100-468: The Russell Howard Hour is a British topical comedy news television series that premiered on Sky One on 21 September 2017. The series is hosted by Russell Howard where he gives his thoughts and opinions on current topics as well as featuring special guests and other stand-up comedians. The show is in a similar style to his previous show, Russell Howard's Good News , which aired on BBC Three and then BBC Two from 2009 to 2015. On 28 November 2017, it
200-452: A Boy , The Middle , Manifest , You, Me and the Apocalypse and The Blacklist . Other American imports included CBS military/action dramas, science-fiction and Arrowverse superhero shows and The Blacklist (seasons 4–8). Sky One started on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television Limited , and was Europe's first ever cable and satellite channel, originally broadcasting from
300-566: A carriage deal between BSkyB and Virgin Media was reached and BSkyB's channels were available on Virgin's cable service from 13 November of that year. The Sky basic channels were spread across each tier of Virgin's cable television service: Sky Three and Sky News were made available in the lowest M tier; Sky Sports News joined the M+ tier; Sky One and Sky Two were made available in the L tier; and Sky Arts 1 , Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 joined
400-891: 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
500-606: 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
600-501: A joint venture between Sky and the European Broadcasting Union aimed at a pan-European audience (like Sky Channel had been up to that point for a time afterwards, some of Sky's previous pan-European programming continued to be broadcast before Eurosport's start-up, under the branding of Sky Europe ). A new raft of shows were created for the channel, including the daily talent show Sky Star Search ; game shows ( Sale of
700-656: 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
800-570: A new animated series Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles was added to children's programmes, and daily dating game show Love at First Sight was presented by Helen Brumby and Bruno Brookes . Following the daily repeats of Star Trek and Lost in Space , Sky One picked up a number of science-fiction shows which became a crucial part of its evening line-up such as the UK premiere of Alien Nation , also added reruns of V ( 1983 miniseries , The Final Battle and
900-491: A number of home grown programmes (for example, dramas such as The Wanderer , Springhill , Dream Team and Space Island One ) while expanding its small number of Australian television series, notably include: Sky One focused in science-fiction and other series in the 2000s which did not have a lot of successes, including: Sky One also screened reality television shows such as: The channel received relative success with scientific shows such as: Sky One commissioned
1000-550: 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
1100-800: A restructuring with its EPG position taken by Sky Showcase and much of its content library moved to Sky Max . Sky One included some very popular original programmes —such as An Idiot Abroad , Brainiac: Science Abuse , The Russell Howard Hour , Battlestar Galactica —and many imported from North America, including 24 (seasons 3–9, and its spinoff Live Another Day ), The X-Files , Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Star Trek: Voyager , Bones (seasons 1–6, first half), Caprica , Fringe , Modern Family , Glee (seasons 3–6), House (seasons 5–8), Lie to Me , Lost (seasons 3–6), Prison Break (seasons 3–4), The Simpsons , Stargate ( SG-1 , Atlantis and Universe ), Touch , About
SECTION 10
#17330849835031200-571: A shorter 30-minute episode runtime. The programme was filmed at his home in Bath, Somerset due to social distancing measures, and began on 9 April 2020, running for 9 episodes. The fourth series of The Russell Howard Hour began on 10 September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the first episode of the series did not have a live audience. From episode two onwards, a live audience returned, albeit split into socially distanced groups. On 17 December 2020, it
1300-472: 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
1400-491: A two-part Terry Pratchett's Hogfather series for Christmas 2006, this proved to be successful and so in 2008, Sky brought out an adaptation of The Colour of Magic and its second half The Light Fantastic . On 30 May 2010, Sky One also released Terry Pratchett's Going Postal , the 33rd book in the Discworld series. Sky One had also re-commissioned a number of earlier game shows including Blockbusters , which brought
1500-420: A while since its original launch and first went in the clear in around 1987). The start of 1995 saw Sky One begin 24-hour broadcasting and initially the overnight hours were filled by music videos. However by the end of the decade, overnight programming consisted of the same range of programmes broadcast at all other times of the day. On 1 October 1998, Sky One's digital feed launched with Sky Digital. Sky One
1600-403: 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
1700-515: 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
