Sky Television (1984–1990)
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Sky Television plc was a
public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...
which operated a nine-channel satellite television service, launched by
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
's
News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...
on 5 February 1989. Sky Television and its rival
British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided satellite television, direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company ...
suffered large financial losses, and merged on 2 November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting. A programming merger took effect on 1 December 1990.


History


Development

Sky Television plc was originally Satellite Television Limited, a consortium set up by Brian Haynes in November 1980, backed by Guinness Mahon and Barclays Merchant Bank. Haynes was a former Thames Television journalist; he had produced a documentary titled "What's on the Satellite Tonight?" for '' TV Eye'' on 15 March 1979, which looked at
Ted Turner Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He founded the CNN, Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, ...
and his satellite broadcasting operations in the United States from 1970 through the
Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its asse ...
, an American
media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media company, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, video games, amusement parks, or ...
(now Warner Bros. Discovery), and also at with how many European countries were developing the technology. Haynes soon realised that satellites could be the basis of a new kind of television broadcasting. He initially sought cooperation from Thames Television, the Independent Broadcasting Authority and an industry group, but their refusal resulted in him setting up SATV alone. On 21 October 1981, SATV began test transmissions on the Orbital Test Satellite (OTS) after the
European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
allowed the company to test the satellite for the use of commercial television, with an hour of light entertainment in English every night. At first
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
was its official target, but it had a wide pan-European footprint. Broadcasts from the low-powered satellite were mostly only available to cable systems, for individual satellite dishes were too large and too costly for most consumers. In the late 1960s, planning began for an experimental satellite which to broadcast TV in Europe. OTS was launched via
Delta rocket The Delta rocket family was a versatile range of American rocket-powered expendable launch systems that provided space launch capability in the United States from 1960 to 2024. Japan also launched license-built derivatives (N-I (rocket), N-I, N ...
(manufactured by
McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...
and
Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
, and launched by the United Launch Alliance) on 12 May 1978 for requisite testing of Europe's first commercial venture in telecommunications and television. Between 1978 and 1981, OTS used Ku-Band technology, evidencing its utility in the European market. Following the completion of its test programme, excess transponder capacity was leased to SATV. While governments in Britain and other European countries wrestled with the allocation of their channels, Satellite Television played a pioneering role, providing Europe's first satellite-delivered cable television service.


Satellite Television (Super Station Europe)

Satellite Television (also known as Super Station Europe on screen) began regular transmissions on 26 April 1982, becoming Europe's first-ever cable and satellite channel, originally broadcasting from OTS and aimed at cable operators all over Europe. Norway and Finland were the first two countries to permit the new service's transmission via cable, followed by Malta and Switzerland, and then West Germany. Originally it did not have a UK broadcasting licence, and consequently was in a similar legal situation to the pirate radio stations of the 1960s and 1970s; however, reception of the channel required a satellite dish approximately 10 feet (3 metres) wide, and it was believed that there were fewer than 50 privately owned installations. The new channel broadcast many programmes from the archives of ITV companies such as LWT and
Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
; these included '' Please Sir!'', ''
Dickens of London ''Dickens of London'' is a 1976 television miniseries from ITV Yorkshire, Yorkshire Television based on the life of English novelist Charles Dickens. Both Dickens and his father John Dickens, John were played by British actor Roy Dotrice. The s ...
'', ''
The Rag Trade ''The Rag Trade'' is a British television sitcom broadcast by the BBC between 1961 and 1963 and by ITV (TV network), ITV between 1977 and 1978. Although a comedy, it shed light on gender, politics and the "class war" on the factory floor. Th ...
'', '' Within These Walls'', '' Bouquet of Barbed Wire'' and '' Hadleigh''. The channel gradually added some programmes it produced itself, such as the music show ''Cable Countdown'' hosted by
BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...
DJ
Mike Read Michael David Kenneth Read (born 1 March 1947) is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter. Read has been a broadcaster since 1976, best known for having been a DJ with BBC Radio 1, and television host for mus ...
. Initially, the channel's own programming and continuity was played out from the Molinare studios at Fouberts Place in the
West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, Central London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster. It is west of the City of London an ...
. Starting on 10 March 1983, the channel hoped to start broadcasting to the United Kingdom, aiming to prove the service could reach sufficient viewers to be profitable. However, the station struggled financially because of a limited audience, mainly due to the weak signal from OTS that made direct-to-home reception of the service extremely difficult. The channel had to rely on cable audiences, and was restricted to countries where receiving the channel via cable was legal. Transmission costs were also high. That same year, on 25 March,
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
had shown interest in the project and held talks with SATV's owners about buying a substantial stake in the company. On 27 June 1983, the shareholders of Satellite Television agreed a £5 million offer to give
News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...
65% of the company. Murdoch described cable and satellite television as being "the most important single advance since Caxton invented the
printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
" and saw it as a way to fulfil his long-held ambition of breaking into the British television industry. Eventually, Murdoch bought the remaining shares of the company, taking full control. On 5 August 1983, Murdoch outlined plans which saw broadcasting hours extended to 5.50 pm to 10.30 pm daily with a mix of music, sport, news, comedy and films. Plans were also made to start broadcasting from the new European communications satellite ECS-1 and additional cable operators, allowing it to increase its audience across Europe and gain access to British viewers. By 16 October of that year, the station unofficially started broadcasting to the United Kingdom, to anyone that had Satellite dish


