137-784: Living TV Group was a British television consortium originally called Flextech before becoming a subsidiary of British Sky Broadcasting , with Challenge still broadcasting. Living TV Group had several owned channels, available in the United Kingdom on terrestrial , satellite and cable television platforms and in Ireland on satellite and cable television. Living TV Group's advertising was handled by former sister company Interactive Digital Sales (IDS) until 1 January 2011, when Sky Media took over. Flextech began life as an oil services group, previously floated as an energy investment company back in 1983. After Roger Luard became chief executive in 1986,
274-520: A Sky+ PVR with their service; waiving the charge for subscribers whose package included two or more premium channels. This changed as of 1 July 2007, and now customers that subscribe to any Sky package have Sky+ included at no extra charge. Customers that do not subscribe to Sky's channels can still pay a monthly fee to enable Sky+ functions. In September 2007, Sky launched a new TV advertising campaign targeting Sky+ at women. As of 31 March 2008, Sky had 3,393,000 Sky+ users. BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1
411-637: A breakfast show did not come naturally to them. They were replaced by Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening eight months later in October 1997; Greening soon moved on, leaving Ball as sole presenter. The reinvention of the station happened at a fortuitous time, with the rise of Britpop in the mid-1990s – bands like Oasis , Blur and Pulp were popular and credible at the time, and the station's popularity rose with them. Documentaries like John Peel's Lost in Music , which looked at
548-488: A controversial and youth-orientated movement by bringing in club DJ Pete Tong amongst others. There had been a dance music programme on Radio 1 since 1987 and Pete Tong (now the current longest-serving DJ at the station) was the second DJ to present an all dance music show. This quickly gave birth to the Essential Mix where underground DJs mix electronic and club based music in a two-hour slot. Dance and urban music has been
685-604: A countdown by the Controller of Radios 1 and 2, Robin Scott , and a jingle, recorded at PAMS in Dallas , Texas, beginning "The voice of Radio 1" – were: And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1. This was the first use of US-style jingles on BBC radio, but the style was familiar to listeners who were acquainted with Blackburn and other DJs from their days on pirate radio. The reason jingles from PAMS were used
822-889: A day after Setanta Sports confirmed that it would launch in March as a subscription service on the digital terrestrial platform, and on the same day that NTL's services re-branded as Virgin Media . However, industry sources believe Sky will be forced to shelve plans to withdraw its channels from Freeview and replace them with subscription channels, due to possible lost advertising revenue. Sky initially faced increased competition from telecommunications providers to deliver pay television services over existing telephone lines using ADSL . Such providers are able to offer " triple play " or " quadruple play " packages combining landline telephone, broadband Internet, mobile telephone and pay television services. To compete with these providers, in October 2005, Sky bought
959-459: A day on cable. In February 1998, the channel merged with CNBC Europe , upon which the channel became known officially as "CNBC Europe – A Service of NBC and Dow Jones". Flextech left all of its interests in the channel and then decided to focus on entertainment rather than news. Ftn (or Flextech Television Network) was the only wholly owned channel, it was closed down by the new VMT. The channel rebranded as Virgin1 on 1 October 2007. Living
1096-572: A deal in which Flextech absorbed the European programming interests of United Artists European Holdings. In return, UAEH's US parent, TCI, acquired 60% of the enlarged Flextech. Within days of the deal, Flextech brought a 20% stake in HTV for £27 million. Within a year, the stake was transferred to Scottish Television as part of its deal to acquire a 20% stake in STV. As part of the deal, Flextech agreed to license
1233-606: A deal with Sky to bring some of its shows to the PlayStation Store Video Store. Users are able buy individual TV episodes in SD or HD. On 3 December 2014, Sky Go became available on the PlayStation 4 under the name "TV from Sky", followed by the PlayStation 3 on 29 January 2015. Sky Store has a library of films from Sky Cinema that can be rented or bought, either via an app or physical DVD/Blu-ray copies by post. Sky Store
1370-441: A gaggle of others, some transferred from pirate stations, such as Keith Skues , Ed Stewart , Mike Raven , David Ryder , Jim Fisher , Jimmy Young , Dave Cash , Kenny Everett , Simon Dee , Terry Wogan , Duncan Johnson , Doug Crawford , Tommy Vance , Chris Denning , and Emperor Rosko . Many of the most popular pirate radio voices, such as Simon Dee, had only a one-hour slot per week ("Midday Spin"). I want to slag off all
1507-466: A merger between Telewest and Flextech, By 17 December 1999, the merger was agreed upon which created a £10.5bn media giant; Telewest shareholders owned 80% of the new group and Flextech shareholders owned 20%. The two companies fully merged on 19 April 2000. Flextech continued to expand under Telewest ownership, with UKTV continuing to expand its network of channels with the BBC , plus a new venture which saw
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#17328591922441644-656: A mixture of content from other Sky Channels, and Sky Max , showing Sky's original programming and entertainment previously shown on Sky One. On 7 October 2021, Sky announced a new all-in-one TV set called Sky Glass. It is designed to support streaming of Sky TV and streaming service shows over WiFi, eliminating the need for a satellite dish or box. It launched on 18 October 2021, with three sizes available: 43-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch. In October 2022, Comcast announced that it had written off US$ 8.6 billion of its valuation of Sky, with its third-quarter sales dropping 14.7 percent to $ 4.3 bn In October 2005, Sky agreed to purchase
1781-522: A network of transmitters which had carried the Light Programme. Most were of comparatively low power, at less than 50 kilowatts, leading to patchy coverage of the country. The first disc jockey to broadcast on the new station was Tony Blackburn , who had previously been on Radio Caroline and Radio London , and presented what became known as the Radio 1 Breakfast Show . The first words on Radio 1 – after
1918-510: A new on-screen look and an additional channel -- Living 2, which specialised in reality and entertainment television. During the spring of 2004, United Business Media and RTL, which both held shares in Five , held talks with Flextech about merging the advertising sales teams of Five and Flextech's channels together, but this deal ultimately did not proceed. In 2005, Telewest, in preparation for its long-awaited merger with NTL, put Flextech up for sale as
2055-481: A new programme, The Friday Rock Show . and on 23 November Radio 1 moved from 247m (1214 kHz) to 275 & 285m (1053 & 1089 kHz) medium wave as part of a plan to improve national AM reception, and to conform with the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 . Annie Nightingale , whose first Radio 1 programme aired on 5 October 1969, was Britain's first national female DJ (the earliest record presenter
2192-460: A new weekend breakfast show. In 1985, Radio 1 relocated from its studios in Broadcasting House to Egton House . In March 1985, Ranking Miss P became the first black female DJ on the station, hosting a reggae programme. In July, Andy Kershaw also joined the station. Simon Mayo joined the station in 1986, while Smith re-joined to replace Read on the breakfast show. In response to
