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On 1st March, 2007, at 00:00 GMT, Sky's basic channels - Sky One, Sky Two (not former Telewest areas), Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra, were removed from the [[Virgin Media]] cable television services after a [http://www.joinsky.net/virgin_media_sky_channels dispute] between Virgin Media and BSkyB caused by the expiry of their carriage agreement and their inability to reach a new deal [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a43319/sky-one-sky-news-pulled-from-virgin.html]. Attempts are being made to try to reach an agreement. Virgin Media at midnight replaced Sky One with the message "Thanks to Sky, some of the non-premium Sky channels, like Sky One and Sky News are no longer available. They've picked up their ball and gone home."
On 1st March, 2007, at 00:00 GMT, Sky's basic channels - Sky One, Sky Two (not former Telewest areas), Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra, were removed from the [[Virgin Media]] cable television services after a dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB caused by the expiry of their carriage agreement and their inability to reach a new deal [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a43319/sky-one-sky-news-pulled-from-virgin.html]. Attempts are being made to try to reach an agreement. Virgin Media at midnight replaced Sky One with the message "Thanks to Sky, some of the non-premium Sky channels, like Sky One and Sky News are no longer available. They've picked up their ball and gone home."


In the weeks following the departure of the channel, Sky One's share declined from 1.6% to 1.1%.<ref>[http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?RequestTimeout=500&report=multichannel]</ref>
In the weeks following the departure of the channel, Sky One's share declined from 1.6% to 1.1%.<ref>[http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?RequestTimeout=500&report=multichannel]</ref>

Revision as of 16:25, 14 April 2007

This article is about the British and Irish TV channel. For the New Zealand TV channel, see SKY 1
Sky One
Ownership
OwnerBSkyB

Sky One is one of British Sky Broadcasting's entertainment channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. BSkyB is owned by News Corporation.

History

Sky Channel

See also: Origins

Sky One started in 1982 as the Sky Channel. The channel produced a number of home grown programmes, including Sky Trax which covered European music. The channel was bought by Rupert Murdoch in 1985[citation needed]. In 1989, the channel moved to the Astra satellite when Murdoch created the Sky Television Network. At the same time broadcasts to European cable operators ended.

Sky Television Network

Initially the channel's programming remained much the same, except for a few international travel documentaries. In mid-1989 the channel was renamed Sky One and began broadcasting to UK and Ireland only. But it was not until 1990-1 that it began to acquire more recent programming, an early success being Moonlighting, which the BBC had previously screened but not repeated. Sky One also picked up some programming (and more importantly, advertisers) from its merger with BSB's Galaxy Channel. On September 1 1993 Sky One was encrypted as part of the Sky Multichannels subscription package, and could no longer be viewed outside the UK and Ireland without exporting a box, or receiving it over cable.

A companion channel, Sky 2, launched on September 1, 1996 but was not a success and closed after just one year, on August 31, 1997.

In 2000, a dedicated feed of Sky One for the Republic of Ireland was launched. For most of this Irish feeds existence, the only difference between it and the UK feed has been differing commercials and programme promotions. However, from 9 January 2006, Sky One Ireland has simulcast the 18:30 bulletin of Sky News Ireland in place of the programme shown on the UK feed. However, the logic - or more specifically, the need - of the Sky News feed on Sky One Ireland, has been questioned, as all services in Ireland which carry Sky One, also carry Sky News (which has the same bulletin at the same time). Sky News Ireland has since been cut from the scheduling of both Sky One and Sky News.

In 2002, Sky One again gained a sister channel, Sky One Mix, which was intended as a "catch-up" channel, screening repeats of key Sky One programmes later in the same week. The channel was subsequently renamed Sky Mix. Before again being renamed to Sky Two on 2005-10-31 when a second sister channel, Sky Three, launched.

In June 2003, the channel started broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen. However, all trailers and commercials were in 4:3 until November 2005 [citation needed] due to the fact that they were played off the same servers for all Sky channels, many of which were not broadcast in widescreen.

In late July, 2006, US-based satellite broadcaster DirecTV added several channels , including Sky One, to their online guide. This lead speculation that Sky One might launch in the United States. However, it was later revealed, that these had been added for the benefit of Tony Blair[citation needed], who was visiting the US at the time.

