sky, as a part of its operations in Austria and Germany, Ireland, Italy and in the UK. The name also refers to the Sky Q set-t ...
, a range of products and services to be available in 2016. The Sky Q range consists of three set-top boxes (Sky Q 1TB, Sky Q 2TB and Sky Q Mini), a broadband router (Sky Q Hub) and mobile applications.
The Sky Q set-top boxes introduce a new user interface,
Wi-Fi hotspot
A hotspot is a physical location where people can obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local-area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an Internet service provider.
Public hotspots may be created by ...
functionality,
Power-line and
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
connectivity and a new touch-sensitive remote control. The Sky Q Mini set-top boxes connect to the Sky Q set-top boxes with a Wi-Fi or Power-line connection rather than receive their own satellite feeds. This allows all set-top boxes in a household to share recordings and other media. Sky Q Mini boxes are not capable of UHD playback due to hardware limitations.
Sky Q became available to order on 9 February 2016.
Unlike Sky, Sky+, and Sky+ HD boxes, Sky Q boxes remain the property of Sky and must be returned when the contract ends. Charges of up to £140 per item apply for unreturned items – Sky claims this charge does not buy the equipment, which must still be given back.
4K UHD
The Sky Q 2TB set-top box is capable of receiving and displaying
4K UHD
4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) is the dominan ...
broadcasts.
HDR was added on 27 May 2020, alongside the launch of Sky Nature and Sky Documentary channels. The HLG format is to be included in a select number of UHD VoD downloads, starting with Sky Nature before being added to other channel content. UHD broadcasts started on 13 August 2016, with the first live Premier League football match of the 2016/17 season, Hull vs Leicester City. UHD broadcasts are available free of charge to Sky Q 2TB multiscreen customers with any other relevant subscriptions.
Sky Glass
On 7 October 2021, Sky announced an in-house
Smart TV
A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techno ...
range known as Sky Glass. Features include a
4K quantum dot display
A quantum dot display is a display device that uses quantum dots (QD), semiconductor nanocrystals which can produce pure monochromatic red, green, and blue light.
''Photo-emissive'' quantum dot particles are used in LCD backlights and/or displa ...
, integrated
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horizontal, nor verti ...
surround sound speakers and voice controls. Also announced was a 4K camera with motion controls, gesture support and a TV sharing feature developed in partnership with
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
. The TV set is designed to stream video over an internet connection; a
satellite dish
A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radi ...
is therefore not required. It also includes a backup
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
tuner in case a broadband connection is not available. Sky Glass was released on 18 October 2021 in the UK, and 25 August 2022 in Ireland.
Sky Stream
On 27 September 2022, Sky announced a new streaming box called Sky Stream, which launched on 18 October 2022.
Television channels
Sky, and its sister companies, operate a number of channels in the UK and Ireland with some being joint ventures with other companies:
Entertainment
*
Sky Showcase
Sky Showcase is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021 along with Sky Max. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a division of American media company Comcast.
The channel was announced on 28 July 2021 to replace S ...
(+1 available)
*
Sky Max
Sky Max is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021 along with Sky Showcase. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a subsidiary of Comcast.
The channel was announced on 28 July 2021 to replace Sky One, which had been ...
*
Sky Atlantic
Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HBO ...
(+1 available)
*
Sky Comedy
Sky Comedy is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast, which launched on 27 January 2020, replacing Universal TV. It is the first dedicated full-time comedy station in Sky's channel portfolio since the ...
*
Sky Witness
Sky Witness is a British pay television tv channel, channel owned and operated by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel primarily broadcasts drama shows from the United States, aimed at the 18–45 age group. An Italian version ...
(+1 available)
*
Sky Replay
Sky Replay is a British pay television channel operated by Sky as a sister channel to Sky Max and Sky Witness. The current channel began broadcasting (as Sky One Mix) in December 2002. The 'Sky 2' name and format had earlier been used for a sim ...
*
Sky Sci-Fi
Sky Sci-Fi (formerly Sci Fi Channel and Syfy) is a British pay television channel service specialising in science fiction, fantasy and horror shows and movies. It is owned by NBCUniversal International Networks, a division of NBCUniversal and ...