2329-505: A part of the ONdigital consortium, thereby making them a competitor by default, Sky was able to join ITV Digital's free-to-air replacement, Freeview , in which it holds an equal stake with the BBC , ITV , Channel 4 and Arqiva . Prior to October 2005, three Sky channels were available on this platform: Sky News , Sky Three , and Sky Sports News . Initially, Sky provided Sky Travel to
2466-557: A permanent feature on Radio 1 since with club DJs such as Judge Jules , Danny Rampling , Trevor Nelson , and the Dreem Teem all moving from London's Kiss 100 to the station. Listening numbers continued to decline. The breakfast show and the UK Top 40 continued to struggle. In 2000, Zoe Ball was replaced in the mornings by close friend and fellow ladette Sara Cox . The success of Moyles' show has come alongside increased success for
2603-492: A policy change saw the channel showing science fiction and horror and later became known for showing crime documentaries by day and adult programming at night. Over the later years, Bravo decreased the adult content shown and increased sports - most notably Serie A Italian football - and imported shows such as Alias and sports coverage. Bravo also aired World Championship Wrestling 's flagship show Nitro during WCW's final year in business (2000–2001). Its target audience
2740-496: A range of content from Sky's basic and premium channels, including the VMtv channels. Virgin Media also gained access to red button interactive sports coverage and the opportunity to deliver selected standard definition programming over the internet. Sky would assume responsibility for selling advertising for the newly acquired VMtv channels from January 2011. Completion of the agreements was conditional on obtaining merger control clearance in
2877-574: A shopping channel come into operation in Autumn 2000. In 2003, Flextech restructured its marketing department with creative solutions put together by central in-house marketers who worked agencies including Banc and Karmarama. The new marketing strategy was also used as a forerunner for the company's newest channel, Ftn , which launched in January 2003 on the Freeview platform. This was followed by Living TV receiving
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#17328591922443014-472: A subscription to watch the channels. After the two companies merged, subscribers could get access to both channels, and two years later, the sports channel Sky Sports also became encrypted. In the autumn of 1991, talks were held for the broadcast rights for Premier League for five years, from the 1992 season. ITV were the current rights holders and fought hard to retain the new rights. ITV had increased its offer from £18m to £34m per year to keep control of
3151-455: A television version of BBC Radio 1 was reused for the UK Play channel, which launched in October 1998; the dedicated BBC Sport channel never materialised. UK Gold was relaunched as part of the new branding, whilst UK Living remained a separate network, due to the similarities of some of its programming with that of UK Style; prior to UKTV's launch, it was rebranded as Living to avoid confusion with
3288-635: A website was launched called Trouble Homegrown that showcased British videos. Virgin Central was a TV channel launched on the Virgin Media platform on 20 February 2007. It was based on the video on demand system. The service was launched on the Virgin Media platform on 20 February 2007. Viewers pressed the red button on their remote controls and were presented with a list of television series, episodes of which they could have watched at any time they like during
3425-405: A weekly late night show presented by a well known Internet personality called The Internet Takeover . Shows have been presented by various YouTubers such as Jim Chapman and Hannah Witton . In January 2015, Clara Amfo replaced Jameela Jamil as host of The Official Chart on Sundays (4 pm – 7 pm) and in March, Zane Lowe left Radio 1 and was replaced by Annie Mac on
3562-631: A whole was dissolved as a company on 23 April 2014. Living TV Group directly operated a number of linear television channels. Most of the channels were formed in the Flextech years. Additionally, Living TV Group operated a high-definition channel and a number of time-shifted channels. All channels were available on satellite and cable television services. Channel One , was also available on Freeview . As Flextech, Living TV Group used to be interested in different markets from its current demographics which focus on an older age group. But in an attempt to streamline
3699-576: Is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC . It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica , dance, hip hop and indie , while its sister station 1Xtra plays black contemporary music , including hip hop and R&B . Radio 1 also runs two online streams, Radio 1 Dance , dedicated to dance music, and Radio 1 Anthems , dedicated to throwback music; both are available to listen only on BBC Sounds . Radio 1 broadcasts throughout
3836-463: Is also available on Virgin and Sky. Some media sources have claimed that the channel was intended to be Virgin Media's attempt to create a rival to Sky1 with the advantage of having a wider reach of viewers. The channel closed on 1 February 2011. European Business News was a pan-European business news channel, which operated in partnership with Dow Jones . It broadcast between 06:00 and 12:00 on satellite, timesharing with Bravo , and 24 hours
3973-403: Is available on Sky Q boxes as well as through apps on devices such as computers and mobile devices. It is available to anyone with a compatible device and does not require a Sky TV subscription. An over-the-top contract-free television service from Sky. The service is provided on a NOW device or through an app on selected computers, mobile devices, set-top boxes and smart TVs. NOW is separate from
4110-515: Is free for new or existing Sky TV customers using the Sky Mobile network. Since it was launched Sky has reduced the cost of its tariffs with, as of March 2021, 2GB now starting for £6.00 per month, 8GB for £10.00 per month, 10GB for £12.00 per month, 25GB for £15.00 per month, 30GB for £20 per month and 60GB for £30 has and they have also expanded the Sky VIP offering to mobile plans. They have also expanded
4247-460: Is thought to be Jean Metcalfe of Family Favourites , but given that Metcalfe only presented the programme she is not considered a "true" DJ) and became its longest-serving presenter, having constantly evolved her musical tastes with the times. In 1978, Al Matthews became the first black disc jockey to join Radio 1. His Saturday night show Discovatin ' was broadcast for over two years. During
Living TV Group - Misplaced Pages Continue
4384-500: The FIA GT Championship to its portfolio of sports events. The channel also carried a limited amount of Serie A matches. The channel closed on 1 January 2011. Challenge launched as The Family Channel on 1 September 1993 as a family orientated channel but relaunched as Challenge TV on 3 February 1997. The channel relies heavily on game shows taken from a variety of sources, although most are repeats of programmes acquired from
4521-464: The ONdigital digital terrestrial television service (later renamed ITV Digital ). ITV Digital failed for numerous reasons, including, but not limited to numerous administrative and technical failures, nervous investors after a large downturn in the advertising market and the dot com crash , and Sky's aggressive marketing and domination of premium sporting rights. While Sky had been excluded from being
4658-642: The Office of Fair Trading announced that they would review BSkyB's acquisition of the Virgin Media Television business to judge whether it posed any competition concerns in the UK. The OFT planned to investigate the deal to see whether it could constitute a qualifying merger under the Enterprise Act 2002 . The watchdog invited interested parties from the industry to comment on the sale, including its potential impact on
