Timeline of Sky One

This is a timeline of the history of Sky One and its spin-off channels.

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
    • 21 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 is often referred to on-screen as Super Station Europe. However the channel is initially only available in some European countries, with Norway and Finland being the first two countries to permit the new service's transmission via cable, followed by Malta, Switzerland and West Germany.
  • 1983
    • 27 June – News International becomes the majority shareholder of Satellite Television.[3] broadcast hours are extended and the channel starts to be seen in more countries.
    • 16 October – Satellite Television begins broadcasting in the UK.[4]
  • 1984
    • 16 January – Satellite Television is renamed Sky Channel. It also sees the first programmes commissioned for the channel although they mainly consist of children’s and music programming.
  • 1985
    • 20 July – Sky Channel launches a weekend morning children’s programming block called Fun Factory.
  • 1986
    • 1 September – The DJ Kat Show launches as a weekday children's programming block. It airs at breakfast and in the late afternoons.
  • 1987
    • No events.
  • 1988
    • 8 June – Rupert Murdoch announces plans to launch a four-channel service on the soon to be launched Astra satellite.[5] One of the four channels will be Sky Channel.
  • 1989
    • 5 February – Sky Television launches at 6.00pm. The channel line-up consists of Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport.
    • 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.
    • Sky steps up its original content when it begins commissioning programming beyond music and children's shows. Content includes a morning show Sky By Day, current affairs series Frank Bough's World and Jameson Tonight and new game shows, including revivals of Blockbusters, The Price Is Right and Sale of the Century.[6]

1990s
Logo used from 1993 to 1995.
Logo used from 1995 to 1996.
Logo used from 1996 to 1997.
Logo used from 1998 to 2002.
  • 1990
    • January–March – Sky One shows live coverage of England's cricketing tour to the West Indies. This is the first time that full live coverage of an overseas tour has been shown in the UK.
    • 2 September – Sky One begins airing the American animated series The Simpsons as part of a strategy of showing more recent programming.
    • 2 November – Sky TV and BSB merge. The new company is called BSkyB.[7]
    • 2 December – Sky One launches on the Marcopolo satellite. It replaces BSB's entertainment channel Galaxy.
  • 1991
    • No events.
  • 1992
    • 31 December – Sky One stops broadcasting via the Marcopolo satellite.
  • 1993
    • 1 September – Sky Multichannels launches and consequently Sky One becomes a pay television channel.[8]
  • 1994
    • 11 September – After nine years on air, the final edition of children’s programming block Fun Factory is broadcast.
    • Sky One returns to commissioning music programmes when it starts their own music show The Coca Cola Hit Mix (also known as The Hit Mix).[9] featuring music news and guests at the time.[10] The show features regular competitions, phone ins with guests and other features.
  • 1995
    • 9 January – Sky One begins 24-hour broadcasting, filling the overnight hours with music videos under the name Hit Mix Long Play.
    • 31 December – The children programming block The DJ Kat Show is axed after almost a decade on air due to low viewing figures.
  • 1996
    • 1 September – Sky 2 launches as an evening and overnight service and Sky One rebrands as Sky 1.
    • October – Children's programming on Sky One is reduced following the launch of Fox Kids Network and most of the programmes shown on Sky One move to the new channel.
  • 1997
    • 31 August – Sky 2 stops broadcasting and Sky 1 reverts to being called Sky One.
    • 14 October – The first episode of footballing drama series Dream Team is broadcast. It goes on to air for the next ten years.
  • 1999
    • No events.

2000s
  • 2000
    • A dedicated feed of Sky One for Ireland is launched although for most of its existence, the only difference between it and the United Kingdom feed has been differing commercials and programme promotions.
  • 2001
    • 27 September – Sky One becomes the last channel to stop broadcasting via analogue on satellite. Sky had originally planned to switch off its analogue service earlier in 2001 but delayed it by three months due to the possibility of lost revenue from the remaining analogue subscribers, thereby giving those customers extra time to switch to Sky's digital service.[11][12][13]
  • 2002
Logo used from 2002 to 2004.
    • 1 May – ITV Digital stops broadcasting, meaning that Sky One is no longer available on Digital Terrestrial Television.
    • 9 December – Sky One Mix launches.
  • 2003
    • June – Sky One starts broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen.[14] However, all TV commercials were broadcast in 4:3 until 21 November 2005, because they were played off the same servers for all Sky channels, many of which were not broadcast in widescreen.
  • 2004
    • Sky One Mix is rebranded as Sky Mix.
  • 2005
    • 31 October – Sky One Mix is rebranded as Sky Two, and Sky Three launches mainly as a barker channel on Freeview for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky One and its other subscription services which served to "offer digital terrestrial viewers the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of popular programmes from Sky".[15] It also broadcasts Sky Travel's commercial presentations selling holiday deals for a number of providers.
  • 2007
Logo used from 2008 to 2011.
    • 1 March – The Sky basics channels, which include Sky One, stop broadcasting on Virgin Media when the two companies cannot agree a new carriage deal.[16]
    • 3 June – The final episode of drama series Dream Team is broadcast after more than 400 episodes and nearly a decade on air.
  • 2009
    • No events.