Sky Channel

On 16 January 1984, Satellite Television Limited was renamed Sky Channel, as Rupert Murdoch and Jardin Owens put in new management. Swindon was the first area in the UK to start receiving the channel via its Cable operations before expended to many others Broadcast hours were extended by April and various English-language sports and entertainment shows were added to the schedule. These included new music programmes with Gary Davies, Linda de Mol, Pat Sharp, David "Kid" Jensen and Anthea Turner, such as ''Euro Top 40'', and ''UK Top 50 Chart''. The new management also sought to increase the number of cable households throughout Europe able to see the channel. Shortly after the relaunch, Swindon Cable became the first cable system in the United Kingdom to add the channel to its service on a permanent basis. In the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
, Sky Channel was added to cable systems from 1987 onwards. Despite the programming changes resulting in increased viewership across Europe (from 291,470 in December 1983 to 4,003,000 in June 1985, before reaching 9,001,905 by April 1987), Sky Channel was still considered underperforming, generating under $20 million per year in advertising revenue. By the mid-1980s, Murdoch was looking to use newly emerging direct satellite broadcasting technology, and to focus primarily on the British market. Rather than paying for the rights to beam Sky's single-channel signal to cable providers, which in turn supplied the channel's programming to subscribers, direct satellite broadcasts meant multichannel programming could be provided directly to subscribers' homes via small satellite dish and decoder. In 1984, Sky began negotiations with TDF of France, with a view to using the company's planned high-powered satellites for direct-to-home broadcasting. However, nothing came of the negotiations. In Britain (where cable television had not yet developed as much as in Central and Northern Europe), market research gave Sky a 13% audience share in cable homes, surpassing both
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...
and
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
. Its children's programming (then the channel's most successful segment) had a share of 22.4%, similar to the figures for
CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...
and
CITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...
. A few of Sky's programmes, mainly World Wrestling Federation, managed to surpass both
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...
and ITV among cable audiences. For all of its early life, the channel was a loss-making enterprise, losing £10 million in 1987. However, Murdoch had the financial resources to sustain the operation. The other main English-language pan-European cable and satellite television channel at the time, Super Channel, launched on 30 January 1987 by various ITV companies, was also loss-making.