4795-558: The Sky Digibox , using the Slogans "What do you want to watch?", "Entertainment your way" and the current slogan "Believe in Better" . This was followed by Sky+, a digital video recorder with an internal hard drive which allows viewers to 'pause live television' (by switching from a live feed to a paused real-time recording that can be restarted at any point) and schedule programs to record in
4932-530: The United Kingdom . On 1 March 2013, it was announced that Sky would buy O2 's and Be 's broadband services from Telefónica for £180 million upfront plus another £20 million once customers have been transferred. Telefónica said the deal would allow it to concentrate on providing better mobile services, including rolling out 4G. Sky offers broadband using the Openreach network. Customer premises connect to
5069-457: The "piggybank" facility to allow customers to "cash-in" piggybank data to bring the monthly cost of a phone down. Sky Mobile launched in Ireland in September 2024, and also announced their plans to expand to Italy. As of 30 March 2017, Sky Mobile is offering handset deals. Products are available from manufacturers such as Samsung , Sony and Apple . Sky launched with a set-top box known as
5206-452: The 1990s the Britpop boom declined, and manufactured chart pop (boy bands and acts aimed at sub-teenagers) came to dominate the charts. New-genre music occupied the evenings (indie on weekdays and dance at weekends), with a mix of specialist shows and playlist fillers through late nights. The rise of rave culture through the late 1980s and early 1990s gave the station the opportunity to move into
5343-746: The Authority to carry out a full investigation within 10 days of the date of the Authority's decision. On 13 July 2010, British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media announced that Sky had completed the acquisition of Virgin Media Television (VMtv) following regulatory approval in the Republic of Ireland. VMtv was then renamed the Living TV Group. In completing the acquisition, Sky paid Virgin Media an initial £105 million. Up to an additional £55 million would be paid on UK regulatory clearance. On 20 July 2010,
5480-539: The BBC 'Radio Weeks' promotions that took Radio 1, 2 and 4 shows on the road – drew some of the largest crowds of the decade. The station undoubtedly played a role in maintaining the high sales of 45 rpm single records, although it benefited from a lack of competition, apart from Radio Luxembourg , and from Manx Radio in the Isle of Man. ( Independent Local Radio did not begin until October 1973, took many years to cover virtually all of
5617-413: The BBC was a turn-off for some, and needle time restrictions prevented it from playing as many records as offshore stations had. It also had limited finances and often, as in January 1975, suffered disproportionately when the BBC had to make financial cutbacks, strengthening an impression that it was regarded as a lower priority by senior BBC executives. Despite this, it gained massive audiences, becoming
Living TV Group - Misplaced Pages Continue
5754-502: The Challenge Jackpot gaming services, for £2 million in stock. NetPlay TV signed production and gaming agreements with Virgin Media Television for an initial period until 30 June 2013, and took over production of Challenge Jackpot, including its website and television channel. On 25 March 2010, NetPlay TV and Virgin Media Television agreed to the termination of the option agreement entered into on 7 April 2009 under which VMTV
5891-561: The High Court to get an injunction as it believed their bid details had been leaked before the decision was taken. ITV also asked the Office of Fair Trading to investigate since it believed Rupert Murdoch's media empire via its newspapers had influenced the deal. A few days later neither action took effect, ITV believed BSkyB was telephoned and informed of its £262m bid, and Premier League advised BSkyB to increase its counter bid. BSkyB retained
6028-622: The ISP EasyNet for £211 million. At the time, EasyNet were one of the few ISPs that had made major investments in local-loop unbundling (LLU), giving Sky access to 232 unbundled telephone exchanges . The acquired EasyNet was placed under a new Sky Broadband division. In October 2007, Sky reached 1 million broadband customers and claimed to be gained one new customer every 40 seconds. By September 2009, Sky Broadband had 2.3 million customers. By July 2012 Sky Broadband had reached four million customers and had unbundled exchanges covering over 70% of
6165-681: The Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports was awarded two of the six Premier League packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters. Sky picked up the remaining four for £1.3bn. In February 2015, Sky bid £4.2bn for a package of 120 premier league games across the three seasons from 2016. This represented an increase of 70% on the previous contract and was said to be £1bn more than the company had expected to pay. The move has been followed by staff cuts, increased subscription prices (including 9% in Sky's family package) and
6302-618: The Republic of Ireland. Virgin1 was also a part of the deal, but was rebranded as Channel One on 3 September 2010, as the Virgin name was not licensed to Sky. Virgin Media's stake in UKTV was not included in the deal. On 29 June 2010, the Competition Authority in Ireland cleared the proposed transaction. The parties proceeded after the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation did not direct
6439-535: The Select Committee on National Heritage, mainly for the lack of original programming on many of the new channels. BSkyB's digital service was officially launched on 1 October 1998 under the name Sky Digital, although small-scale tests were carried out before then. At this time the use of the Sky Digital brand made an important distinction between the new service and Sky's analogue services. Key selling points were
6576-565: The Sky Multichannels package, many of which broadcast additional hours on Sky Digital, Sky Digital launched several new channels that were exclusive to the digital offer. The switchover from analogue to digital proceeded relatively quickly. In 1998, there were 6 million 'multichannel' TV homes in the UK (i.e. homes that watch television other than the traditional analogue terrestrial), and over half of these homes watched television using BSkyB's analogue service. BSkyB's digital service surpassed
6713-611: The Smarter Network, with tariffs mainly focused on data rather than traditional calls & text, effectively saving consumers money in wasted unused minutes and texts. 1GB data costs £10.00 per month while 5GB costs £15.00 per month with 10GB data costing £20.00 per month. With all those data tariffs, the customer can choose from two different call & text packages with the 'Pay as you use' costing 10p per minute of calls and 10p per text message sent or £10.00 per month for Unlimited Calls & Texts. The Unlimited Calls & Texts package
6850-435: The UK and was initially a mixture of music and talk). Alan Freeman 's "Saturday Rock Show" was voted "Best Radio Show" five years running by readers of a national music publication, and was then axed by controller Derek Chinnery. News coverage on the station was boosted in 1973 when Newsbeat bulletins aired for the first time, and Richard Skinner joined the station as one of the new programme's presenters. On air, 1978
6987-435: The UK on FM between 97.1 MHz and 99.7 MHz , digital radio , digital TV and BBC Sounds. It was launched in 1967 to meet the demand for music generated by pirate radio stations, when the average age of the UK population was 27. The BBC claims that it targets the 15–29 age group, and the average age of its UK audience since 2009 is 30. BBC Radio 1 started 24-hour broadcasting on 1 May 1991. According to RAJAR ,