2010s
  • 2010
    • 10 May–9 August – Sky conducts three-month experimental revision of Sky Two, under which Sky Two predominantly operated a one-hour timeshift of programming on Sky One.[20]
    • August – The closure of the original Sky Real Lives sees some of its factual and reality programming moving to Sky Two.
    • 23 August – Sky 3 +1 launches on Freeview, replacing Sky Sports News,[21] and a HD version of the channel is launched.[22]
  • 2011
    • 1 February – Sky1 and Sky2 are renamed Sky 1 and Sky 2.
    • 2 February – Sky3 is renamed Sky 3.
    • Following the closure of Bravo, some of its programming, particularly in the science-fiction, drama and documentary fields moves to Sky Two.
    • 28 February – Sky 3 closes and Pick TV is launched to replace it.
  • 2012
    • 17 July – Sky launches Now TV. It is launched to provide access to Sky TV to those who have no existing pay TV subscription and do not want to be tied into a contract.[23] The service offered only films at first, adding sports in March 2013,[24] and entertainment channels in October 2013.[25][26]
    • 12 November – Sky One launches a +1 channel although for licensing reasons, The Simpsons is not broadcast on the timeshift channel.[27]
  • 2013
    • No events.
  • 2014
  • 2015
    • No events.
  • 2016
    • No events.
Logo used from 2015 to 2017.
  • 2017
    • Some sport coverage begins to be shown on Sky One. This includes a partial simulcast of Soccer Saturday, highlights of, and occasional live coverage of, Formula One motor racing and the occasional live football match.
    • 2017 also sees Sky One moving away from factual programming to showing more comedy and drama programs for the future.
    • 9 October – The branding and presentation on Sky's entertainment channels is revised again; as part of this the names Sky One and Sky Two are reintroduced nine years after the switch to numerals. Sky Two drops its previous filmed idents in favour of using an animated sting featuring the new channel logo.
  • 2018
    • No events.

2020s
  • 2020
Final logo, used from 2020 to 2021.
Logo used since 2021.
  • 2021
    • 1 September – Sky One closes after nearly 40 years on air. Its programmes mostly transfer to a new channel, Sky Max.[29]

See also

References
  1. Book: "High Above: The untold story of Astra, Europe's leading satellite company " By Chris Forrester ISBN 978-3642120084
  2. "New Scientist" Green light for Satellite television Bp 267 By Peter Marsh 21 October 1981
  3. News International buys 65% of satellite group. By Bill Johnstone, Electronics Correspondent. The Times, Wednesday, 29 June 1983; pg. 13
  4. TV satellite set for weekend debut. By Bill Johnstone, Electronics Correspondent. The Times, Wednesday, 12 October 1983
  5. [The £199 dish that will launch a television revolution. by Richard Evans Media Editor. The Times, Thursday, 9 June 1988]
  6. From Sunday, you'll never say there's.... Advert The Times (London, England), Friday, 3 February 1989; pg12
  7. "Maggie Brown on the early years of Sky Television". The Guardian. London.
  8. "Sky Television – Promos". TV Ark. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  9. "Terry Christian: Broadcaster, Journalist and Author". Greater Mancunians. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  10. "London's independent TV studios". TV History. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  11. Milmo, Dan (2001-05-09). "Sky pushes back analogue switch-off". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  12. Bohem, Erich (2001-05-09). "BSkyB digital subs top 5 mil". Variety. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  13. Wathan, Chris. "How the Sky analogue service was run down in favour of digital..." Analoguesat. Archived from the original on 10 October 2006. Retrieved 10 February 2007.
  14. Jay, Alan (2 May 2003). "Sky confirms expansion of widescreen broadcasting". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
  15. Plunkett, John. "Sky Three to launch on Freeview", MediaGuardian, 22 September 2005. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  16. "BSkyB channels taken off Virgin". BBC News. 1 March 2007.
  17. Sweney, Mark. "David Boreanaz stars in Sky ident as channels given new look", guardian.co.uk, 6 August 2008
  18. Welsh, James (4 November 2008). "Sky1, Sky News back on Virgin cable". Digital Spy.
  19. Goss, Patrick (4 November 2008). "Sky1 returns to Virgin Media". TechRadar.
  20. "Sky2 to 'remain a separate channel'". Digital Spy. 6 May 2010.
  21. "Sky Sports News to get bigger and better as a pay TV channel". British Sky Broadcasting. 17 June 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  22. "Programme Information Highlights" (PDF). Sky Programme Information. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  23. "Press release: Now's the time for NOW TV". Sky Corporate. 16 July 2012. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012.
  24. "Pay-as-you-go Sky Sports comes to NOW TV". Corporate.sky.com. 2013-03-19. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
  25. Skipworth, Hunter (2013-10-29). "New Sky Now TV package brings Sky 1 access and more". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  26. "Sky announces details of NowTV internet TV service". BBC News Online. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
  27. Andy Gallagher; Josh Strauss & Emily Brinnand (25 August 2012). "Sky's Stuart Murphy announces the launch of two new channels – video". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 26 August 2012.*]
  28. "Sky Two to rebrand as Sky Sports Replay". Media Mole. 14 August 2020.
  29. Yossman, K. J. (27 July 2021). "Sky Marks End of an Era as 'Sky One' Channel Is Retired in a Major Rebrand". Variety.
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