Timeline of Sky Group

This is a timeline of the history of Sky TV.

1980s

  • 1980
    • Plans for a pan-European satellite television station are put together by Brian Haynes, back by backed by Guinness Mahon and Barclays Merchant Bank and in November Mr Haynes sets up Satellite Television Ltd. (SATV)[1][2]
  • 1981
    • October SATV begins test transmissions on the Orbital Test Satellite after the European Space Agency allowed the company to test the satellite for the use of commercial television, with an hour of light entertainment in English each night. The low-powered satellite forces it to broadcast to cable systems rather than directly to individual satellite dishes.
  • 1982
    • 26 April – Satellite Television launches as a pan-European service. The channel was often referred to on-screen as Super Station Europe. However the channel is initially only available in some European countries, the first being Norway and Finland were the first two countries to permit the new service's transmission via cable, followed by Malta, Switzerland and West Germany.
  • 1983
  • 1984
    • 16 January – Satellite Television is renamed Sky Channel.
  • 1985
    • No events.
  • 1986
    • 2 April – The IBA invites bids from the private sector to operate a commercial service on three of the five DBS channels allocated to the UK in 1977 for satellite broadcasting.
    • 11 December – The IBA announces that BSB has been awarded a fifteen-year franchise to operate the satellite television service.[5]
  • 1987
    • No events.
  • 1988
  • 1989
    • 5 February – Sky Television launches at 6 pm. The channel line-up consists of Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport.
    • June – BSB is awarded the other two DBS channel slots, meaning that the service will launch with five channels. These two channels had originally been allocated to the BBC but were handed over for commercial use when the BBC dropped its plans to use the two channels on cost grounds.[7]
    • 31 July – Sky Channel becomes a UK and Ireland-only service and is renamed Sky One although for a short time after the relaunch, some of Sky Channel's former pan-European programming is broadcast in the hours before Eurosport's startup, and the programme block is branded as Sky Europe.

1990s

2000s

  • 2000
  • 2001
    • The first Sky+ boxes go on sale.
    • 1 July – The Sky Sports.com TV brand is scrapped and the channel reverts to its original name of Sky Sports News.
    • 18 August – PremPlus launches.
    • 2 September – .tv stops broadcasting.
    • September – Sky launches its first personal video recorder, Sky +.
    • 27 September – Sky stops broadcasting via analogue.
    • 1 October – Following its acquisition of interactive service Open...,[18] Sky launches Sky Active.
  • 2002
    • 7 January – Sky News content becomes available on terrestrial television for the first time in a decade when Channel 5 begins simulcasting part of its breakfast news programme Sunrise.[19]
    • 1 March – F1 Digital+ launches. It offers enhanced multi-screen coverage of Formula One on a pay-per-view basis.
    • 1 May – ITV Digital stops broadcasting.
    • 1 July – In another major rebranding of Sky Movies, the Sky Premier channels are renamed Sky Movies Premier, the Sky Moviemax channels become Sky Movies Max and the Sky Cinema channels become Sky Movies Cinema.[20]
    • 30 October – Freeview launches and Sky contributes three channels – Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel – to the platform.
    • 9 December – Sky One Mix launches.
    • 12 December – After just one season, F1 Digital+ closes.[21]
  • 2003
    • February – Sky Travel Shop launches as a full time travel retail channel.
    • 17 April – Sky launches three music channels – The Amp, Scuzz and Flaunt. The channels are operated on Sky's behalf by CSC Media Group channels.
    • June – The Sky Movies Premier Widescreen channel is closed and the majority of films on the remaining channels are now shown in widescreen.[22]
    • 1 November – The Sky Movies Premier and Sky Movies Max channels are brought under one banner as Sky Movies 1 through 9 and Sky Movies Cinema 1 and 2 become Sky Cinema 1 and 2.[23]
  • 2004
  • 2005
    • 1 January – Sky News takes over the contract to provide Channel 5's news service from ITN. The first scheduled Sky produced news programme had been due to air on 3 January, but two shorter bulletins for 1 and 2 January were hastily added to provide updates following the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.[24]
    • January – Sky Travel +1 launches.
    • June – Sky takes full control of Artsworld, two years after it bought a 50% stake in the channel.[25]
    • 31 October – Sky One Mix is rebranded as Sky Two and Sky Three replaces Sky Travel on Freeview.
    • 1 November – Sky Three launches.
  • 2006
    • January – Sky launches its online television service Sky By Broadband, which is rebranded later in 2006 to Sky Anytime on PC.
    • 30 January – A tenth Sky Movies channel is launched and Sky Movies starts broadcasting two HD channels. Sky Movies 9 and the new Sky Movies 10 are PIN-protected, meaning that for the first time 15 rated films were able to be shown as early as 5 pm.[26]
    • 2 March – Alternative/indie music channel The Amp is relaunched as a classic hits channel called Bliss.
    • 22 May –
    • Sky Sports becomes the exclusive broadcaster of all live cricket matches in the UK following the ECB awarding Sky exclusive coverage of all of England's home tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 Internationals.[27]
    • 22 May – Sky launches its high definition service when Sky One HD and Sky Sports 1 HD being broadcasting.
    • July – Sky Sports 2HD launches.
    • 3 November – The final edition of Sky News Ireland is broadcast.[28][29]
    • December – Sky sells their three music channels Bliss (previously The Amp), Scuzz, and Flaunt to Chart Show Channels. CSC had previously operated the channels on Sky's behalf.
  • 2007
    • 1 March –
      • The Sky basics channels stop broadcasting on Virgin Media when the two companies cannot agree a new carriage deal.[30]
      • Sky Arts launches, replacing Artsworld.
    • 27 March – Sky launches its on-demand service Sky Anytime.
    • 4 April – Sky Movies is revamped with each channel now covering a specific genre and are renamed. The new line-up is Sky Movies Premiere, Sky Movies Premiere +1, Sky Movies Comedy, Sky Movies Action & Thriller, Sky Movies Family, Sky Movies Drama, Sky Movies Classics, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror, Sky Movies Modern Greats, Sky Movies Indie, Sky Movies HD1 and Sky Movies HD2.[31]
    • 6 May – PremPlus closes.
    • 7 November –
      • Sky Real Lives launches.
      • Sky Travel is relaunched as a holiday retail channel, replacing Sky Travel Shop. Sky Travel +1 is renamed Sky Real Lives +1 and Sky Travel Extra becomes Sky Real Lives 2.[32]
  • 2008
    • 17 March – Sky Sports 3HD launches.
    • 20 March – A HD simulcast of Sky Movies Premiere is launched.
    • 16 May – Sky Anytime on PC is rebranded as Sky Player, along with updated software to include live simulcasts of Sky News and Sky Sports.
    • 18 August – Sky Arts +1 starts broadcasting.
    • 31 August – Sky One, Sky Two and Sky Three are renamed Sky 1, Sky 2 and Sky 3 respectively.
    • October – High-definition simulcast channels of Sky Movies Action/Thriller, Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror, Sky Movies Drama, Sky Movies Modern Greats, Sky Movies Family and Sky Movies Comedy launch.[33]
    • 13 November – The Sky Basics channels return to Virgin Media.[34][35]
  • 2009
    • 26 October – Sky Movies Indie HD launches.[36]