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#17328591922447124-575: The UK's parliament heard a claim that a subscription to Sky was 'often damaging' to welfare recipients, along with alcohol, tobacco and gambling. Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke was proposing the payments of benefits and tax credits on a "Welfare Cash Card", in the style of the American Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , that could be used to buy only "essentials". In 2016, Sky launched its new TV and entertainment service called Sky Q . On 1 March 2018, it
7261-456: The UKTV network that launched that year. On 1 February 2011, Living was rebranded as Sky Living . In a bid to appeal more universally and to more males, the pink colour scheme was dropped and replaced with a new silver scheme and new types of programming came to the channel whilst simultaneously not losing its female audience. Shows include the likes of the CSI , Close to Home and Boston Legal ,
7398-505: The United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Sky Group and, from 2018 onwards, part of Comcast . It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster, with 12.7 million customers as of the end of 2019 for its digital satellite TV platform. Sky's flagship products are Sky Q and the internet-based Sky Glass, and its flagship channels are Sky Showcase , Sky Max , and Sky Atlantic . Formed as British Sky Broadcasting ( BSkyB ) in November 1990 through
7535-476: The acquisition by Sky of Virgin Media Television. The companies had, in parallel, agreed to enter into a number of agreements providing for the carriage of certain Sky standard and high-definition (HD) channels. Sky acquired VMtv for a total consideration of up to £160 million in cash, with £105 million paid on completion and the remainder paid following the regulatory process. The acquisition expanded Sky's portfolio of basic pay TV channels and eliminated
7672-426: The analogue service in terms of subscribers in late 1999. By June 2000 the service had 3.6 million subscribers, which gave BSkyB 8.988 million subscribers across all platforms. This substantial growth reflected BSkyB's 34% share of viewers in multi-channel homes (up from 13.4% in 1999). BSkyB's analogue service ended in October 2001, and the digital service would eventually be marketed as just 'Sky'. By June 2005,
7809-433: The arts, plus three other channels including BBC Sport , BBC Catch-Up , for repeats of popular programmes within days of their original transmission, and a TV version of BBC Radio 1 . Initially, it was assumed that the new channels would be BBC-branded, but Flextech wanted the channels to carry advertisements. The BBC argued that BBC-branded services in the UK should not carry advertising and thought that this would undermine
7946-583: The autumn, Flextech had acquired Cox and Pearson's stakes, giving Flextech an 80% stake in UK Gold. Also during 1996, talks began between Flextech and the BBC about a partnership to launch a new range of entertainment channels featuring programmes from the BBC's programme library. The deal was signed in March 1997 when the BBC and Flextech unveiled their new venture, which included BBC Showcase , an entertainment channel; BBC Horizon , documentaries; BBC Style , lifestyle; BBC Learning , for schools, and BBC Arena , for
8083-557: The bidders had pulled out except for BSkyB , but they later pulled out of the deal over a number of fears, including the Competition Commission investigating the sale. Media analysis at the time did not believe the sale was genuine, although five other bidders including RTL and ITV did state an interest. Simon Duffy, NTL's chief executive, stated "Flextech remains a key focus". Shortly afterwards, Flextech appointed Jonathan Webb to replace Lisa Opie as managing director; Jonathan Webb
8220-458: The breakfast show in January 1994, Bannister hired Chris Evans to present the breakfast show in April 1995. Evans was a popular presenter but was dismissed in 1997 after he demanded to present the breakfast show for only four days per week. Evans was replaced from 17 February 1997 by Mark and Lard – Mark Radcliffe and his sidekick Marc Riley – who found the slick, mass-audience style required for
8357-458: The broadband Internet service provider Easynet for £211 million. This acquisition allowed Sky to start offering a Sky-branded broadband service as well as a "triple play" package combining satellite television, land-line telephone and Broadband service. Sky also offers some streaming live TV channels to a computer using Microsoft's Silverlight . In early 2012, Sky released an update to its Sky Anytime service. This update offers customers
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#17328591922448494-506: The broadcaster said its reach into 36% of households in the UK represented an audience of more than 25m people. The target was first announced in August 2004, and since then an additional 2.4 million customers had subscribed to Sky's direct-to-home service. Media commentators had debated whether the figure could be reached as the growth in subscriber numbers elsewhere in Europe flattened. In December,
8631-496: The business that was at the time suffering from falling ratings across these channels, they were closed, and after the sale of Living TV Group to Sky, more channels were disposed of. Bravo was launched in 1985 as one of the earliest cable-only channels. The channel also had a one-hour timeshift named Bravo +1 . Initially Bravo aired black and white B-movies from the 1950s and 1960s and vintage TV series such as Knight Rider and MacGyver , and original productions. In 1996,
8768-519: The carriage fees it previously paid for distributing VMtv channels on its TV services. New carriage agreements secured wholesale distribution of Sky's basic channel line-up, including Sky1 and Sky Arts, and the VMtv channels, on Virgin Media's cable TV service. For an incremental wholesale fee, Virgin Media, for the first time, had the option of carrying any of Sky's basic HD channels, Sky Sports HD 1 and Sky Sports HD 2, and all Sky Movies HD channels. Virgin Media made available through its on-demand TV service
8905-504: The chance to buy and rent films from the Sky Store . On 26 September 2012, Sky relaunched its "Anytime+" on-demand-via-broadband service as "On Demand" as the BBC 's iPlayer joined the line-up of channels offering catch-up TV on the company's Sky+ HD box – linked to a router, the signal from which was recorded before viewing. The BBC was making the preceding week's programmes available alongside ITV , Channel 4 's All 4 , Channel 5 and
9042-440: The channel in 1990. TCC closed down silently on 3 April 1998 for unknown reasons, although ratings had fallen dramatically following the launch of rival children's channels. Its slot on the various platforms was taken by TV Travel Shop, although Cable & Wireless continued to briefly run the channel's Nordic feed for several months. Despite the channel's closure, the website continued to be available as late as 2005, however most of
9179-530: The channel was broadening its audience reach to other key demographics such as men aged 18–45. On 6 August 2018, Sky Living was rebranded as Sky Witness and was divested from Living TV Group, leaving only Challenge on the Living TV Group and bringing an end to the Living brand after nearly 25 years. LIVINGit and LIVINGit +1 was the sister channel of Living which was launched on 13 December 2004 as LIVINGtv2. The channel mainly showed highlights of programming from
9316-647: The channel; alternatively, viewers may participate on the channel's website. Challenge Jackpot was not available in Northern Ireland due to "regulatory and legal restrictions". Games were overseen by Ofcom and, because Two Way's gaming division was based there, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission . The channel closed on 1 January 2011. Channel One , a general entertainment channel from Living TV Group, launched on 1 October 2007 as Virgin1 and replaced Ftn on all platforms. Channel One +1