1800-468: The CSI franchise, which was at the peak of its popularity during this period. Other competitors in the pay TV field also latched on to this, with LivingTV nabbing the likes of Will & Grace , Ally McBeal , Joan of Arcadia , Charmed , and later the likes of Boston Legal and Grey's Anatomy , and Hallmark Channel , which acquired Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (whilst Sky One held
1900-452: The 2019 Netball World Cup . Sky One's programme lineup was relaunched at the start of 2004, with Sky television head Dawn Airey stating the channel had become too associated with The Simpsons , science fiction shows such as Star Trek: Enterprise , Andromeda and Stargate SG-1 (the latter of which continues to be shown extensively on Sky Max , Sky Mix and Sky Sci-Fi to this day) and raunchy factual entertainment shows such as
2000-538: The Nescafé UK Top 50 chart show, Sunday morning religious programme Hour of Power , hour-long weekend edition of celebrity news magazine Entertainment Tonight and telecasts of World Wrestling Federation rounded out Sky Channel's weekend schedule. Special event programming included late night live telecasts of boxing matches and various music concerts (such as Bon Jovi and Bros in August 1989). On 31 July 1989,
2100-464: 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
SECTION 20
#17330849835032200-468: The Orbital Test Satellite aimed at cable operators all over the continent. At first, the station struggled financially due to disappointing ratings in the countries in which it was officially available, which in turn led to insufficient advertising revenue and increasing difficulty in covering the high transmission costs. Initially, the channel's own programming and continuity was played out from
2300-558: 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
2400-530: 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
2500-594: The television series ) and Battlestar Galactica in 1991. After the 1992 airing of The Flash , Sky One also picked up Star Trek: The Next Generation which had previously aired on BBC2 began a long twice per day run of the franchise in a late afternoon and a late evening timeslot on Mondays to Fridays. A staple of Sky One prime time schedule in its early years were glossy American miniseries such as Roots , Shōgun , Masada , The Thorn Birds , North and South and Lonesome Dove , which aired mostly in two-hour installments each week Sundays to Tuesdays. As
2600-507: 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
2700-693: The British 1990s combat-based game show Gladiators , which was subsequently cancelled on 12 April 2009. They also showed the sketch show Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show . In 2010, Sky One focused on commissioning several quite long-running or well known comedy infused shows, starting with A League of Their Own , An Idiot Abroad and Little Crackers . In 2011, Sky One premiered supermarket sitcom Trollied , which had broadcast six series and over 50 episodes, becoming Sky One's longest running comedy series. Not all shows were well received, at least by its home country audience, including Parents which
2800-492: The Century , based on the 1980s American version, and The Price Is Right ); weekly documentary series Frank Bough's World ; daily late night talk show Jameson Tonight ; agony aunt advice show A Problem Shared ; and Sky by Day , Sky TV's variation on ITV's more popular This Morning , hosted by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn (who by then had moved to commercial radio) and former Magpie presenter Jenny Hanley , as
2900-561: 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
3000-622: 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
3100-681: 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
The Russell Howard Hour - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-494: The LWT-produced Ibiza Uncovered . The channel was also struggling to acquire new American series, as FTA broadcasters had become familiar with Sky's tricks to buy the majority of US programming, with Channel 4 picking up the likes of The Sopranos and Without a Trace on an exclusive basis (although both programmes have since aired on Sky Atlantic ) and Five picking up the likes of The Shield and
3300-481: The Middle . Another early and long-running fixture was Married... with Children ran all through the 1990s, but in the early 2000s as the show suddenly disappeared from its regular schedule and has not been screened on any Sky channel since. Sky One was also the original home to the UK's first-run showings of ER and Friends for series 4–6 of both shows (Channel 4 had shown series 1–3 first), giving Sky One some of
3400-614: The Molinare facilities by then), but also included programmes produced in the Netherlands by John de Mol 's production company . On 8 June 1988, Murdoch announced his plans to expand Sky's four channels, thus creating the Sky Television Network . On 5 February 1989, the service (Sky Channel, Sky News , Sky Movies and Eurosport ) was launched as prime-time broadcasts to European cable operators ended and were replaced by Eurosport,