*
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
(+1 available) (joint venture with
Paramount Global
Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...
)
*
Comedy Central Extra
Comedy Central Extra is a European pay television channel that launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2003. Followed by the Netherlands in 2011 were it was visible till 31 december 2022. Between 2012 and 2020 it was also available in par ...
(joint venture with Paramount Global)
*
Pick
*
Challenge
Lifestyle
*
Blaze (part-time +1 available)
(joint venture with A+E Networks UK)
Factual
*
Sky Arts
Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...
*
Sky Crime
Sky Crime is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel launched on 1 October 2019, replacing Real Lives. Sky Crime broadcasts crime dramas from Oxygen, HBO, Jupiter Entertainment and Woo ...
(+1 available)
*
Sky Documentaries
Sky Documentaries is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast, which launched on 27 May 2020. Sky Documentaries broadcasts imported programming from US networks HBO and Showtime, alongside new original p ...
*
Sky History
History (known as Sky History in the UK and Ireland) is a European documentary television channel which broadcasts programs related to reality programming, historical events and persons.
It is a joint venture between A&E Networks UK and Sky ...
(+1 available) (joint venture with A+E Networks UK)
*
Sky History 2
H2 (or History2) is a brand name owned by A&E Networks (a joint venture between the Hearst Communications and the Walt Disney Television division of The Walt Disney Company), used for a sister television channel of History. The brand was debuted ...
(joint venture with A+E Networks UK)
*
Sky Nature
Sky Nature is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast, which launched on 27 May 2020. Sky Nature broadcasts original Sky content, content from Canadian channel Love Nature, and Sky's collection of David ...
*
Crime & Investigation
Crime & Investigation (stylized as Crime + Investigation) is an American pay television channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between the Hearst Communications and the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The cha ...
(+1 available) (joint venture with A+E Networks UK)
News
*
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
*
Sky News Arabia
Sky News Arabia (stylised as Sky News عربية) ( ar, سكاي نيوز عربية ') is an Arabic 24-hour rolling news channel broadcast mainly in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a joint venture between UK-based Sky Group and Abu Dha ...
(joint venture)
Sports
*
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
Main Event
*Sky Sports Premier League
*Sky Sports Football
*Sky Sports Cricket
*Sky Sports Golf
*
Sky Sports F1
Sky Sports F1 is a television channel created exclusively for Sky's UK and Ireland coverage of Formula One, with Sky having a package of rights from the 2012 season to the 2029 season. From 2012 to 2029, Sky Sports F1 has the exclusive rights ...
*Sky Sports Action
*Sky Sports Arena
*Sky Sports Mix
*
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British pay television, paid television sports news channel run by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast.
History
Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and lat ...
*Sky Sports NFL
*
Sky Sports Racing
Sky Sports Racing (formerly At The Races) is a British pay television channel devoted to horse racing. A joint venture between Sky Group and Arena Racing Company, it broadcasts coverage of domestic, European and international horse racing ev ...
Movies (Films)
*
Sky Cinema
Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on ...
Premiere
*Sky Cinema Select
*Sky Cinema Hits
*Sky Cinema Greats
*Sky Cinema Animation
*Sky Cinema Family
*Sky Cinema Action
*Sky Cinema Comedy
*Sky Cinema Thriller
*Sky Cinema Drama
*Sky Cinema Sci-Fi Horror
Kids
*
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
(+1 available) (joint venture with Paramount Global)
*
Nick Jr.
Nick Jr. (known on-air as the Nick Jr. Channel) is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's long-running programming block of the same name. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Gr ...
(+1 available) (joint venture with Paramount Global)
*
Nick Jr. Too
Nick Jr. is a British pay television channel owned and operated by a joint venture between Sky Group and Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel is aimed at pre-school children.
History
Nick Jr. was first broadcast in the UK and Ire ...
(joint venture with Paramount Global)
*
Nicktoons
Nicktoons is a collective name used by Nickelodeon for their original animated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company (Viacom, now known as Paramount Global) in their ...