9453-646: The chief executive of RadioCentre, was "to identify both areas of best practice and possible savings." The controller of Radio 1 and sister station 1Xtra changed to Ben Cooper on 28 October 2011, following the departure of Andy Parfitt. Ben Cooper answered to the Director of BBC Audio and Music, Tim Davie. On 7 December 2011, Ben Cooper's first major changes to the station were announced. Skream & Benga, Toddla T , Charlie Sloth and Friction replaced Judge Jules, Gilles Peterson , Kissy Sell Out and Fabio & Grooverider. A number of shows were shuffled to incorporate
9590-418: The clear or soft encrypted (whereby a Videocrypt decoder was required to decode, without a subscription card) before their addition to the Sky Multichannels package. Within two months of the launch, BSkyB gained 400,000 new subscribers, with the majority taking at least one premium channel as well, which helped BSkyB reach 3.5 million households by mid-1994. Michael Grade criticised the operations in front of
9727-570: The companies agreed "a content provider" had no place within the merged operation. A lot of interest was generated by the sale; potential suitors included RTL , Hallmark Channel, ITV , Time Warner and Viacom . However, it became clear the BBC had the right to veto any change in ownership of Flextech's stake in the UKTV joint venture, which led to further speculation that Flextech's assets may end up being split. NTL also complicated matters by stating it would be reluctant to see any of Flextech's channels in
9864-578: The company shifted focus into the media industry. Its first media acquisition was in 1990 with a 20% stake in programme producer/distributor HIT Communications ; by October of that year, they had acquired a stake in The Children's Channel , when it bought a 25% holding in Starstream Ltd. (TCC's parent company) from BT . By 1992, Flextech was a media-only group, having built up stakes in local cable operators by way of selling off its non-core assets. During
10001-434: The company's business strategy to an entirely fee-based concept. The new package included four channels formerly available free-to-air , broadcasting on Astra's satellites, as well as introducing new channels. The service continued until the closure of BSkyB's analogue service on 27 September 2001, due to the expansion of the Sky Digital platform after its launch three years before. Some of the channels did broadcast either in
10138-406: The contract dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB , before being removed on 11 December 2007 to make way for a Music On-Demand channel. On 7 April 2009, it was announced that Virgin Media Television had agreed to buy options to acquire 9.9 per cent of NetPlay TV Plc's shares at a strike price of 18 pence per share. NetPlay acquired the business assets of Two Way Gaming Ltd, the provider of
10275-460: The core Sky TV service. [REDACTED] On 21 October 2016, it was announced that public pre-registration for Sky's new mobile network, Sky Mobile, would take place from 31 October 2016. The network will operate as a Full MVNO , utilising the O2 radio access network infrastructure, and O2's full network speeds and 4G+. On 5 January 2017 Sky Mobile went live to the public across the UK. Coining itself as
10412-448: The country by having that play list monopoly. — Joe Strummer Initially, the station was unpopular with some of its target audience who, it is claimed, disliked the fact that much of its airtime was shared with Radio 2 and that it was less unequivocally aimed at a young audience than the offshore stations, with some DJs such as Jimmy Young being in their 40s. The very fact that it was part of an "establishment" institution such as
10549-424: The dropping of the 3D channel. In September 1993, BSkyB launched Sky Multichannels which was the present digital platform's analogue predecessor. Sky Multichannels was a subscription package that gave access not only to Sky's channels but also to those of third-party broadcasters. The service started on 1 September 1993. It was based on an idea by then CEO Sam Chisholm and chairman Rupert Murdoch of converting
10686-443: The early weekend shows. Gary Davies and Janice Long also joined, hosting Saturday night late and evening shows respectively. In 1984, Robbie Vincent joined to host a Sunday evening soul show. Mike Smith left for a while to present BBC1's Breakfast Time ; Gary Davies then took over the weekday lunchtime slot. Bruno Brookes joined and replaced Peter Powell as presenter of the teatime show, with Powell replacing Blackburn on
10823-406: The features that were originally available when the channel was still broadcast were removed. Trouble launched on 3 February 1997 and fully replaced The Children's Channel from 4 April 1998. Trouble had a key demographic of young adults and teenagers, aged between 15 and 24. The channel showed a lot of American and Australian imports, with only a small margin of programmes being British, although
10960-627: The future. In later years the Sky+ box and then the Sky+ HD box replaced the original Digibox . The first photos of a prototype Sky HD box began appearing in magazines in August 2005. Sky launched HDTV services in May 2006. All Sky+ HD boxes incorporate a version of Sky+ using a 300GB, 500GB, or 1TB hard drive (of which 160GB, 250GB or 500GB are available to the user) to accommodate the necessary extra data. Sky initially charged an additional subscription fee for using
11097-558: The growth in dance and rap music, Jeff Young joined in October 1987 with the Big Beat show. At the end of the year Nicky Campbell , Mark Goodier and Liz Kershaw all joined, and Janice Long left. Mayo replaced Smith on the breakfast show in May 1988. In September, Goodier and Kershaw took over weekend breakfasts with Powell departing. Campbell took over weekday evenings as part of a move into night-time broadcasting as 1 October 1988 saw Radio 1 extend broadcast hours until 02:00; previously
11234-402: The hands of terrestrial broadcasters such as ITV or Five; the underlying fear was that a terrestrial broadcaster could use Flextech to bolster the digital terrestrial platform and its appeal to viewers. Commercial terrestrial players had found that the popularity of Freeview worked to their advantage, as viewers have fewer channels to choose from than on pay-TV platforms. By September, nearly all
11371-434: The improvement in picture and sound quality, increased number of channels and an interactive service branded Open.... , later called Sky Active . BSkyB competed with the ONdigital (later ITV Digital ) terrestrial offering and cable services. Within 30 days, over 100,000 digiboxes had been sold, which helped bolster BSkyB's decision to give away free digiboxes and mini dishes from May 1999. In addition to most channels from
11508-444: The influence that the use of drugs have had over popular musicians, received critical acclaim but were slated inside Broadcasting House . At just before 09:00 on 1 July 1994, Radio 1 broadcast on medium wave for the final time. In March 1995, Radio 1 hosted an "Interactive Radio Night" with Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq broadcasting from Cyberia , an internet café and featuring live performances by Orbital via ISDN . Later in
11645-544: The main channel, along with extended coverage of its reality programmes, such as I'm Famous and Frightened Extra! and Most Haunted Live! . However, the channel gained the American reality TV show, The Amazing Race . The channel also showed more lifestyle and health-related programming such as, Baby ER , Birth Stories , Downsize Me and Wedding SOS . There was also a programming slot called Baby Zone, in which programmes related to pregnancy and birth were shown. The channel
11782-486: The main operational base for The Family Channel; this was a boon to Flextech, as the facility handled the channel's uplink, playout and management operations. In the autumn, talks were held with the US-based cable/media company Tele-Communications Inc. Under the original terms of the proposed deal, Flextech would have acquired TCI's European programming business (United Artists European Holdings, having been inherited by TCI via
