The Comedy Channel (British TV channel)

The channel launched on 1 October 1991,[1] soon after the merger of Sky Television plc and British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB). The merged company, British Sky Broadcasting, brought together comedy programming from its existing libraries – Sky having an archive of US imports including Three's Company, I Love Lucy, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and Seinfeld, and BSB having obtained rights to a number of BBC sitcoms such as 'Allo 'Allo!, Steptoe and Son, Are You Being Served?, Porridge, Dad's Army and The Goodies.

The Comedy Channel existed in the days before the basic "Sky Multichannels" subscription package, so was made available as a premium service to subscribers of either Sky Movies or The Movie Channel. Listings for the channel were carried in the Radio Times[2] and other listings magazines.

The channel eventually lost the broadcast rights to the BBC shows following the expiry of the contract between the BBC and former BSB. Eventually the channel closed on 30 September 1992, to be replaced by a "classic movies" channel, Sky Movies Gold. Following the termination of the contract with Sky, the BBC's archive programming was subsequently used to launch UK Gold on satellite and cable from 1 November 1992. Sky would not re-launch its own wholly owned comedy network until the 27 January 2020 launch of Sky Comedy (it retains a minority interest in the domestic version of ViacomCBS's Comedy Central).