3500-542: The Molinare studios at Fouberts Place in the West End of London . On 27 June 1983, the shareholders of Satellite Television agreed a £5 million offer to give News International 65% of the company. With the successful launch of the Intelsat V satellite in October 1983 Rupert Murdoch was able to extend the broadcast hours and the number of countries able to receive the signal. On 16 January 1984, Satellite Television Limited
3600-535: 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
3700-565: 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
3800-611: 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
3900-575: 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
4000-562: 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
4100-552: The Vampire Slayer and South Park , as well as some older programmes included Hill Street Blues , M*A*S*H , Quantum Leap and Lucille Ball 's various comedy series. It relies heavily on screenings for this network as they coming from Rupert Murdoch 's Fox Broadcasting Company with other shows like The X-Files , In Living Color , Cops , Millennium , King of the Hill , Futurama , Family Guy and Malcolm in
The Russell Howard Hour - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-584: The Wind , Boney , A Town Like Alice and Barrier Reef ), as well as the soap operas ( Return to Eden , Chances , E Street and Paradise Beach ) were aired. Some Australian children's programmes, such as Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and Zoo Family also aired on Sky One. In 1990 and early 1991 (prior to the launch of Sky Sports ), Sky One broadcast numerous live cricket telecasts during which it pre-empted its regularly scheduled programming. Following
4300-465: The XL tier. It was announced on 27 July 2021 that Sky One would be retired and that a new channel, Sky Showcase would replace its EPG slot on Sky. Another channel, Sky Max would launch on the same day. Most of Sky's original content and the drama output would move there, while most of the comedy output would move to Sky Comedy . Prodigal Son was the channel's last programme. At the time of closure, it
4400-455: The amount of HD content they show, and hoped that by the end of 2008, two-thirds of all prime time shows, and 90% of their own original commissions, would be in HD. A new logo was introduced along with the rebrand on 31 August 2008. On 1 October 2010, Sky1 HD launched on Virgin Media channel 122, with Sky2 moving to channel 123 and Sky3 moving to channel 180 on 22 September 2010, to make way for
4500-426: 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,
4600-458: 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
4700-457: 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,
4800-504: 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
4900-528: The channel became a subscription service. From 1995, subscribers to the Sky Sports channel would see not only a taped delay showing of these pay-per-view events, but Sky also offered a live showing starting a midnight UK time on the evening the event took place. Sky One continued to air WWF/WWE shows on Friday night and Saturday/Sunday morning that were produced for syndicated television in the United States from
5000-661: The channel was renamed Sky One and closed in most European countries, broadcasting only to the British Isles. During September of that year, Sky One began to air more recent programming as an early success being Moonlighting (which the BBC had previously screened but not repeated), ALF and Wiseguy , also aired the British television premiere of a new drama series 21 Jump Street . Back-to-back soaps ( Rich Man, Poor Man and Falcon Crest ) as well as action shows ( Riptide and Hunter ) were also added to its prime time schedule. A number of Australian dramas ( Against
5100-418: 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
SECTION 50
#17330849835035200-434: 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
5300-460: 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
5400-568: The dispute in April 2007. At the beginning of March 2008, the two companies were reported to have resumed discussions over the dispute. Virgin chief executive Neil Berkett was reported as saying they had "continued interest in securing Sky basics back on our platform". The resumed talks had followed shortly after both Virgin and BSkyB had launched appeals against a recent Competition Appeal Tribunal ruling on BSkyB's 17.9% stake in ITV plc . On 4 November 2008,
5500-424: 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
5600-735: The early 1990s until the late 2010s. Sky Sports aired Monday Night Raw and later SmackDown alongside all pay-per-view events and required an additional subscription to be able to view the Sports package, this led to the WWF/WWE content on Sky One being available to more viewers in the UK than the shows that aired only on Sky Sports. While WWF/WWE pay-per-view events aired on Sky Sports, other shows include Superstars , Wrestling Challenge , All American Wrestling , Action Zone , Mania , LiveWire , Shotgun and Metal which aired on Saturday or Sunday exclusively on Sky One with repeats throughout