11919-616: The merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting , it grew into a major media company by the end of the decade, notably owning all the television broadcasting rights for the Premier League and almost all the domestic rights of Hollywood films. Following BSkyB's acquisition of Sky Italia and a majority interest in Sky Deutschland in 2014, its holding company British Sky Broadcasting Group plc changed its name to Sky plc (now Sky Group Limited ). The UK subsidiary's name
12056-525: The most listened-to station in the world, with audiences of over ten million claimed for some of its shows (up to twenty million for some of the combined Radio 1 and Radio 2 shows). In the early-to-mid-1970s Radio 1 presenters were rarely out of the British tabloids, thanks to the Publicity Department's high-profile work. The touring summer live broadcasts called the Radio 1 Roadshow – usually as part of
12193-594: The network using ADSL , FTTC and FTTP . Sky Talk is a fixed-line telephone service, with options for pay-as-you-go or bundled call minutes. NOW Broadband is a brand name of low-cost broadband plans. It is associated with the Now over-the-top television service brand operated by Sky. Sky offer two security add-ons for Sky Broadband, Sky Broadband Shield and Sky Talk Shield. Sky Broadband Shield offers network-wide web filtering and security and Sky Talk Shield offers spam call blocking. Sky initially faced competition from
12330-632: The new line-up. On 28 February 2012, further changes were announced. Greg James and Scott Mills swapped shows and Jameela Jamil , Gemma Cairney and Danny Howard joined the station. The new line-up of DJs for In New DJs We Trust was also announced with B.Traits , Mosca, Jordan Suckley and Julio Bashmore hosting shows on a four weekly rotation. This new schedule took effect on Monday, 2 April 2012. In September 2012, Nick Grimshaw replaced Chris Moyles as host of "Radio 1's Breakfast Show". Grimshaw previously hosted Mon-Thurs 10pm-Midnight, Weekend Breakfast and Sunday evenings alongside Annie Mac. Grimshaw
12467-514: The number of digital subscribers increase to 7.8m, while it produced 38,375 hours of sport in 2005. In November 2005, in partnership with Vodafone , Sky Mobile TV was launched which was the UK's first commercially available mobile TV service. Vodafone live! customers with 3G -enabled handsets would receive the service. Sky's direct-to-home satellite service became available in 10 million homes in 2010, Europe's first pay-TV platform to achieve that milestone. Confirming it had reached its target,
12604-647: The other UKTV channels. That year also saw The Family Channel relaunched in its current form as the game show-focused Challenge TV . Flextech agreed to acquire Minotaur International for around $ 6.5 million in 1999; Minotaur International was responsible for international sales of most programmes commissioned by Flextech. In 2007, Target Entertainment Group acquired Minotaur International and formed strategic alliances with Virgin Media Television to act as their preferred distribution partner. In 1998, chief executive Roger Luard died, and Adam Singer became chief executive. In early December 1999, talks were convened about
12741-448: The partly BBC Worldwide-owned UKTV , as well as Sky's own channels. Sky Go is provided free of charge for Sky (satellite TV) subscribers and allows them to watch channels live and on-demand through an internet connection on a computer or mobile device. On 29 May 2009, it was confirmed that Sky Go would be made available on the Xbox 360 . In November 2011 Sony Computer Entertainment struck
12878-615: The pay-TV market. On 14 September 2010, the OFT decided not to refer BSkyB's takeover of Virgin Media's TV channels to the Competition Commission . Following the sale, BSkyB chose to integrate the Living TV Group into its own operations. This resulted in the closure of Bravo, Bravo 2 and Challenge Jackpot on 1 January 2011 and Channel One on 1 February 2011. On 1 February 2011, Living, Livingit and Living Loves were rebranded as Sky Living , Sky Livingit and Sky Living Loves , while Challenge
13015-496: The people in charge of radio stations. Firstly, Radio 1. They outlawed the pirates and then didn't, as they promised, cater for the market the pirates created. Radio 1 and 2, most afternoons, run concurrently and the whole thing has slid right back to where it was before the pirates happened. They've totally fucked it. There's no radio station for young people any more. It's all down to housewives and trendies in Islington. They're killing
13152-611: The purchase of United Artists Theaters ' cable television business) in exchange for shares in TCI. By January 1994, the deal was complete, which allowed TCI to acquire 60.4% of Flextech, while Flextech acquired 100% of Bravo , 25% of UK Gold , 31% of UK Living , and 25% of the Children's Channel, increasing Flextech's control over that network. The relationship between TCI and Flextech continued to grow; in February 1994, Flextech shareholders approved
13289-536: The rationale of the license fee in the UK. A compromise was reached when the BBC launched BBC Showcase and BBC Learning (later renamed BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge shortly before launch) on its own, with the remainder of the deal passing to BBC Worldwide . Eventually, the concept of the BBC/Flextech channels led the launch of UKTV in November 1997, with BBC Horizon becoming UK Horizons , BBC Style becoming UK Style and BBC Arena becoming UK Arena . The concept of
13426-480: The reins fully in October 1993. His aim was to rid the station of its " Smashie and Nicey " image in order to appeal to the under-25s. Although originally launched as a youth station, by the early 1990s, its loyal listeners and DJs had aged with the station over its 25-year history. Many long-standing DJs, such as Simon Bates , Dave Lee Travis , Alan Freeman , Bob Harris , Paul Gambaccini , Gary Davies , and later Steve Wright, Bruno Brookes and Johnnie Walker left
13563-802: The remaining shares in The Children's Channel, gaining full control of the network. Talks were held with BSkyB in the spring of 1996 over a potential merger of the two companies' pay-TV channels, with the aimed of a wholesale consolidation of the subscription market, which would have saved costs and created a dominant supplier of programmes in the UK subscription market and Europe. The deal ultimately came to nothing, but two years later, both companies agreed to allow Flextech's television channels to be broadcast on Sky's new digital platform. Elsewhere that year, it started discussions about increasing its stake in UK Gold to gain full control. At that point, Flextech held 27% with Cox (38%), BBC (20%) and Pearson (15%). By
13700-633: The rest of Sky after its bid gained acceptance from 95.3% of the broadcaster's shareholders with the company being delisted by early 2019. Sky was delisted on 7 November 2018 after Comcast acquired all remaining shares. On 17 September 2020, Sky Arts became the first premium Sky channel to become available on the free to air terrestrial Freeview service, joining Sky News and a couple of channels which trace their lineage back to Flextech ( Pick and Challenge ). On 28 July 2021, Sky announced that its flagship channel Sky One would shut down on 1 September, to be replaced by two channels; Sky Showcase , showing
13837-481: The rights paying £670m 1997–2001 deal, but was challenged by ONdigital for the rights from 2001 to 2004, thus were forced to £1.1 billion which gave them 66 live games a year. Following a lengthy legal battle with the European Commission, which deemed the exclusivity of the rights to be against the interests of competition and the consumer, BSkyB's monopoly came to an end from the 2007–08 season . In May 2006,
13974-431: The rights to over 125 hours of the drama and documentary output from STV's library, as well as a production output agreement to commission television programmes from STV with a minimum total value of 6 million pounds over three years. In 1995, the company raised £92 million after two new American companies invested in the company, US West (9%) and Hallmark (10%); the additional funds allowed Flextech to buy