Launch of Sky Television Network

Murdoch bid for an IBA satellite broadcasting license on 11 December 1986, but lost out to
British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided satellite television, direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company ...
, which announced plans to begin broadcasting in mid-1989 with three channels on satellite frequencies allotted to the United Kingdom by international agreement. Murdoch attempted to join the BSB consortium, but was rejected, spurring him to set up his own satellite service. On 8 June 1988, Murdoch announced plans to expand Sky's service to four channels, creating the Sky Television Network, and that he planned to distribute the service throughout the United Kingdom by early 1989. Sky Channel and the other three channels would move to the pan-European Astra satellite system (leasing four transponders on Société Européenne des Satellites' RCA Astro-built satellite, Astra 1A, intended for direct-to-home reception), and the new network would concentrate on the United Kingdom. By renting space on the Luxembourg-based Astra satellites, Murdoch circumvented British ownership laws. Using existing PAL broadcast technology, Sky Television began broadcasting four channels on 5 February 1989: * An upgraded version of the original Sky Channel, renamed
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, ...
later on 31 July 1989 *
Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...
, a joint-venture between the
European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
and News International * Sky Movies, a film channel which became a subscription service on 5 February 1990 *
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news 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 ...
, a 24-hour news and current affairs channel Start-up costs reached £122 million; losses for its first year of operations were £95 million. Initially, Sky Channel's programming remained much the same (children's programmes, soaps and American action series), except for a number of new game shows and a few travel documentaries. One new programme was ''Sky by Day'', a variation on ITV's more popular '' This Morning'', hosted by ex-
BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...
DJ Tony Blackburn (who had moved to commercial radio by then) and ex-''
Magpie Magpies are birds of various species of the family Corvidae. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent c ...
'' presenter Jenny Hanley. The show's mix of entertainment, gossip and fashion was noticeably low-budget and had low viewership. Prime-time broadcasts to European cable operators of Sky Channel were replaced by Eurosport, which was the only one of Sky's new channels officially aimed at a pan-European audience. On 16 May 1989, Sky began giving away set-top boxes and dishes in a bid to increase customer numbers. Its joint venture with
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
collapsed at around the same time. Discussions about the venture had been taking place since November 1988, but Disney felt the 50:50 was no longer equal. Disney was supposed to start two channels, but when talks broke down, Sky initiated a lawsuit against Disney, claiming £1.5 billion in damages. The suit was later settled with Disney selling its stake to Sky, and agreeing to license its movie library for a five-year period on 3 June of that year.


Competition and merger

Murdoch's failure to win an IBA UK satellite television license was the impetus for Sky's relaunch. The new multichannel environment led to a ruinous battle for customers. Sky had the advantage of launching first, and leasing transponder space meant it was in the stronger position when Sky and BSB merged. By contrast, BSB was only licensed to broadcast five channels, had to pay for the construction and launch of its own satellites, and used more ambitious and expensive technology. Also it had higher capital expenditure overall, such as the construction of its Marco Polo House headquarters in London compared to Sky's industrial estate accommodation in
Isleworth Isleworth ( ) is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hounslow, West London, England. It lies immediately east of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane, London, River Crane. Isleworth's original area of ...
. By 2 November 1990, Sky and BSB were struggling under the weight of massive losses and the companies merged, with Sky taking management control. The new company was called British Sky Broadcasting (marketed as "Sky"), its name composed from the three letters of BSB and the remainder from Sky. Marco Polo House was sold, BSB's channels largely scrapped in favour of Sky's, and the Marcopolo satellites were eventually sold, leaving the squarial obsolete. (Marcopolo 1 on 21 December 1993 to NSAB of Sweden and Marcopolo 2 on 1 July 1992 to Telenor of Norway).


Financial turnaround

BSkyB made heavy losses in its early years. To turn around the company's finances, New Zealand television executive Sam Chisholm was brought on board to manage the day-to-day operations and build the subscriber base, and the company moved into profit.