(joint venture with Paramount Global)
*
BabyTV
BabyTV (stylised as Baby''tv'') is a multilingual international television channel for babies, toddlers and preschoolers aged 3 or lower, owned by Fox Networks Group, a subsidiary of the Disney International Content and Operations division of T ...
(joint venture)
*
Sky Kids
Marketing
Sky (formerly marketed as Sky Digital) is the brand name for
Sky plc
Sky Group Limited is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a division of Comcast, and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's l ...
's United Kingdom digital
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
and
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
services. Slogans that have been used for marketing include ''"What do you want to watch?", "Entertainment your way"'' and the current slogan ''"Believe in Better"''.
Sky has also aired several advertisements featuring characters from
Toy Story
''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...
for ''
Toy Story of Terror!
''Toy Story of Terror!'' is an American computer-animated Halloween television special produced by Pixar Animation Studios and Disney Television Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures, based on the ''Toy Story'' franchise. It is set af ...
'' and ''
Toy Story That Time Forgot'',
''Minions'',
''Inside Out'', ''
Kung Fu Panda 3
''Kung Fu Panda 3'' is a 2016 computer-animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the third installment in the ''Kung Fu Panda'' franchise and the sequel to ''Kung Fu Panda 2' ...
'', ''
The Secret Life of Pets
''The Secret Life of Pets'' is a 2016 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is directed by Chris Renaud, co-directed by Yarrow Cheney (in his feature directorial d ...
'', ''
The Lego Batman Movie
''The Lego Batman Movie'' is a 2017 computer-animated superhero comedy film produced by Warner Animation Group, DC Entertainment, RatPac Entertainment, Lego System A/S, Dan Lin's Lin Pictures, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Lord Miller Pro ...
'', ''
Despicable Me 3
''Despicable Me 3'' is a 2017 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Despicable Me 2'' (2013), the third main installment, and the fourth installment overal ...
'' and ''
Monster Family
''Monster Family'' (also known as ''Happy Family'') is a 2017 computer-animated monster comedy film directed and produced by Holger Tappe, and co-written by David Safier. It is based on David Safier's children's book ''Happy Family''. The film st ...
''.
Broadcasting
Transmission
When Sky Digital was launched in 1998 the new service used the
Astra 2A
Astra 2A is one of the Astra communications satellites owned by Société Européenne des Satellites. Launched in 1998 into the 28.2° East orbital position, half its expected end-of-life capacity of 28 transponders were pre-booked by BSkyB, w ...
satellite which was located at the 28.2°E orbital position, unlike the analogue service which was broadcast from
19.2°E. This was subsequently followed by more Astra satellites as well as
Eutelsat
Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues.
Eutelsat's satellit ...
's Eurobird 1 (now
Eutelsat 33C
Eutelsat 133 West A (formerly Eurobird 1, Eutelsat 28A, and Eutelsat 33C) is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It was launched in March 2001, and after a short period testing at 33°E, joined Eutelsat ...
) at 28.5°E), enabled the company to launch a new all-digital service, Sky, with the potential to carry hundreds of television and radio channels. The old position was shared with broadcasters from several European countries, while the new position at 28.5°E came to be used almost exclusively for channels that broadcast to the United Kingdom.
New Astra satellites joined the position in 2000 and 2001, and the number of channels available to customers increased accordingly. This trend continued with the launch of Eurobird 1 (now Eutelsat 33C) in 2001. Additionally, some channels occasionally received new numbering – However, in early 2006, the majority of channels received new numbering, with some receiving single-digit changes, whilst others received new numbers entirely.
It was the country's most popular digital TV service until it was overtaken by
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
in April 2007.
Prior to the migration to Astra 2E, 2F and 2G, Sky was transmitted from the
Astra satellites located at
28.2° east (
2A/
2C/
2E/
2F) and
Eutelsat
Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues.
Eutelsat's satellit ...
's
Eutelsat 33C
Eutelsat 133 West A (formerly Eurobird 1, Eutelsat 28A, and Eutelsat 33C) is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It was launched in March 2001, and after a short period testing at 33°E, joined Eutelsat ...
satellite at 28.5°E.