14111-417: The rights. BSkyB joined forces with the BBC to make a counter bid. The BBC was given the highlights of most of the matches, while BSkyB paying £304m for the Premier League rights, would give them a monopoly of all live matches, up to 60 per year from the 1992 season. Murdoch described sport as a "battering ram" for pay television, providing a strong customer base. A few weeks after the deal, ITV went to
14248-451: The sale of its content operation, issuing a sales memorandum for its Virgin Media Television unit and its ad sales division, IDS. It excluded its 50% stake in UKTV from the sale. Virgin Media sold its stake in UKTV , by then a portfolio of 10 pay-TV channels including Gold , Dave , Home , Watch , Yesterday and Good Food , in August 2011 to US-owned broadcaster Scripps Networks for £339 million (about $ 504 million). Scripps
14385-481: The service. However, this was replaced by Sky Three on 31 October 2005, which was itself later re-branded as 'Pick TV' in 2011. On 8 February 2007, Sky announced its intention to replace its three free-to-air digital terrestrial channels with four subscription channels. It was proposed that these channels would offer a range of content from the Sky portfolio including sports (including English Premier League Football), films, entertainment and news. The announcement came
14522-599: The station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 7.3 million with a listening share of 4.5% as of March 2024. Radio 1 was established in 1967 (along with the more middle-of-the-road BBC Radio 2 ) as a successor to the BBC Light Programme , which had broadcast popular music and other entertainment since 1945. Radio 1 was conceived as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London , which had been declared illegal by Act of Parliament . Radio 1's initial format
14659-429: The station had closed for the night at midnight. From September 1988, Radio 1 began its FM switch-on, with further major transmitter switch-ons in 1989 and 1990. It was not until the mid-1990s that all existing BBC radio transmitters had Radio 1 added. Previously, Radio 1 had "borrowed" Radio 2's VHF/FM frequencies for around 25 hours each week. On 1 May 1991, Radio 1 began 24-hour broadcasting, although only on FM, as
14796-488: The station in general. In 2006, DJs Scott Mills and Zane Lowe won gold Sony Radio Awards , while the station itself came away with the best station award. A new evening schedule was introduced in September 2006, dividing the week by genre. The licence-fee funding of Radio 1, alongside Radio 2, is often criticised by the commercial sector. In the first quarter of 2011 Radio 1 was part of an efficiency review conducted by John Myers . His role, according to Andrew Harrison,
14933-406: The station or were dismissed, and in January 1995, older music (typically anything recorded before 1990) was dropped from the daytime playlist . Many listeners rebelled as the first new DJs to be introduced represented a crossover from other parts of the BBC (notably Bannister and Trevor Dann's former colleagues at the BBC's London station, GLR ) with Emma Freud and Danny Baker . Another problem
15070-436: The station – including Edith Bowman, Nihal and Rob da Bank. Huw Stephens gained a new show hosting 10 pm – 1 am Monday–Wednesday with Alice Levine presenting weekends 1 pm – 4 pm. Radio 1's Residency also expanded with Skream joining the rotational line-up on Thursday nights (10 pm – 1 am). From December 2014 to April 2016, Radio 1 included
15207-406: The station's MW transmitters were switched off between midnight and 06:00. In 1992, Radio 1, for the first and only time, covered a general election . Their coverage was presented by Nicky Campbell . In his last few months as controller, Johnny Beerling commissioned a handful of new shows that in some ways set the tone for what was to come under Matthew Bannister . One of these " Loud'n'proud "
15344-404: The station. The changes took effect in January 2013. Former presenter Sara Cox hosted her last show on Radio 1 in February 2014 before moving back to Radio 2. In March 2014, Gemma Cairney left the weekend breakfast show to host the weekday early breakfast slot, swapping shows with Dev. In September 2014, Radio 1 operated a series of changes to their output which saw many notable presenters leave
15481-526: The summer months a Wednesday show was also broadcast featuring live acts. At the start of 1981, Mike Read took over The Radio 1 Breakfast Show from Dave Lee Travis . Towards the end of the year, Steve Wright started the long-running Steve Wright in the Afternoon show. In 1982, the new Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast Show started, initially with Tony Blackburn supported by Maggie Philbin and Keith Chegwin . Adrian John and Pat Sharp also joined for
15618-523: The summer of 1993, Flextech entered into an agreement with International Family Entertainment (IFE), to launch a UK version of IFE's flagship property, The Family Channel (Flextech holding a 39% stake in the venture). IFE had recently purchased much of the assets of the then-recently defunct TVS Entertainment , including most of TVS' library of shows (which would form large parts of the Family Channel's schedule) and The Maidstone Studios , which became
15755-537: The terrestrial channels' archives. The channel continues to broadcast, and remains the only Flextech-owned network to continue operating as is. Challenge Jackpot launched on 1 July 2008 as a 24-hour interactive gaming channel, run in collaboration with Two Way Media. It was available on Virgin Media cable and Sky but was also available on Freeview via Virgin 1 and Bravo 2 simulcasts overnight. On cable, an interactive application developed by Two Way Media that enables viewers to play along with live programming on
15892-472: The week. The programmes were all free to watch and did not have any adverts in them. The viewer could also have used their remote control to pause, fast forward , rewind and stop the programme at any time. The Virgin Central channel was removed on 11 March 2010, fully moving over to the On-Demand section of the Virgin Media menu. A duplicate channel - Virgin Central 2, replaced Sky One on 1 March 2007 following
16029-547: The world of entertainment and communications". As part of the rebrand, Flextech was also renamed as Richard Branson was keen to move into branded content, and insisted that the Flextech business was retained as a condition of NTL buying Virgin Mobile and licensing the name. On 8 February 2007, Flextech was renamed Virgin Media Television as part of a larger re-branding exercise covering the whole of NTL:Telewest, Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net. On 7 April 2009, Virgin Media formally began
16166-591: Was " Flowers in the Rain " by The Move , the number 2 record in that week's Top 20 (the number 1 record, The Last Waltz by Engelbert Humperdinck , would have been inappropriate for the station's sound). The second single was " Massachusetts " by the Bee Gees . The breakfast show remains the most prized slot in the Radio 1 schedule, with every change of breakfast show presenter generating considerable media interest. The initial rota of staff included John Peel , Pete Myers , and
16303-438: Was added to Freeview, with the channels receiving a 25% boost to their programming budget. Fifty-two of the Living TV Group's 110 employees were made redundant as part of the process, including managing director Johnny Webb, Claudia Rosencrantz (director of television) and Daniela Neumann (director of programmes for Channel One, Bravo and Challenge). The integration process was completed at the end of January 2011. Living TV Group as