Timeline


1980s

* 1980 ** November – Satellite Television Limited is set up by Brian Haynes, backed by Guinness Mahon and Barclays Merchant Bank. * 1981 ** 21 October – SATV begins test transmissions on the Orbital Test Satellite after the
European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
allowed it to be used for commercial television, and broadcast to cable systems rather than directly to individual dishes. * 1982 ** 26 April –
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.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...
(SATV) launches as a pan-European network, whether the channel often referred on-screen as ''Super Station Europe'' is initially only available in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
and
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
to permit the new service's transmission via cable followed by
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
and
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
. * 1983 ** 27 June –
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
's
News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...
takes control of Satellite Television UK. ** 16 October – SATV begins broadcasting in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and most of Western Europe via Satellite * 1984 ** 16 January – Satellite Television Limited is renamed ''Sky Channel'', and also began broadcasts on the Swindon Cable company in the UK. New original programmes are commissioned although mainly consist of various music and children's shows were included. * 1986 ** 2 April –
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, Anglia, Pearson,
Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...
and
Amstrad Amstrad plc was a British consumer electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for its Home computer, home computers beginning with the Amstrad CPC and later also the ZX Spectrum range after the ...
to form
British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided satellite television, direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company ...
and win Independent Broadcasting Authority UK satellite television franchise. ** 11 December – BSB awarded licence from the IBA and complete over £200 million funding with additional shareholders Reed Elsevier, Chargeurs, London Merchant Securities and others. * 1988 ** 8 June – Having failed to become part of the BSB consortium, Murdoch announces his intention to relaunch Sky Channel as ''Sky Television Network'' on the Astra satellite system. ** 11 December – The satellite on which Sky Television was to broadcast, Astra 1A is successfully launched by communications company SES. * 1989 ** 5 February – The four-channel Sky Television package launches at 6.00pm. ** 3 June – Sky Television agrees with
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
to broadcast movies for a five-year period, this agreement comes a few weeks after plans to create a full-time service were scrapped, although a Disney-branded version eventually launched on 1 October 1995. ** 31 July – Sky Channel becomes a United Kingdom and
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-only service and is renamed
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, ...
although for a short time after the relaunch, some of Sky Channel's former pan-European programming is broadcast in the hours before
Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...
's broadcasts, and the programme block is branded ''Sky Europe''.


1990s

* 1990 ** 5 February – Sky Movies is fully encrypted, becoming Sky's first pay channel. ** 11 February – Sky Movies broadcasts its first special event – a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas. ** 25–29 March – BSB launches on
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
, consisting of five channels:
Galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
, Now,
The Movie Channel The Movie Channel (often abbreviated as TMC) is an American pay television, premium television network owned by Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global operated through its Paramount Media Networks division. Not including CBS, it is t ...
, The Sports Channel and The Power Station. BSB planned to launch in September 1989 but problems with the supply of receiving equipment led to six-month delay. ** 29 April – BSB launches its satellite television service on the Marcopolo system. ** 2 November – As both companies have been suffering heavy losses, they merge, forming British Sky Broadcasting. The new company announces that BSB customers will receive Sky equipment (for Astra system) free of charge, and the Marcopolo satellite transmissions will cease. ** 2 December – Galaxy and Now are closed and are replaced on the Marcopolo satellite by Sky One and
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news 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 ...
although arts programmes are shown for a short time as a weekend opt-out service. * 1991 ** 6 May – Eurosport briefly closes after Screensport filed a complaint to the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
over its corporate structure.
TF1 Group TF1 Group () is a French media holding company. Its best-known property is the broadcast network TF1. The group was formed after TF1 was privatized in April 1987 in which the channel was launched back on January 6 1975 twelve years prior. It is ...
subsequently steps in to replace BSkyB as joint owners when the service resumed on 22 May. * 1992 ** 1 July – BSB satellite Marcopolo 2 sold to Telenor of Norway. ** 31 December – Sky stops broadcasting via the Marcopolo satellite. * 1993 ** 21 December – BSB satellite Marcopolo 1 sold to NSAB of
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
.


Sources


Further reading

* "From Satellite to Single Market": New Communication Technology and European. Author: Richard Collins Publication Date: 24 Sep 1998 , , * "High Above: The untold story of Astra, Europe's leading satellite company" Author: Chris Forrester * "Satellite television in Western Europe" Volume 1 of Acamedia research monographs, Author: Richard Collins , 9780861963881


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sky Television (1984-1990) Sky Group Defunct mass media companies of the United Kingdom 1989 establishments in the United Kingdom Mass media companies established in 1989 Mass media companies disestablished in 1990 Direct broadcast satellite services 1980s in Europe 1980s in the United Kingdom 1980s in British television 1990s in the United Kingdom 1990s in British television History of television in the United Kingdom