Sky Television plc
Encyclopedia
Sky Television plc was a public limited company
Public limited company
A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....

 which operated its four-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

's News International
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

 on 5 February 1989. Sky Television and rival British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom...

 were suffering massive losses and entered into a 50:50 financial merger in November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....

(BSkyB).

History

In 1978 Satellite Television UK (SATV) was set up to broadcast over Europe. A prototype, pioneering, lossmaking speculation, it was set up by Brian Haynes, formerly controller of Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....

. Originally it did not have a UK broadcasting licence and consequently was in a similar legal situation in the United Kingdom to pirate radio stations of the previous decade. The channel broadcast a mixture of cheap Dutch-made programming, mainly from John de Mol Productions (best known under their modern name Endemol Entertainment for the creation of the Big Brother franchise) and U.S. repeats. During 1979 SATV delivered 2 hours of broadcasting per day.

It broadcast from the OTS-2 Orbital Test Satellite
Orbital Test Satellite
The Orbital Test Satellite programme was an experimental satellite system inherited by the ESA in 1975 from its predecessor, the European Space Research Organization ....

 which had been launched on 12 May 1978. The audience at that time was tiny and pan-European: individual users were enthusiasts who had to possess satellite dishes which were huge compared to those in service today. But principally SATV was aimed at cable operators all over Europe; Norway and Finland being the first two countries to permit the new service's transmission via cable. (Malta, Switzerland and West-Germany were the next three countries to legalise cable transmission of the service).

With the station struggling financially, by the second half of 1983, the station's ex-ITV management realised that they "could not capture Europe on the budget of Border Television
Border Television
Border Television is the ITV franchise holder for the Border region, spanning the England/Scotland border and covering Dumfries & Galloway region, a small part of the south-west area of Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders, parts of north and west Northumberland and the majority of Cumbria...

", and put up the majority of the station's shares for sale. Rupert Murdoch's News International moved in to acquire 80% of SATV. Since the company was a lossmaking enterprise, Murdoch purchased the operation for the sum of £1 plus outstanding debts. The service was renamed Sky Channel in January 1984. The channel became widely available in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 in 1987. It was relaunched as the multi-channel Sky Television on 5 February 1989 and was one of the first Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services in the world to become operational. The service had four channels on the Astra 1A
Astra 1A
Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES . During its early days, it was often referred to as the Astra Satellite, as SES only operated one satellite originally....

 satellite, which orbited at 19.2° east
Astra 19.2°E
Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES Astra, a subsidiary of SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg....

: Sky Channel, Eurosport
Eurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...

, Sky Movies
Sky Movies
Sky Movies is the collective name for the premium subscription television movie channels operated by Sky Television, and later British Sky Broadcasting. It has around 5 million subscribers, via satellite, cable and IPTV in the UK and Ireland...

 and Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

. On launch, two further channels were promised - The Disney Channel and Sky Arts. However Disney withdrew with serious concerns about the poorly managed Sky launch and its impact on the forthcoming launch of Euro Disney Resort in 1992. The original Sky Arts launched in 1990 as a short lived opt-out on the Marcopolo satellite version of Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

 for former BSB
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom...

 subscribers to show programmes the former Now channel was contracted to air (it was not broadcast on Astra). A short lived channel under the name of The Arts Channel
The Arts Channel
The Arts Channel is a New Zealand television station dedicated to arts and cultural television from New Zealand and around the world.Its content is high quality arts entertainment and information...

was broadcast for a brief time on the Astra 1A satellite in 1989.

The Astra satellite was owned by a Luxembourg based consortium, Société Européenne des Satellites
SES Astra
Astra is the name for the geostationary communication satellites, both individually and as a group, which are owned and operated by SES S.A., a global satellite operator based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg. The name is sometimes also used to describe the channels broadcasting from these...

 and controlled from there, but Sky's broadcasts originated in the UK and were subject to British regulation but not by the tougher regulator, the IBA
Independent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television - and commercial/independent radio broadcasts...

. Sky was regulated by the Cable Authority
Cable Authority
The Cable Authority was the United Kingdom statutory body established by the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 to regulate the newly liberalised cable television industry. It came into existence on 1 December 1984 and took on its functions with effect from 1 January 1985...

.