Virgin Media Dispute

On 1st March, 2007, at 00:00 GMT, Sky's basic channels - Sky One, Sky Two (not former Telewest areas), Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra, were removed from the Virgin Media cable television services after a dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB caused by the expiry of their carriage agreement and their inability to reach a new deal [2]. Attempts are being made to try to reach an agreement. Virgin Media at midnight replaced Sky One with the message "Thanks to Sky, some of the non-premium Sky channels, like Sky One and Sky News are no longer available. They've picked up their ball and gone home."

In the weeks following the departure of the channel, Sky One's share declined from 1.6% to 1.1%.[1]

Programming

US programmes

The channel relies heavily on screenings of US television programmes, with many coming from Murdoch's Fox Network. The Simpsons, has been a regular Sky One fixture since the early days. As many as four episodes of The Simpsons are broadcast each evening, with any new episodes generally being shown on Sunday. Sky One has exclusive rights in the UK to show the most recent series of The Simpsons.

Sky One was also the original home to the UK first run showings of episodes of ER and Friends, giving Sky One some of the highest ratings for any satellite channel. However when Channel 4 launched their own digital sister channel E4 they outbid Sky One for exclusive first run rights to both shows. However, Sky One still held the repeat rights for the early seasons of both shows for several years.

Programmes that have had their UK premiere screenings on Sky One have included The X-Files, Stargate SG-1, Futurama, Family Guy, Dilbert, Malcolm in the Middle, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24 (from Season 3), Stargate Atlantis, Nip/Tuck, Las Vegas, Battlestar Galactica, Rescue Me, Deadwood, Eureka (renamed A Town Called Eureka in the UK), and LOST (seasons 3 and 4). Sky also acquired rights to premiere screenings of the Star Trek franchise, beginning with Season 4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Programmes commissioned by Sky One

Sky has commissioned a number of UK-made programmes such as Dream Team, a drama series based on a fictional football team; The Strangerers (a science fiction sitcom that was dropped after one series and never repeated); Al Murray's sitcom Time Gentlemen Please; and Baddiel's Syndrome. Hex another sci-fi show has proved popular, but was axed in April 2006. Sky also co-produces The 4400 sci-fi TV show and co-financed the first season of Battlestar Galactica.

It also screens many "reality" shows such as Cruise with Stelios, Road Wars, Shock Treatment, World's Deadliest Gangs, World of Pain, Road Raja and Ibiza Uncovered. It also recently has received success with entertainment science shows Brainiac: Science Abuse and spin-offs, Brainiac: History Abuse and Brainiac's Test Tube Baby and also Mission Implausible. Less successful shows include Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show.

Wrestling

Sky One broadcasted WWE's Bottom Line and Friday Night Smackdown before putting it onto Sky Sports 3. Sky one currently broadcasts WWE Experience, a one hour round up of RAW and SmackDown! programming.

Censorship

Sky is often criticised for imposing more censorship than people feel is necessary on its programming [citation needed]. Examples include editing episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for violence and the depictions of dangerous actions that can easily be imitated and banning episodes of South Park due to strong violent and/or sexual overtones, but the most notable is arguably the broadcaster's treatment of The Simpsons, which would frequently be edited for the tamest of sexual and drug references, as well as swear words ("crap" was even routinely removed at one point). This editing style was also imposed on Family Guy when it premiered in the United Kingdom and was so excessive that many thought the programme was no longer enjoyable, as that particular show features a large amount of racy and politically incorrect jokes.

Many episodes of The Simpsons that were edited by Sky were eventually shown uncut on BBC Two. As of February 2 2000, Sky relaxed their policies and restored many lines that had been previously removed (sometimes accompanied by a noticeable jump in audio quality, as the lines were spliced back in).

Sky One programmes

Current programming

* - repeats only

Coming Soon

(Note: Due to the constant addition of shows that are not going to air on Sky One, this section can not be stated as fact)

Former Programming

Trivia

  • Former BBC Radio 1 and current Xfm DJ Claire Sturgess has been the "voice" of Sky One since 1998, and the sole announcer since 2001. As Sky One's only announcer, her voice-overs are pre-recorded once a week and played out by an automated system.

Logos and Idents

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sky_One&oldid=122773667"