5700-439: The finale episode, Howard revealed that the regular show would return sometime in September 2020. On 7 May 2020, Howard revealed in his spin-off series finale that the fourth series of The Russell Howard Hour would return in September 2020. However, due to the ongoing pandemic situation, this will be the first series to have no audience and only a skeleton crew , due to social distancing requirements. Sky One Sky One
5800-540: The format was beginning to fade in the United States, the miniseries were reduced to two nights in late 1992 and then rescheduled to Tuesdays and Wednesdays in early 1994 under its new title called Midweek Drama , before being dropped altogether shortly after that and reappearing only as special event programming. In 1993, Sky One finally replaced its long-running Sunday night drama 21 Jump Street with exclusive premiere of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . The Sunday night timeslot
5900-627: 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
6000-488: The highest ratings for any satellite channel. In 2000, 2.8 million viewers watched an episode of Friends , the highest-rated show on this network. However, when Channel 4 launched their own digital sister service E4 they outbid Sky One for exclusive first-run rights to both shows. However, Sky One still held the repeat rights for the early series of both shows for several years. Since 2011, Friends has been shown on Comedy Central . From 1989, Sky Channel (later Sky One)
6100-434: 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
SECTION 60
#17330849835036200-616: 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
6300-546: The merger with British Satellite Broadcasting 's Galaxy on 2 November 1990, Sky One also picked up new sitcoms ( Parker Lewis Can't Lose , Growing Pains , Murphy Brown , In Living Color , Wings and Designing Women ), dramas ( China Beach , Hill Street Blues and the soap operas, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful ), reruns of classic sitcoms ( Bewitched and The Addams Family ),
6400-594: 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
6500-500: The new service. On 1 March 2007 at midnight, Sky's basic channels – which included Sky One, Sky Two , Sky Three , Sky News , Sky Sports News , Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra – were removed from the Virgin Media cable television services after a dispute from BSkyB . This was due to the expiry of their previous carriage agreement and the companies' inability to reach a new deal. Virgin issued legal proceedings against Sky over
6600-514: 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,
6700-448: 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
6800-492: The popular espionage drama 24 after finding success on BBC Two for its first two seasons. Other new shows acquired by Sky One for 2004 included Las Vegas and as part of the WB deal, Tarzan and Jane , the unproduced Fearless and Skin . The success of the channel led to the launch of a sister service Sky 2 on 1 September 1996, broadcasts more first-run programmes between 7:00 pm and 6:00 am only. The spin-off channel
6900-450: The previous announcers. In 2011, two new part-time announcers were hired. During the day, pre-recorded announcements air, promoting shows from all the different Sky channels. Sky commissioned many homegrown programmes since it first started broadcasting back in 1984, but it was not until 1989 when content went beyond music and children's shows. During the early years in commissioned some new game shows including: The channel commissioned
7000-633: 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
7100-481: 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,
7200-513: The rights to the original Law & Order ). Newly appointed controller of Sky One, Sara Ramsden, struck a deal with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution to acquire five new US dramas: mainly the medical drama Nip/Tuck (which Sky acquired the first-run pay TV rights to after Channel 4 had already bought the FTA rights) and the CBS police procedural drama Cold Case . The channel also poached
7300-417: 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
7400-458: The same servers for all Sky channels, many of which were not broadcast in widescreen. On 25 August 2012, Stuart Murphy , director of Sky entertainment channels, announced that a one-hour timeshift of Sky One and Sky Atlantic will due to start in the autumn, with the former launching on 12 November of that year. For New Year's Day 2014 (1 January), Sky One was temporarily renamed Sky Onesie aiming "to encourage viewers to snuggle up in front of
7500-446: The schedule along with dramas ( The Streets of San Francisco , Trapper John, M.D. , Emergency! , The Love Boat , Fantasy Island , Voyagers! and Eight Is Enough ) were included. Sky Channel also aired classic movies, made-for-TV movies and miniseries (beginning with Spearfield's Daughter on its first night). Dolly Parton 's recent variety show Dolly , popular Australian science and technology show Beyond 2000 ,