As of 2019, Astra 2E, 2F and 2G are the sole satellites used by Sky UK;
a number of services are served via narrow UK-only
spot beam A spot beam, in telecommunications parlance, is a satellite signal that is specially concentrated in power (i.e. sent by a high-gain antenna) so that it will cover only a limited geographic area on Earth. Spot beams are used so that only Earth stat ...
s, the other services downlinked with a Europe-wide footprint. UK-only spot beams are intentionally tightly focused over mainland UK, however they are still receivable dependent on location and access to a sufficiently large dish and sensitive LNB.
Eutelsat 33C was subsequently moved to 33° East, then moved again to 133° West and renamed as 'Eutelsat 133 West A' to serve transponders offering European and African language services.
Low-noise block converter
Provided is a universal
Ku band
The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...
LNB (9.75/10.600 GHz) which is fitted at the end of the dish and pointed at the correct satellite constellation; most digital receivers will receive the free to air channels. Some broadcasts are free-to-air and unencrypted, some are encrypted but do not require a monthly subscription (known as free-to-view), some are encrypted and require a monthly subscription, and some are pay-per-view services. To view the encrypted content a
VideoGuard
VideoGuard (sometimes referred to simply as ''NDS''), produced by NDS, is a digital encryption system for use with conditional access television broadcasting. It is used on digital satellite television systems - some of which are operated by News ...
UK-equipped receiver (all of which are dedicated to the Sky service, and cannot be used to decrypt other services) needs to be used. Unofficial
CAMs are now available to view the service, although the use of
them breaks the user's contract with Sky and invalidates the user's rights to use the card.
Standard definition broadcasts
Sky's standard definition broadcasts are in
DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...
-compliant
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic video coding format, coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of Lossy compression, lossy video compression and ...
, with the
Sky Cinema
Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on ...
and
Sky Box Office
Sky Box Office is Sky's pay-per-view (PPV) system operated in the United Kingdom and Ireland. There were three branded divisions of Sky Box Office – Sky Cinema Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office and Sky 3D Box Office. Until 1 February 2011, the ...
channels including optional
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...
soundtracks for recent films, although these are only accessible with a Sky+ box. Sky+ HD material is broadcast using
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related tec ...
and most of the HD material uses the
DVB-S2
Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite - Second Generation (DVB-S2) is a digital television broadcast standard that has been designed as a successor for the popular DVB-S system. It was developed in 2003 by the Digital Video Broadcasting Proje ...
standard. Interactive services and 7-day
EPG
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
use the proprietary OpenTV system, with set-top boxes including
modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
s for a return path.
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
, amongst other channels, provides a pseudo-
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
interactive service by broadcasting looping video streams.
Digital satellite receivers
Sky utilises the
VideoGuard
VideoGuard (sometimes referred to simply as ''NDS''), produced by NDS, is a digital encryption system for use with conditional access television broadcasting. It is used on digital satellite television systems - some of which are operated by News ...
pay-TV scrambling system owned by
NDS NDS may stand for:
* Low German ( nl, Nedersaksisch, links=no, german: Niederdeutsche Sprache, links=no, ISO 639-2 language code: nds), a West Germanic language native to Northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands
* Lower Saxony (german: Niedersa ...
, a
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...
company. There are tight controls over the use of VideoGuard decoders; they are not available as stand-alone
DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...
CAMs (
conditional-access module
A conditional access module (CAM) is an electronic device, usually incorporating a slot for a smart card, which equips an integrated digital television or set-top box with the appropriate hardware facility to view conditional access content th ...
s). Sky has design authority over all digital satellite receivers capable of receiving their service. The receivers, though designed and built by different manufacturers, must conform to the same user interface look and feel as all the others. This extends to the
Personal video recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
(PVR) offering (branded
Sky+
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In th ...
).
Electronic programme guide
Technology
Sky maintains an
electronic programme guide
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
(EPG) which provides information about upcoming programmes and a list of channels. TV channels available on Sky are assigned a three-digit
logical channel number
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
which can be entered on the remote control to access the channel and determines in what order channels are listed. Radio channels similarly receive a four-digit EPG number (0 prefix + three digits).
The EPG differs depending on the viewer's location due to the limited regional availability of certain channels or conditions relating to their
must-carry
In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.
