Sky Limited
| Sky Limited | |
|---|---|
| legal form | public limited company |
| ISIN | GB0001411924 |
| founding | 1990 |
| Seat |
London , UK
|
| management |
Jeremy Darroch ( CEO )
|
| Number of employees | 27,060 (2015) |
| sales | 15.2 billion euros (2017) |
| Branch | media |
| Website | www.skygroup.sky |
Sky Ltd. (formerly British Sky Broadcasting, BSkyB for short ) is a British media group based in London . With around 23 million customers, Sky is the largest provider of pay TV in Europe . Sky has been a subsidiary of the US Comcast Corporation since October 2018 .
history
Sky began in 1982 as Sky Channel , a free-to-air pan-European television program broadcast across Europe from London on the Eutelsat 1 F1 satellite. At the time, Sky had a Dutch broadcasting license. At the time, Sky Channel could be received in all of Western Europe via cable, and in West Germany it was fed into the cable television network of the Deutsche Bundespost .
The program consisted largely of music videos (Sky Trax). I.a. Linda de Mol moderated the chart show "Eurochart Top 50" as the program's flagship. This was produced in a major disco in Amsterdam based on the model of the Top of the Pops show . Programs like DJ Kat and In touch with the Dutch followed . With its program, Sky was MTV's predecessor in Europe for a certain time before MTV Europe was also successful here and in the USA.
In February 1989 the station was taken over by Rupert Murdochs News Corporation and received a relaunch as Sky Television . The music share has been greatly reduced. On July 31, 1989, the company was renamed "Sky One" and thus focused on the British market, followed by the withdrawal from continental Europe on September 1, 1993 with the introduction of encryption (pay TV). Sky was one of the first providers to use the new Astra satellite at 19.2 ° East to initially broadcast four programs ( Sky One , Sky News , Sky Movies and Eurosport ).
After the failure of the competitor British Satellite Broadcasting (founded in 1986), the two merged in November 1990 to form the company called British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). Broadcasting via the Marcopolo satellites was discontinued on December 30, 1992, and the satellites were resold to Telenor and Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget .
Further with the launch of Astra satellites managed BSkyB from 1991 to expand its program continuously in which there are several new television programs - for example, The Movie Channel , Sky Movies Gold and Sky Sports - launched or existing television programs such as The Children's Channel or Discovery Channel contracted as Pay TV could bind to itself.
With the Sky Multichannel Package , BSkyB put together a pay-TV package in the summer of 1993 from several TV channels that had previously been receivable via other satellites or only via cable; so among other things came Bravo , Country Music Television , MTV Europe and Nickelodeon added. It also contained Sky One, which had previously been transmitted unencrypted via Astra. Other channels followed in 1994/95 ( Sky Sports 2 , Sky Travel , Sky Soap , The History Channel , Disney Channel and others)
With the launch of the Astra-2 satellites on the new orbital position 28.2 ° East in 1997, BSkyB began on December 1, 1998 with the distribution of its digital television package Sky Digital with more than 500 television and radio programs. In addition, from 2002 the programs of the BBC and ITV could be received, which have been broadcasting their programs digitally unencrypted since 2004 and 2006 respectively via the Astra 2D satellite, whose footprint is largely limited to the British Isles . This package also includes other free-to-air programs.
In addition, BSkyB has been operating some HDTV channels since May 22, 2006 and has been offering an EPG since 1998 .
On July 25, 2014, the takeover of the shares in Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia previously held by media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch via the 21st Century Fox group to BSkyB was announced. BSkyB bought 100 percent of Sky Italia for the equivalent of three billion euros in cash and shares. In Sky Germany, the majority share of 57.4 percent was taken over for 3.7 billion euros.
On November 13, 2014, the previous BSkyB announced that the takeover of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland had now been completed. Sky Italia is now 100% owned by the company. They now hold almost 90% of Sky Deutschland. With the takeover of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland , the name "BSkyB" is no longer tenable. That is why the company is now operating as "Sky Plc.", "Sky" for short, and is also introducing a new logo with immediate effect. As early as November 14, 2014, the now pan-European company should only be listed on the stock exchange as Sky .
On December 9, 2016, Sky plc. Confirmed that Rupert Murdoch-controlled 21st Century Fox held the remaining 60.9 percent of Sky plc. want to take over.
On December 14, 2017, Disney confirmed the takeover of the pay-TV provider Sky with other parts of the 21st Century Fox group for a sum of 52.4 billion dollars. In September 2018 it was announced that Comcast was taking over the Sky group.
Free-to-air programs (selection)
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News: |
Music:
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Films:
|
In contrast to Germany, most film channels have a timeshift version that has been shifted by an hour, recognizable by an identifier that ends in "+1".
The news channels are also broadcast unencrypted via the satellite position 19.2 ° East.
Owner and failed takeover by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdochs News Corporation , once the sole owner of BSkyB, held a 39.1 percent stake in the company through 2018. Murdoch's son James became CEO of BSkyB in 2003 . For a long time Murdoch planned to take over all of BSkyB, which belongs to a consortium of managers. Critics feared inequality in the British media landscape should Murdoch come into possession of Sky News after the newspapers The Times , The Sunday Times , The Sun and News of the World . The publishers of The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph , among others, threatened to take legal action if the TV station were to be taken over. In the wake of the News International scandal and the closure of his tabloid News of the World, Murdoch withdrew the takeover offer for BSkyB in mid-July 2011.
technology
Sky uses the VideoGuard - encryption system , which of NDS - a subsidiary of News Corporation was developed -.
The special Sky Digibox set-top box with a smart card is required to receive the channels . This can be purchased for a one-time fee. Officially, this box is only available to residents of Great Britain and Ireland.
reception
The channels can be received via satellite and on some cable networks in Great Britain and Ireland.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sky plc .: Annual Report 2015. (PDF) Retrieved on March 13, 2016 (English).
- ↑ a b Comcast wins tug-of-war for Sky group In: tagesanzeiger.ch , September 23, 2018, accessed on September 25, 2018.
- ↑ Sky at a glance. Sky Ltd., accessed November 19, 2018 .
- ↑ DWDL.de GmbH: It is finished: Sky belongs officially to Comcast - DWDL.de . In: DWDL.de . ( dwdl.de [accessed on November 19, 2018]).
- ↑ Ralph M. Negrine: Satellite broadcasting: the politics and implications of the new media , Routledge, 1988, ISBN 0-415-00109-9 , p. 151 Online
- ↑ Sky.com:Sky creates Europe's leading entertainment company
- ↑ Sky.com: An introduction to the new Sky from Jeremy Darroch
- ↑ DWDL.de: Takeover of Sky Deutschland completed - BSkyB becomes Sky and buys more shares than expected
- ↑ digitalfernsehen.de: Just Sky: BSkyB changes its name
- ↑ DWDL.de GmbH: 21st Century Fox wants British Sky Broadcasting completely take over - DWDL.de . In: DWDL.de . ( dwdl.de [accessed December 10, 2016]).
- ↑ Spiegel.de: Walt Disney buys parts from Fox Group
- ↑ a b Wesel, Barbara: Murdoch gives himself up ( memento from July 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, July 13, 2011 (accessed on July 13, 2011).
- ^ Burrell, Ian: Murdoch given time to prove his BSkyB . In: The Independent , January 26, 2011, p. 6.
sky (United Kingdom and Ireland) | sky Germany (Germany and Austria) | sky Italia (Italy) | sky Switzerland (Switzerland)