BSB competition and merger

The impetus for the relaunch as Sky Television was the refusal of the IBA to allow Murdoch to bid for the UK Satellite TV licence won by the British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom...

 alliance. This created a battle to win customers in this new multichannel environment. In the end Sky's earlier launch and leasing of transponders on the Astra satellite network allowed it to merge with its rival. In contrast to Sky; BSB suffered from the regulatory burdens of only 5 TV channels, building and launching its own satellites and more ambitious and expensive technology. Also it had higher capital expenditure overall, such as the construction of its Marco Polo House
Marco Polo House
Marco Polo House is a large marble- and glass-clad office building at 346 Queenstown Road facing Battersea Park in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built in 1987, to a design by postmodernist architect Ian Pollard....

 HQ in London compared to Sky's industrial estate in Isleworth
Isleworth
Isleworth is a small town of Saxon origin sited 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. Isleworth's original area of settlement, alongside the Thames, is known as...

 although this was not a decisive factor.

In 1990 both companies were beginning to struggle with the burden of massive losses and in November 1990 there was a 50:50 financial merger, with a management takeover by Sky. The new company was called British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....

 (BSkyB) but marketed as Sky, Marco Polo House
Marco Polo House
Marco Polo House is a large marble- and glass-clad office building at 346 Queenstown Road facing Battersea Park in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built in 1987, to a design by postmodernist architect Ian Pollard....

 was sold, BSB's channels were largely scrapped in favour of Sky's and the Marcopolo satellites were run down and eventually sold in favour of the Astra system (Marcopolo I in December 1993 to NSAB of Sweden and Marcopolo II in July 1992 to Telenor
Telenor
Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand...

 of Norway, leaving the Squarial
Squarial
The Squarial was a satellite antenna used for reception of the now defunct British Satellite Broadcasting television service. The Squarial was a flat plate satellite antenna, built to be unobtrusive and unique. BSB were counting on the form factor of the antenna to clearly differentiate themselves...

 obsolete. Both companies had already one HS376 in orbit at the time). The merger may have saved Sky financially; Sky had very few major advertisers to begin with. Acquiring BSB's healthier advertising contracts and equipment apparently solved the company's problems.

Financial turnaround

The early years of the merged BSkyB saw a haemorrhage of cash from News Corporation funds. At this stage of the company's life it was losing millions of pounds a week. To help turn around the financial fortunes of the company, New Zealand television executive Sam Chisholm
Sam Chisholm
Sam Chisholm is a media executive born in New Zealand. He was a significant figure in Australian media. He ran Kerry Packer's Nine Network for a significant period during the 1980s before moving to the UK to work for Packer's rival Rupert Murdoch in rescuing the newly established BSkyB from...

 was brought on board to manage the day-to-day operations and build the subscriber base, and the company moved into profit.

Timeline

  • 1982 - Super Station Europe(SSE) launched
  • 1983 - Murdoch's
    Rupert Murdoch
    Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

     News International
    News International
    News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

     takes control of Satellite Television UK (SATV)
  • 1984 - Renamed Sky Channel
  • 1986 - Granada
    Granada Ltd.
    Granada plc is a former British conglomerate which was best known as the former parent of the Manchester-based Granada Television....

    , Pearson
    Pearson PLC
    Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...

    , Virgin
    Virgin Group
    Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...

     and Amstrad
    Amstrad
    Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....

     form British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) and win Independent Broadcasting Authority
    Independent Broadcasting Authority
    The Independent Broadcasting Authority was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television - and commercial/independent radio broadcasts...

     UK satellite franchise
  • 1987 - BSB awarded licence from the IBA and complete over £200m funding with additional shareholders Reed
    Reed Elsevier
    Reed Elsevier is a publisher and information provider operating in the science, medical, legal, risk and business sectors. It is listed on several of the world's major stock exchanges. It is a FTSE 100 and FT500 Global company...

    , Chargeurs
    Chargeurs
    Chargeurs Réunis was a major French company formed in 1872.-History:Chargeurs was a shareholder in British Satellite Broadcasting, the official UK satellite broadcaster. BSB was set up in 1986 in competition with Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television...

    , London Merchant Securities and others
  • 1988 - July - Murdoch announces his intention to relaunch Sky Channel as Sky Television on the Astra satellite system
  • 1989 - 5 February - Four channel Sky Television package launched
  • 1990 - March - BSB begins broadcasts
  • 1990 - November - Both companies had suffered heavy losses and a 50:50 financial merger was agreed to form British Sky Broadcasting
  • 1990 - BSkyB announces former BSB customers will receive Sky equipment (for Astra system) free of charge, Marcopolo satellite transmissions to cease
  • 1992 - July - BSB satellite Marcopolo II sold to Telenor
    Telenor
    Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand...

  • 1993 - December - BSB satellite Marcopolo I sold to NSAB
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