North America Canada
Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...
status. For example, this ensures that viewers get access to the correct BBC or ITV region or that
S4C gets a prominent listing in Wales.
All channels are grouped into categories depending on their content. What section of the EPG a channel gets allocated is determined by rules set up by Sky.
Sky has no veto over the presence of channels on their EPG, with open access being enforced as part of their operating licence from
Ofcom
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
. Any channel which can get carriage on a suitable beam of a satellite at 28° East is entitled to access to Sky's EPG for a fee, ranging from £15–100,000. Third-party channels which opt for encryption receive discounts ranging from reduced price to free EPG entries, free carriage on a Sky leased transponder or actual payment for being carried. However, even in this case, Sky does not carry any control over the channel's content or carriage issues such as picture quality.
In October 2007, Sky announced that they would not accept new applications to launch the channel on their EPG, citing "very significant memory constraints" on many of its older digiboxes.
In June 2012, Sky launched a new EPG dubbed "Darwin" for their Sky+HD receivers, offering a more modern, refreshed interface and some improved functionality. Newer SkyQ UHD receivers utilise different hardware, so run a different software stack.
Numbering system
The EPG numbering is altered frequently when new channels launch or receive new numbers. A few times, the EPG has been substantially altered. For example:
*In early 2006, most channels received new numbering. This shake-up was intended to split up the original ten categories into sixteen. For example, several channels that had been listed under the 'Entertainment' category were split off into a new 'Lifestyle & Culture' category while the 'News & Documentaries' category was split into two. The 'Specialist' category, which had included shopping, dating, gambling, and international and adult channels was split into several genres.
*Following the integration of
Living TV Group
Living TV Group was a British television consortium originally called Flextech before becoming a subsidiary of British Sky Broadcasting, with Challenge still broadcasting.
Living TV Group had several owned channels, available in the United K ...
into
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
in early 2011, several prominent slots were freed up as many channels were closed down. It was, reported Broadband TV News, the biggest reshuffle in EPG positions for over a decade, with MTV, Comedy Central, Universal Channel, Syfy, News Corporation's FX, and 40 HD channels moving to more prominent places.
* Documentaries and other channels moving towards general entertainment programming and many other channel categories are being overspilled into other parts of the EPG. Sky reshuffled the channels again on 1 May 2018 which merged the documentaries and entertainment channels making many documentaries move to more prominent slots which had been occupied by time shift and standard definition channels which had been given their own areas in the 200s and 800s with the 800s being also filled with SD channels from other categories.
Competition
On 12 July 2011, former Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
claimed that Sky's largest shareholder –
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
– attempted to affect government policy with regards to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
in pursuit of its own commercial interests.
["Brown accuses News International of using 'known criminals,'"](_blank)
BBC News, Tuesday 12 July 2011 He went further, in a speech in Parliament on 13 July 2011, stating:
"Mr James Murdoch, which included his cold assertion that profit, not standards were what mattered in the media, underpinned an ever more aggressive News International and Sky agenda under his and Mrs Brooks' leadership that was brutal in its simplicity. Their aim was to cut the BBC licence fee, to force BBC online to charge for its content, for the BBC to sell off its commercial activities, to open up more national sporting events to bids from Sky and move them away from the BBC, to open up the cable and satellite infrastructure market, and to reduce the power of their regulator, Ofcom. I rejected those policies."
Hansard: 13 July 2011 – Column 400
On 13 July 2011, MP
Chris Bryant
Christopher John Bryant (born 11 January 1962) is a British people, British politician and former Anglican priest who is the Chair of the Committees on Commons Select Committee on Standards, Standards and Commons Select Committee of Privileges, ...
stated to the House of Commons, in the Parliamentary Debate on the
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
and
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
Bid for Sky that the company was anti-competitive:
"The company has lots of technological innovation that only a robust entrepreneur could bring to British society, but it has also often been profoundly anti-competitive. I believe that the bundling of channels so as to increase profit and make it impossible for others to participate in the market is anti-competitive. I believe that the way in which the application programming interface—the operating system—has been used has been anti-competitive and that Sky has deliberately set about selling set-top boxes elsewhere, outside areas where they have proper rights. If one visits a flat in Spain where a British person lives, one finds that they mysteriously manage to have a Sky box there even though it is registered to a house in the United Kingdom."
