F

L
Y
L
I
RN E

OO
T
S ER
I
H H

P
O
E
T
S
H
T HRI
C

Y
SK

V
T

BACKGROUND

Sky television was originally entitled Satellite television Ltd

Sky television plc was launched by Rupert Murdock on 5th

February 1989, it was Rupert's attempt to take full
advantage of the new satellite technology.

TROUBLED START

British satellite broadcasting was skys main rivals, but both

of these companies ended up losing a lot of money in the
early days as a result of lack of popularity and technology,
this made both companies come together, the result of the
merger was British Sky Broadcasting.

PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL

During the autumn of 1991, talks were held for premier

league football, Rupert Murdock described sport as a
bettering ram and offered 304 million for a monopoly over
premier league football.

This led to ITV whop were the current holders of premier

league football to file a law suit against sky, believing that
Murdocks newspapers had influenced the deals and that
their 262 million bid details had been leaked before the
decision was taken.

There are still many disputes over football rights involving

sky sports to this day.

SKY MULTICHANNELS

In September 1993 sky multichannels was launched, sky

multichannels included some free to air programmes such
as MTV Europe and sky news, but also had channels that
you had to pay for such as sky one, this new idea lead to sky
being in 3.5 million households by mid 1994.

New channels were introduced every year to sky

multichannels.

SKY DIGITAL

The next big thing to happen to sky was sky digital on 1st
October 1998, the key selling points for sky digital was
better picture and sound quality.

The growth of digital television led to the closure of sky

multichannels by September 2001. the new digital service
would now only be called sky.

By 2005, the number of digital subscribers was at 7.8

million

SKY PLUS

Sky+ was launched in early 2002, it allows the user to

record, pause and instantly rewind live TV.

SKY+ HD

Sky + HD was launched on 22 May 2006, 2 years after

launch it was branded sky HD, the service required a Sky HD
digibox and HD ready TV, as of 2014 the number of Sky+ HD
boxes currently stands at at 10 million

REFERENCES
http://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2009/feb/04/sk
y-tv-earlyyears
http://
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/the-hist
ory-of-sky-television-902150
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Multichannels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSkyB
http://help.sky.com/articles/how-to-use-your-sky-remotecontrol
http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/skytv/promos.html