7600-707: The scheduled programming had finished. This became a popular part of the brand and would often have exclusive first play on new releases that week. A later expansion of the music brand would be Sky One's Morning Glory show which would feature music videos in the early morning before the scheduled programming would start, which also featured various themes as well as caller requests. Sky One occasionally screened feature films which were shown with advertisement breaks , as well as several premium movie channels including Sky Cinema and its sister services. The channel became known for its first-run American imports such as: Seinfeld , Rescue 911 , Unsolved Mysteries , Buffy
7700-579: The segment, Howard and another comedian try an activity that is purported to improve health. Episode 7 was a Christmas Special. In series 3, the 'Live Forever' segment was replaced with 'Play Date.' In the segment, Howard and another comedian try an activity that they have never done before. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , series 4 was delayed until later in the year. This spin-off series filmed from Howard's home in Somerset features chats with celebrity guests, comedians and musical performances using Zoom . During
7800-461: The series back once again between 30 October 2000 and 23 March 2001 was produced by Grundy (now owns the format) and presented by Liza Tarbuck , but did not capture the same degree of popularity as the Holness incarnation. The most recent game show was from Mark Burnett 's Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old? , based on a United States format. On 30 January 2008, Sky One announced plans to bring back
7900-481: 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
8000-717: The show aired a mix of entertainment, gossip and fashion. The "New Sky Channel", as it was dubbed in on-air promotion prior to its 5 February 1989 launch, continued to broadcast its signature children's programmes ( The DJ Kat Show and Fun Factory ), and also expanded its daytime programming with six back-to-back soaps ( The Sullivans , Another World , General Hospital , As the World Turns , Loving and The Young Doctors ) while reducing music programming to only one or two hours per day. Classic sitcoms ( The Lucy Show and Family Affair ) and more recent comedies ( Three's Company and Family Ties ) as well as put on
8100-408: The television show Malcolm in the Middle , unlike most American broadcasts, since the film was originally filmed on Panavision widescreen film but cropped to full-screen by most broadcasters. This airing of the show preserves the film's appearance without stretching or upscaling, although some scenes were compromised for widescreen and had to be upscaled). Sky stated that they intended to increase
8200-449: The television wearing onesies , in a bid to recover from the previous night's celebrations ". In 2017, Sky One began broadcasting some sports coverage. This included a partial simulcast of Soccer Saturday , highlights of, and occasional live coverage of, Formula One motor racing and the occasional live football match. The summer of 2019 saw Sky One show highlights of the 2019 Cricket World Cup and live coverage of England's matches in
8300-406: The time. The show featured regular competitions, phone-ins with guests and other features. This later evolved into a late night broadcast called Hit Mix Long Play which would broadcast simultaneously on both Sky One and Sky Two playing music videos from various genres; the show also featured themed topics such as "Step by Step" which would feature music videos with stairs in the song or video when
8400-486: The week on the channel. These were often shows edited for younger viewers to fit the timeslot (especially during the riskier content of the Attitude era) and had dubbed commentary especially for the UK audience. 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
8500-442: Was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast ). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television , it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, it became Sky One and broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Ireland as British Sky Broadcasting 's flagship channel. It existed until 1 September 2021, when it closed down as part of
8600-420: Was a segment called "Play Date" (which replaced "Live Forever") which showed Howard spending time with a celebrity. In spring 2020, shortly after the end of series 3, the fourth series was revealed to be delayed until early Autumn that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic . As a result, Howard created a spin-off series called "Russell Howard's Home Time" , featuring a similar format as the original show, except for
8700-597: Was announced that the series would move to Sky Max . With the exception of the Home Time spin-off, all episodes of the programme have been recorded at Television Centre in London. Episode viewing figures from BARB 's Top 10 Programmes until September 2018 and the Four-screen Dashboard for September 2018 onwards. In series 2, the stand-up comic segment at the end of each episode was replaced with 'Live Forever.' In
8800-415: Was announced that the show had been recommissioned for a fifth and sixth series. On 8 September 2022, the first episode of the sixth series was originally going to air, but it got pulled off air following the news of Queen Elizabeth II's death that night. After 2 days of delay, the episode was finally broadcast on Sky Max. With the closure of Sky One , the original channel for The Russell Howard Hour , it
