This is a timeline of the history of Sky Television.
1970s and 1980s 1977 21 October – The World Administrative Radio Conference assigns each country five high-powered direct broadcast by satellite channels for domestic use.The European Union and National Industrial Policy By Hussein Kassim P208
1980 Plans for a pan-European satellite television station are put together by Brian Haynes, back by backed by Guinness Mahon and Barclays Merchant Bank and in November Mr Haynes sets up Satellite Television Ltd. (SATV)Book: "High Above: The untold story of Astra, Europe's leading satellite company " By Chris Forrester "New Scientist" Green light for Satellite television Bp 267 By Peter Marsh 21 October 1981
1981 21 October – SATV begins test transmissions on the Orbital Test Satellite after the European Space Agency allowed the company to test the satellite for the use of commercial television, with an hour of light entertainment in English each night. The low-powered satellite forces it to broadcast to cable systems rather than directly to individual satellite dishes.
1982 February – The BBC is awarded two of the five channels DBS satellite channels.The Times, Friday, 5 March 1982; pg. 15; Joint UK satellite set up By Bill Johnstone Electronics Correspondent. 26 April – Satellite Television launches as a pan-European service. The channel was often referred to on-screen as Super Station Europe. However the channel is initially only available in some European countries, with Norway and Finland being the first two countries to permit the new service's transmission via cable, followed by Malta, Switzerland and West Germany.
1983 27 June – News International becomes the majority shareholder of Satellite Television.News International buys 65% of satellite group. By Bill Johnstone, Electronics Correspondent. The Times, Wednesday, 29 June 1983; pg. 13 16 October – Satellite Television begins broadcasting in the UK.TV satellite set for weekend debut. By Bill Johnstone, Electronics Correspondent. The Times, Wednesday, 12 October 1983 Autumn – Shortly after the Home Secretary announced that the three remaining satellite channels would be given to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to allow the private sector to compete against the BBC, starts talking with the IBA about a joint project to help cover the cost. The Government subsequently gives permission and a consortium emerges consisting of the BBC, Granada, Anglia, Virgin, Thorn EMI, Pearson Longman and Consolidated Satellite Broadcasting. The BBC holds a 50% stake in the consortium.
1984 16 January – Satellite Television is renamed Sky Channel. 25 June – The consortium wanting to launch satellite television announces that the original launch date of 1986 will be delayed until 1989.The Times, Monday, 25 June 1984; pg. 3;Completion date for TV satellite put back two years By Bill Johnstone, Technology Correspondent.
1985 15 June – The consortium which has been planning to launch satellite television in the UK collapses on costs grounds.The Times, Saturday, 15 June 1985; pg. 3; British satellite TV project collapses By Bill Johnstone Technology Correspondent.
1986 2 April – The IBA invites bids from the private sector to operate a commercial service on three of the five DBS channels allocated to the UK in 1977 for satellite broadcasting. 11 December – The IBA announces that BSB has been awarded a fifteen-year franchise to operate the satellite television service.
1988 8 June – Having failed to become part of the BSB consortium, Rupert Murdoch announces plans to launch a four-channel service on the soon to be launched Astra satellite.The £199 dish that will launch a television revolution. by Richard Evans Media Editor. The Times, Thursday, 9 June 1988 11 December – The satellite on which Sky Television will broadcast, Astra 1A, is successfully launched by communications satellite company SES.
1989 5 February – Sky Television launches at 6.00pm. The channel line-up consists of Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport. 3 June – Sky Television and The Walt Disney Company come to an arrangement which allows to broadcast movies for a five-year period, this agreement comes a few weeks after plans to create a full-time channel were scrapped, although a Disney-branded version eventually launched on 1 October 1995. June – BSB is awarded the other two DBS channel slots, meaning that the service will launch with five channels. These two channels had originally been allocated to the BBC but were handed over for commercial use when the BBC dropped its plans to use the two channels on cost grounds. 31 July – Sky Channel becomes a UK and Ireland-only service and is renamed Sky One although for a short time after the relaunch, some of Sky Channel's former pan-European programming is broadcast in the hours before Eurosport's startup, and the programme block is branded as Sky Europe.
1990s 1990 5 February – Sky Movies is fully encrypted, thereby becoming Sky's first pay channel. 11 February – Sky Movies broadcasts its first special event – the boxing fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas. 25 March – BSB launches, but initially only on cable - the channels do not begin broadcasting on satellite until the end of April. Its channels are Galaxy, Now, The Movie Channel, The Sports Channel and The Power Station. BSB had planned to launch in September 1989 but problems with the supply of receiving equipment had delayed the launch. 2 September – Sky One begins airing the American animated series The Simpsons. 2 November – Sky TV and BSB merge. The new company is called BSkyB. 2 December – Galaxy and Now are closed down and are replaced on the Marcopolo satellite by Sky One and Sky News although arts programmes are shown for a short time on Marco Polo as a weekend opt-out service from Sky News so that contractual obligations can be fulfilled. This opt-out service is called Sky Arts.