Virgin Media dispute
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
(re-branded in 2007 from ''NTL:Telewest'') started to offer a
high-definition television
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
(HDTV) capable set top box, although from 30 November 2006 until 30 July 2009 it only carried one linear HD channel,
BBC HD
BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...
, after the conclusion of the
ITV HD
ITV1 HD is a British free-to-air high-definition public broadcast television network operated by ITV plc, the company which is contracted to provide 13 ITV1 services across the UK. ITV1 HD simulcasts them in high-definition (excluding former Cha ...
trial. Virgin Media has claimed that other HD channels were "locked up" or otherwise withheld from their platform,
although Virgin Media did in fact have an option to carry Channel 4 HD in the future. Nonetheless, the linear channels were not offered, Virgin Media instead concentrating on its
Video on Demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
service to carry a modest selection of HD content. Virgin Media has nevertheless made a number of statements over the years, suggesting that more linear HD channels are on the way.
In 2007, Sky and Virgin Media became involved in a dispute over the carriage of Sky channels on cable TV. The failure to renew the existing carriage agreements negotiated with NTL and Telewest resulted in Virgin Media removing the basic channels from the network on 1 March 2007. Virgin Media claimed that Sky had substantially increased the asking price for the channels, a claim which Sky denied, on the basis that their new deal offered "substantially more value" by including HD channels and Video On Demand content which was not previously carried by cable.
In response, Sky ran a number of TV, radio and print advertisements claiming that Virgin Media ''doubted the value'' of the channels concerned, at first urging Virgin Media customers to call their cable operator to show their support for Sky, and later urging Virgin Media customers to migrate to Sky to continue receiving the channels. The broadcasting regulator
Ofcom
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
subsequently found these adverts in breach of their code.
The availability (at an extra charge) of Sky's premium sports and movie services was not affected by the dispute, and Sky Sports 3 was offered as a replacement for Sky One on many Virgin Media packages. This impasse continued for twenty-one months, with both companies initiating High Court proceedings. Amongst Virgin Media's claims to the court (denied by Sky) were that Sky had unfairly reduced the amount which it paid to VMTV for the carriage of Virgin Media's own channels on satellite.
Eventually, on 4 November 2008 it was announced that an agreement had been struck for Sky's basic channels – including
Sky One
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...
,
Sky Two
Sky Replay is a British pay television channel operated by Sky as a sister channel to Sky Max and Sky Witness. The current channel began broadcasting (as Sky One Mix) in December 2002. The 'Sky 2' name and format had earlier been used for a sim ...
,
Sky Three
Pick (formerly Sky 3 and Pick TV) is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Sky UK.
History
Sky Three launched on 31st October 2005. It was essentially a barker channel for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky One and its other s ...
,
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
,
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British pay television, paid television sports news channel run by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast.
History
Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and lat ...
,
Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2,
Sky Real Lives
Sky Real Lives was an in-house channel from BSkyB that showed extensive programmes about travel, adverts for travel agencies and documentaries. The channels closed on 19 August 2010.
History
Sky Real Lives first launched as Sky Travel on 3 Octobe ...
and Sky Real Lives 2 to return to Virgin Media from 13 November 2008 until 12 June 2011. In exchange, Sky would be provided continued carriage of
Virgin Media Television's channels –
Living
Living or The Living may refer to:
Common meanings
*Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms
** Living species, one that is not extinct
*Personal life, the course of an individual human's life
* Hu ...
,
Livingit
Real Lives was a British television channel owned by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast. It used to be the sister channel of Sky Witness, Sky Living. It was originally known as LIVINGtv2 from the channel's launch in 2004 till 2007, and the ...
,
Bravo
Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels
*Bravo (band), a Russian rock band
* Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984
*Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...
, Bravo +1,
Trouble
Trouble may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Trouble'' (1922 film), an American silent comedy-drama film directed by Albert Austin
* ''Trouble'' (1933 film), a British comedy film
* ''Trouble'' (1977 film), a Soviet drama film
* ''Trouble'' ...