8900-415: Was announced that the show had been recommissioned for a second series, which began on 8 November 2018. Unlike the first series, the second series does not have a stand-up guest. Instead there is a segment titled "Live Forever" where Howard and another comedian test ways to live longer. On 24 January 2019, it was announced that the show had been recommissioned for a third and fourth series. In Series 3, there
9000-519: Was available via digital satellite on Sky , digital cable on Virgin Media , IPTV on TalkTalk TV and online via Sky Go and Now . In the Republic of Ireland, the channel was available via Sky Ireland , Virgin Media Ireland and Eir Vision . Bruce Hammal was the station's continuity announcer from 1984 to 1997. Absolute Radio DJ Claire Sturgess has been a "voice" of Sky One since 1998, and
9100-582: Was broadcast in 2012 and was not popular, leading Sky not to commission it for a second series. Moone Boy , a series written by and starring Chris O'Dowd , first screened in 2012, became an instant hit internationally. It lasted three series, and ended in 2015. In 2017, Sky One stopped showing factual content and moved to showing more comedy and drama programmes as well as selected sports coverage. In 1994, Sky One started their own music show called The Coca Cola Hit Mix (also known as The Hit Mix ) hosted by Terry Christian , featuring music news and guests at
9200-742: 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
9300-422: Was not a success as it was closed on 31 August 1997, which was replaced by the UK's version of National Geographic from the following day, and Sky One reverts back to its original name. On 9 December 2002, the channel was relaunched as Sky One Mix. On 21 September 2004, the channel was renamed Sky Mix. On 31 October 2005, Sky Mix was renamed Sky Two with the launch of a second sister channel Sky Three . Sky Two
9400-533: Was one of the four last remaining channels on the analogue platform when it was switched off at midnight on 27 September 2001. In 2000, a dedicated feed of Sky One for Ireland was launched for most of this Irish feed's existence, the only difference between it and the United Kingdom feed has been differing commercials and programme promotions. In June 2003, the channel started broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen . However, all television commercials were broadcast in 4:3 until 21 November 2005, because they were played off
9500-617: Was renamed Sky Channel and finally became available in the UK to Swindon Cable 's 10,000 subscribers. It began incorporating a large number of American imports in its schedules and also increased the quantity of home-grown productions, including a number of new music shows with Gary Davies , Tony Blackburn , Linda de Mol , Pat Sharp , David "Kid" Jensen , and Anthea Turner presenting programmes such as Euro Top 40 , and UK Top 50 Chart . New children's programmes like Fun Factory and The DJ Kat Show , many of which came not only from Sky's own studios in London (Sky having already abandoned
9600-662: Was renamed Sky Replay on 27 August 2020, and Sky Three was renamed Pick on 28 February 2011. On 3 October 2023, it was announced that Pick will rebrand as Sky Mix on 18 October of that year. To coincide with the launch of Sky HD , Sky One HD began broadcasting on 22 May 2006. The channel is a simulcast of Sky One and screens high-definition versions of some of the channel's programming, which include Lost , Bones , 24 , WWE SmackDown , Fringe , Prison Break , House , and most recently new episodes of The Simpsons . Programmes that are not available in HD are "upscaled" (although Sky One showed its widescreen version of
9700-466: 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
9800-525: Was the home of World Wrestling Federation in the UK. Certain special events such as Royal Rumble , UK Rampage and This Tuesday in Texas aired on Sky One, whilst a live broadcast of WrestleMania VI and others include SummerSlam and Survivor Series , shown on taped delay a number of days after the events were recorded, aired on Sky Movies . Sky moved all the special events to Sky Movies in 1991, before they transferred to Sky Sports on 1 September 1992 when
9900-416: Was the sole announcer from 2001 until 2005. As one of Sky One's four announcers, her voice-overs are pre-recorded once a week and played out by an automated system. Live continuity announcements air each evening. In 2009, they were voiced by announcers Dave Kelly, Faye Bamford and Philippa Collins. In 2010, three new continuity announcers were hired, Katie Morton, Katie Hudson and Paul Daniels, replacing all
10000-442: Was ultimately given to new episodes of the hit teen soap Beverly Hills, 90210 which was later paired off with its spin-off Melrose Place . After many years in the clear on 1 September of that year, Sky One was encrypted as part of the new Sky Multichannels subscription package, and could no longer be viewed outside Britain and Ireland without exporting a box, or receiving it over cable (although it had already been encrypted for
#502497