1991 8 April – The Power Station closes at 4.00am and two hours later at 6.00am, Sky Movies launches in its place on the Marcopolo satellite. 15 April — The Movie Channel launches on Astra 1B. 20 April – Sky Sports launches, replacing the BSB Sports Channel. 6 May – Eurosport briefly closes after the competing Screensport channel had filed a complaint to the European Commission over its corporate structure. TF1 Group subsequently steps in to replace BSkyB as Eurosport's joint owners when the service resumes on 22 May. Sky Movies and The Movie Channel begin broadcasting 24 hours a day. Previously they had been on air from early afternoon until the early hours of the next morning. 26 May – The final Sky Arts weekend output takes place on the Marco Polo satellite. 1 October – The Comedy Channel launches.
1992 February – TV-am closes its in-house news service and contracts out news bulletins to Sky News. 18 May – Sky purchases the live rights to the newly formed football Premier League for £304 million. 1 July – Sky sells the Marcopolo satellite to Telenor of Norway for about £30 million.Investment BSKYB SELLS SATELLITE FOR $77M JOHN HURST From JOHN HURST in London 219 words 1 July 1992 The Australian Financial Review 15 August – Sky Sports launches Sports Saturday. The programme follows the same format as the BBC's Grandstand programme featuring a mix of sporting action, concluding with the day's football results. 16 August – To mark the start of Sky Sports's coverage of the Premier League, the channel launches an afternoon-long football programme called Super Sunday. 1 September – Sky Sports becomes a subscription channel. Sky Movies stops showing non-movies content. It had previously shown selected premium content such as live boxing, music concerts and World Wrestling Federation due to it having been Sky's only encrypted channel and had been known as Sky Movies Plus. 1 October – The Comedy Channel closes and is replaced by Sky Movies Gold, a "classic movies" service is launched as part of Sky Movies package and broadcasts from late afternoon until the early hours, with the first film is shown at 6.00pm on the new network was 1979's Rocky II. 31 December – Sky stops broadcasting via the Marcopolo satellite.
1993 1 February – BSkyB introduces a new system of film ratings often used for various times, replacing the British Board of Film Classification certificates. 1 September – Sky Multichannels launches.
1994 19 August – Sky Sports 2 launches, initially as a weekend-only service, 3 October – Sky Soap and Sky Travel launch as part-time weekday channels.
1995 1 November – Sky Sports Gold launches.
1996 16 March – The boxing match between Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson is the UK's first pay-per-view event. 16 August – Sky Sports 3 launches. Sky Sports is renamed Sky Sports 1 Sky Sports Gold closes. 1 September – Sky 2 and The Computer Channel launch. 1 October – Granada Sky Broadcasting, in conjunction with ITV, launches. The channel line-up consists of Granada Plus, Granada Good Life, Granada Men & Motors and Granada Talk TV 1 November – A joint venture between Scottish Television and BSkyB results in the launch of Sky Scottish.
1997 31 January – BSkyB enters into a joint venture with ITV companies Granada Television and Carlton Television to create British Digital Broadcasting (BDB) so that they can apply to operate three digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences. 25 June – BSkyB is forced by the Independent Television Commission to pull out of BDB on competition grounds.Itv Big Two lead digital revolution. Eric Reguly and Carol Midgley. The Times, Wednesday, 25 June 1997 31 August – Granada Talk TV and Sky 2 stops broadcasting. 1 September – Sky Sports 2 becomes a full-time service. 1 November – Sky Movies and The Movie Channel are rebranded under the Sky Movies Screen banner and are now called Sky Movies Screen 1 and Sky Movies Screen 2. 1 December – Sky Box Office launches a four-channel near on-demand movies service. It also carried by Cable & Wireless chooses not to use the service, instead opting for Front Row.
1998 1 May – Granada Good Life is renamed Granada Breeze. 31 May – Sky Scottish stops broadcasting. 15 August – On the first day of the 1998–99 football season, the first edition of Soccer Saturday is broadcast. The afternoon-long football scores and results service replaces Sports Saturday. 10 September – Sky Movies Screen 1 becomes Sky MovieMax, Sky Movies Screen 2 becomes Sky Premier, and Sky Movies Gold is renamed Sky Cinema. 1 October – Sky Digital launches, Sky Sports News launches, Sky Movies launches seven more channels and many more Sky Movies Box Office channels start broadcasting. 15 November – Rival digital television service ONdigital launches and despite Sky no longer being a partner in the venture, some Sky channels include Sky One, Sky Sports channels (Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 3 – Sky Sports 2 is added later) and two Sky Movies channels, do appear on the service.
1999 April – Sky Sports launches its interactive service, Sky Sports Active. 30 April – Sky Soap closes. June – Sky News launches Sky News Radio. 22 August – Sky Sports Xtra launches, initially primarily as an interactive service. 1 October – Sky MovieMax 5 launches.
2000s 2000 March – Sky News Active launches. 10 April – Sky Sports News is renamed Sky Sports.com TV.
2001 The first Sky+ boxes go on sale. 1 July – The Sky Sports.com TV brand is scrapped and the channel reverts to its original name of Sky Sports News. 18 August – PremPlus launches. 2 September – .tv stops broadcasting. September – Sky launches its first personal video recorder, Sky +.