,
Challenge and
Virgin1
Channel One was a British short-lived television channel owned and operated by Virgin Media Television and then Sky plc. The channel was launched on 1 October 2007 at 21:00 on Freeview, Virgin Media and Sky as Virgin1, replacing Ftn. The cha ...
for the same period.
The agreements include fixed annual carriage fees of £30m for the channels with both channel suppliers able to secure additional capped payments if their channels meet certain performance-related targets. Currently, there is no indication as to whether the new deal includes the additional Video On Demand and High Definition content which had previously been offered by Sky. As part of the agreements, both Sky and Virgin Media agreed to terminate all High Court proceedings against each other relating to the carriage of their respective basic channels.
Discovery Networks dispute
On 25 January 2017,
Discovery Networks
Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Channe ...
announced that they were in a dispute with Sky UK over the costs of payment fees to the broadcaster.
The broadcaster threatened to blackout their channels on the Sky platform, which includes
Eurosport
Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...
,
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
,
TLC
TLC may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Television
* ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2
* TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network
** TLC (Asia), an A ...
,
Animal Planet
Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...
,
Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...
,
DMAX,
Discovery Turbo
Discovery Turbo (previously known as Discovery Turbo MAX in Australia) is a pay television channel devoted to programming about transport. It is similar to Discovery Velocity and Motor Trend (TV network), Motor Trend. It was also briefly availab ...
,
Discovery Shed
Discovery Shed (Also simply known as Shed) was a TV channel in the United Kingdom from Discovery, Inc. which replaced Discovery Real Time Extra. The channel launched on 20 March 2009.
The channel featured programming covering fishing, DIY, co ...
,
Discovery Science
Discovery science (also known as discovery-based science) is a scientific methodology which aims to find new patterns, correlations, and form hypotheses through the analysis of large-scale experimental data. The term “discovery science” enco ...
,
Discovery History
Discovery History is a Television in the United Kingdom, British channel with programming about history from Warner Bros. Discovery.
History
The channel was initially known as the Discovery Civilisation Channel, later dropping 'Channel' from th ...
and
Home & Health, unless Sky accepted their request for fair pricing. Sky indicated that they will not bow down, and the channels would likely become unavailable from 1 February 2017.
The same day, Discovery sent out a press release on the dispute and also blocked access to its own website with the news. Discovery stated ''enough is enough'' and claimed that Sky is paying less for its channels than it was ten years ago. At that time, Discovery had stated that its viewing share has grown by more than 20%. Managing Director
Susanna Dinnage
Susanna Dinnage (born 1966/67) is a British businesswoman, who was formerly the current global president of the Animal Planet television network. In November 2018, she became the chief executive-designate of the English Premier League, and was sch ...
stated in the press release:"We believe Sky is using what we consider to be its dominant market position to further its own commercial interest over those of viewers and independent broadcasters. The vitality of independent broadcasters like Discovery and plurality in TV is under threat."
In response, Sky stated that they had been "overpaying Discovery for years." It comes after Sky had paid £4.2 billion on Premier League rights for the following three seasons.
The channel 'blackout' would have also affected the Sky-owned
NOW TV
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* No ...
with the removal of Discovery Channel from both the live stream and On Demand service.
On 31 January 2017 at around 21:00, Sky UK revealed that they would continue to broadcast the Discovery Networks Channels by releasing the following statement:
"Great news, we can confirm that Sky will continue to carry the Discovery and Eurosport channels. This means you can still watch channels including: Animal Planet, Discovery HD, Discovery History, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Science, Discovery Shed, Discovery Turbo, DMAX, Eurosport1, Eurosport2, Investigation Discovery, TLC, and Quest."
At the time of the statement release, it had not been revealed how much Sky UK had paid Discovery Networks.
Litigation
In July 2013, the English
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...
found that
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
's use of the term "
SkyDrive" infringed on Sky's right to the "Sky" trademark. On 31 July 2013, Sky and Microsoft announced their settlement, in which Microsoft will not appeal the ruling, and will rename its SkyDrive cloud storage service after an unspecified "reasonable period of time to allow for an orderly transition to a new brand," plus "financial and other terms, the details of which are confidential". On 27 January 2014, Microsoft announced "that SkyDrive will soon become OneDrive" and "SkyDrive Pro" becomes "OneDrive for Business".
