Sky Soap was a satellite television channel operated by

British Sky Broadcasting 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 ...

devoted to American and British

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

s that include ''

Emmerdale Farm ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...

'', ''

Take the High Road ''Take the High Road'' (renamed ''High Road'' from 1994 to 2003) was a Scottish soap opera produced by Scottish Television, which started in February 1980 as an ITV network daytime programme, and was broadcast until 2003. It was set in the ficti ...

'', ''

Families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...

'' and ''

Albion Market ''Albion Market'' was a British soap opera, set in a covered market in Salford, in the northwest of England. It was intended as a companion to fellow ITV soap '' Coronation Street'', starting at 7:00 pm on Fridays and 7.15 pm on Sundays. Howe ...

''.

History

When Sky Channel was launched on the Astra satellite on 5 February 1989, the daytime schedule was overhauled and included a block of five soaps. The first, starting at 11.30am from Australia, ''

The Sullivans ''The Sullivans'' is an Australian period drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran on the Nine Network from 15 November 1976 until 10 March 1983. The series tells the story of a fictional average middle-cla ...

'', which was also still airing in some

ITV regions The ITV television network of the United Kingdom is divided into a number of geographical regions. Since 2002, all regions share the same programming except for regional news, weather and advertising. Historically, the regions were independent ...

. Next were four

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

daytime soaps – '' Another World'', which had been airing on the channel since 1987, started at 12.00pm; followed by '' General Hospital'' from 12.55pm; and ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other s ...

'' at 1.50pm and finally, '' Loving'' in a regular 2.45pm slot. A sixth soap opera, ''

The Young Doctors ''The Young Doctors'' is an Australian early-evening soap opera originally broadcast on the Nine Network and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation, it aired from Monday, 8 November 1976 until Wednesday, 30 March 1983. The series is prima ...

'' was another Australian programme which also aired in an early evening slot at 5.00pm, before switching to mid-morning after a year. The network changed its name to Sky One on 31 July 1989, ''The Sullivans'', ''General Hospital'' and ''As the World Turns'' were all dropped, and in November 1990, more daytime soaps were added to the line-up, and ''

The Bold and the Beautiful ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The Yo ...

'' and ''

The Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, ...

'' were both inherited from BSB's Galaxy channel. In February 1991, '' Santa Barbara'' replaced ''Loving'', which was also broadcast on the

ITV network ITV is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the ol ...

. By 1993, with the addition of Australian soaps '' E Street'' and ''

Paradise Beach ''Paradise Beach'' is an Australian television series made by Village Roadshow Pictures. It was made in association with America's Genesis Entertainment which later merged with New World Television for the Nine Network, and aired between 1993 ...

'' to the schedules, as well as a daytime repeat run of American primetime series '' Falcon Crest'', the block of daily soap operas on Sky One ran from 10.30am through to 3.30pm. In 1994, it was decided to move the American daytime soaps to a new dedicated channel and Sky Soap began broadcasting on 3 October 1994 from the

Astra 1C Astra 1C was a geostationary communications satellite launched in 1993 by the Société Européenne des Satellites ( SES), now SES Astra. The satellite remained in service until 2011 and is now derelict. History Astra 1C was the third commu ...

satellite on weekdays between 8.00am and 12.00pm, the original line-up on the channel was: '' Loving'', '' Peyton Place'' (which was eventually replaced by ''Santa Barbara''), '' Guiding Light'', ''

'' and '' Another World''. Broadcast hours were soon changed to between 12.00pm and 4.00pm, and by 1997, Sky Soap was broadcasting from

Astra 1B Astra 1B was the second of the Astra communications satellites launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites) to add extra capacity to the satellite television (direct broadcasting) services from 19.2° East, serving Germ ...

, and the hours were extended to 11.00am to 4.00pm. The only American daytime soaps airing by then were ''As the World Turns'' and ''Guiding Light'', while old episodes of British soaps were added to the line-up, including ''

'', ''

'' and ''

''. Poor viewing figures following the launch of Sky Digital led to the channel's closure on 30 April 1999.

Programming

American

* '' Another World'' * ''

'' * '' Guiding Light'' * '' Loving'' * '' Peyton Place'' * '' Santa Barbara''

Australian

* '' E Street'' * ''

British

* ''

'' * ''

References

External links

Sky Soap at TVARK

Sky contact number
{{BSkyB Defunct British television channels Television channels and stations established in 1994 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1999 Sky television channels 1990s in the United Kingdom 1990s in British television History of television in the United Kingdom