16440-742: Was changed from British Sky Broadcasting Limited to Sky UK Limited, and continuing to trade as "Sky". Sky UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast -owned Sky Group, with its current company directors (including that of Sky Ireland ) being Executive Vice-president Stephen van Rooyen Its corporate headquarters are at the Sky Studios in Isleworth . The present service can trace its heritage back to 1990, when BSkyB's predecessors Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting encrypted their respective film channels – Sky Movies and The Movie Channel which required viewers to get decoding equipment and
16577-497: Was granted options over 14.9m ordinary shares being 9.9 per cent of the share capital then in issue at a price of 18p per share (the "Option Agreement"). Under the revised agreement, NetPlay TV will take control of the current Challenge Jackpot database and terminate the Option Agreement in exchange for a fixed cash payment of £1.82m. The current database generated £2.9m of gross gaming margin from 12 May 2009 to 31 December 2009 and
16714-458: Was influenced in particular by Radio London's American-style Top 40 format, in which music was divided into categories played in strict rotation. The new service was initially promoted in the summer of 1967 by trails (voiced by Kenny Everett ) which referred to it as "Radio 247", the station's temporary working title. Radio 1 was launched at 7:00 am on Saturday 30 September 1967. Broadcasts were on 1214 kHz AM (247 metres), using
16851-470: Was launched with Sky Multichannels in September 1993 as UK Living, formerly being affiliated with UK Gold before becoming Living TV, LIVINGtv and simply LIVING. It was the main channel from Living TV Group and usually had the highest ratings, recently better than that of Sky One , which strengthened its bid to become "the sixth channel". It originally launched on 1 September 1993 as UK Living , and changed its name to Living in 1997, to disassociate itself from
16988-459: Was men in their late 20s to early 40s. The channel closed on 1 January 2011. Bravo 2 , formerly called Player, launched on 2 March 2006. It originally replaced the Player late night slot on Challenge. On 28 September 2006, Player relaunched as Bravo 2 and became a sister channel of Bravo . The channel's content consists of gambling and sports programmes. As Player, Bravo 2 added exclusive coverage of
17125-514: Was negotiating a deal to give BBC Worldwide the option of increasing its stake to a maximum of 60%, by using a combination of cash and an unspecified "package of digital rights" for UKTV. "The new agreement we are developing will bring benefits to UKTV's audiences in the way they can consume content and will help to sustain UKTV's track record of growth," said BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith. On 4 June 2010, British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media announced that they had reached an agreement for
17262-504: Was rebranded as LIVING2 in 2007, and LIVINGit in 2009. On 1 February 2011, Livingit was rebranded as Sky Livingit. On 9 June 2015, Sky Livingit was rebranded as Real Lives. The channel closed on 1 October 2019. On 5 July 2010, Living Loves replaced Living +2 on Sky and Virgin Media. Running a daily schedule from 15:00 to 02:00, the channel gave viewers the opportunity to experience their favourite Living shows again or catch up on ones that they have missed. On 1 February 2011, Living Loves
17399-402: Was rebranded as Sky Living Loves. On 5 September 2011, the channel began broadcasting for 24 hours a day. The channel closed on 21 February 2012. SceneOne was a general entertainment website and television channel that was closed down under Flextech management after disappointing reach and a lack of revenue. The website was set up in February 1999, and following an announcement in March 2002,
17536-449: Was replaced by Phil Taggart and Alice Levine on the 10pm-Midnight show. In November 2012, another series of changes were announced. This included the departure of Reggie Yates and Vernon Kay. Jameela Jamil was announced as the new presenter of The Official Chart . Matt Edmondson moved to weekend mornings with Tom Deacon briefly replacing him on Wednesday nights. Daniel Howell and Phil Lester , famous YouTubers and video bloggers, joined
17673-522: Was reported that Sky UK had concluded successful negotiations with Netflix to offer Sky subscribers access to its international streaming service. Comcast , the largest cable TV provider in the United States, outbid 21st Century Fox , on 22 September 2018 in an auction for control of Sky UK. On 4 October 2018, Fox sold their stake to Comcast, giving the latter a 76.8% controlling stake. On 12 October 2018, Comcast announced it will compulsorily acquire
17810-477: Was responsible for moving Challenge away from its staple of game shows and axing Bravo's "laddism" strategy. In November 2006, NTL:Telewest began rebranding itself as Virgin Media. The group acquired Virgin Mobile in July, but went further by licensing the "Virgin" name, as they believed "Virgin Media would shake up the market by bringing the Virgin traditions of value-for-money, brilliant customer service and innovation to
17947-453: Was seen as Virgin Media's replacement of Sky Sports News which had been removed from their platform on 1 March 2007 as their contract with BSkyB had ended. The channel ceased broadcasting on 23 June 2009, the same day that Setanta Sports was placed into administration. The Children's Channel launched in 1984 and joined the Astra satellite line-up in 1989, with Flextech acquiring a stake in
18084-462: Was shut on 4 April 2002. The site's coverage spanned cinema, TV, radio, music, concerts, theatre, comedy, online, books and videos. The television channel was announced in 1999 and launched in June 2000 but was closed in March 2001. Setanta Sports News was a joint venture channel from Virgin Media Television and Setanta Sports . Following many delays, the channel launched on 29 November 2007. The channel
18221-443: Was subject to a revenue share agreement. Under the revised terms, all revenues arising from this database will be retained by NetPlay TV, with VMTV receiving fixed monthly payments that reflect the value of its airtime. Sky UK Sky UK Limited , trading as Sky , is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in
18358-536: Was that the Musicians' Union would not agree to a single fee for the singers and musicians if the jingles were made "in-house" by the BBC; they wanted repeat fees each time one was played. The first music to be heard on the station was an extract from "Beefeaters" by Johnny Dankworth . " Theme One ", specially composed for the launch by George Martin was played for the first time before Radio 1 officially launched at 7 am. The first complete record played on Radio 1
18495-492: Was that, at the time, Radio 2 was sticking resolutely to a format which appealed mainly to those who had been listening since the days of the Light Programme , and commercial radio, which was targeting the "Radio 1 and a half" audience, consequently enjoyed a massive increase in its audience share at Radio 1's expense. After the departure of Steve Wright, who had been unsuccessfully moved from his long-running afternoon show to
18632-482: Was the UK's first national radio series aimed at a gay audience, which was produced in Manchester and aired from August 1993. Far from being a "parting quirk", the show was a surprise hit and led to the network's first coverage of the large outdoor Gay Pride event in 1994. The Man Ezeke became Radio 1's first black regular daytime presenter when he began hosting on Sunday lunchtimes in January 1993. Bannister took
18769-461: Was the busiest year of the decade. David Jensen replaced Dave Lee Travis as host of the weekday drivetime programme so that DLT could replace Noel Edmonds as presenter of the Radio 1 Breakfast show. Later in the year the Sunday teatime chart show was extended from a Top 20 countdown to a Top 40 countdown, and Tommy Vance , one of the station's original presenters, rejoined the station to present
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