Hello Games
Hello Games Ltd is a British video game company based in Guildford, Surrey. The company was founded by Sean Murray, Grant Duncan, Ryan Doyle and David Ream in February 2008 and has developed the ''Joe Danger'' series, ''No Man's Sky'', and '' T ...
was in legal negotiations with Sky over the trademark on the word "Sky" used for the title of their video game ''
No Man's Sky
''No Man's Sky'' is an action-adventure survival game developed and published by Hello Games. It was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows in August 2016, for Xbox One in July 2018, for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Se ...
'' for three years. The issue was ultimately settled in June 2016, allowing Hello Games to continue to use the name.
Criticism and controversies
Awards and nominations
See also
*
Sky Group
Sky Group Limited is a British media conglomerate, media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a division of Comcast, and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ital ...
*
Sky Deutschland
Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (through Sky Switzerland). It provides a collection of basic and premium digital sub ...
*
Sky Ireland
Sky Ireland Limited is a subsidiary of Comcast-owned Sky and supplies television, internet and telephony services in Ireland.
Its corporate headquarters are in Dublin which were opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 18 January 2013.
Sky Ireland e ...
*
Sky Italia
Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an agree ...
*
Sky España
*
Sky+
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In th ...
*
Sky+ HD
Sky+ HD was the brand name of the High-definition television, HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky (UK and Ireland), Sky to be viewed. For the first two ...
*
Sky Q
Sky Q is a subscription-based television and entertainment service operated by British satellite television provider Sky, as a part of its operations in Austria and Germany, Ireland, Italy and in the UK. The name also refers to the Sky Q set-t ...
*
Sky Betting and Gaming
Sky Betting & Gaming is a British-based gambling company, owned by Flutter Entertainment, with headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire and offices in Sheffield & Solihull. Sky Betting & Gaming consists of five core brands: Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky ...
*
Sky Go
Sky Go is a streaming television service from Sky Group provided free for Sky TV subscribers in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, it complements Sky TV by allowing subscribers to watch live and on demand Sky TV via an internet connec ...
*
Sky Vision
Sky Vision was a production and distribution company founded by Sky in 2002 as Parthenon Media Group and was acquired and rebranded by Sky as Sky Vision. The business had investments in nine production businesses in the UK and US: Love Productio ...
*
Sky Magazine
Sky Magazine (or 'Sky Mag') was a magazine distributed to subscribers of the BSkyB satellite service Sky Digital.
Availability
The magazine was available to subscribers of the Variety Pack or all packs of entertainment.
Content
The magazines ...
*
Astra
*
Digibox
The Digibox is a device marketed by Sky UK in the UK and Ireland to enable home users to receive digital satellite television broadcasts (satellite receiver) from the Astra satellites at 28.2° east. An Internet service was also available ...
*
NOW
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
*
Freesat from Sky
Freesat from Sky (FsfS) was a British satellite television service from Sky UK. It offered over 240 free-to-air (FTA) channels in its EPG. This is a greater number than its competitors, Freesat, which has 200+, and Freeview, which has 70+.
It ...
*
Team Sky
Ineos Grenadiers () (stylised as INEOS Grenadiers) (formerly Team Sky from 2010 to 2019, and Team Ineos from 2019 to 2020) is a British professional cycling team that competes at the UCI WorldTeam level. The team is based at the Manchester Vel ...
References
External links
*
Sky Vision — official production and distribution arm of Sky TV
Sky TV Guide— online 'electronic programme guide' (EPG)
List of channels on Sky Q (UK and Ireland)— at www.TVChannelLists.com wiki site
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sky (United Kingdom)
British brands
Television networks in the United Kingdom
Companies based in the London Borough of Hounslow
British companies established in 1994
Telecommunications companies established in 1994
Digital television in the United Kingdom
Direct broadcast satellite services
Isleworth
Media and communications in the London Borough of Hounslow
Mass media companies based in London
Sky Group
Sports television in the United Kingdom