2010s

  • 2010
  • 2011
    • 1 January –
    • 1 February –
    • 28 February – Sky 3 is rebranded as Pick TV.
    • 6 July – Sky Anytime is merged with Sky Mobile and is rebranded as Sky Go.[52] Key changes include the ability to watch live channels in line with your Sky TV subscription at no additional cost, limited to two simultaneous devices.
    • 5 September – Sky Living Loves begins broadcasting 24 hours a day.
    • October – The final edition of Sky Magazine is published.[53]
    • 8 November – ITN confirms it has secured a five-year contract to resume production of 5 News from early 2012, meaning Sky News will cease to broadcast on the channel from the end of 2011.[54]
  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
    • 12 August –
    • September – Sky Sports News Radio closes.
    • 13 October – Following BSkyB's 2014 acquisition of Sky Italia and a majority 90.04% interest in Sky Deutschland in November 2014, its holding company British Sky Broadcasting Group plc changes its name to Sky plc.[59] The United Kingdom operations also changes the company name from British Sky Broadcasting Limited to Sky UK Limited, and still trades as Sky.
  • 2015
    • 31 January – Sky Active closes.[60]
    • 9 June –
      • The two Sky Arts channels merge into a single service.[61]
      • Sky 3D closes as a linear channel.[62] with 3D programming transferring to On Demand services.
      • Sky Livingit is rebranded as Real Lives.
  • 2016
    • 9 February – Sky launches its latest set-top box Sky Q.[63] and later in 2016, Sky stops selling its Sky+ box to new customers.[64]
    • 8 July – Sky Movies is rebranded as Sky Cinema.[65][66]
    • 13 August – Sky Sports broadcasts its first event in UHD.[67]
    • 24 August – Sky Sports Mix launches. It is available to all Sky customers, and is designed to offer a sampling of content from the full range of Sky Sports networks to non-Sky Sports customers.[68][69]
  • 2017
    • 4 January – Sky Cinema Box Office closes.
    • 18 July – Sky Sports is revamped with the numbered channels being replaced by sports-specific channels. These include two channels dedicated to football, a cricket channel and a golf channel. Other sports are moved to two new channels – Action and Arena – and a showcase channel called Sky Sports Main Event is launched which features simulcasts of the top events being show on Sky Sports that day.[70] Also, Sky Sports News drops the HQ label.
  • 2018
    • 23 January – Fox's £11.7bn bid to take full control of Sky is provisionally blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) amid concerns of plurality.[71]
    • 14 February – BT and Sky have agreed a £4.4bn three-year deal to show live Premiership football matches from 2019 to 2022, but the amount falls short of the £5.1bn deal struck in 2015.[72]
    • 27 February – US cable TV giant Comcast makes a £22.1bn bid for Sky, challenging the existing offer from 21st Century Fox.[73]
    • 6 August – Sky Living is rebranded as 'Sky Witness', bringing an end to the Living brand after 25 years.[74]
    • 26 September – 21st Century Fox announces it will sell its 39% stake in Sky UK to Comcast, ending Rupert Murdoch's three decade association with the broadcaster.[75]
  • 2019

2020s

See also

References

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