Sky One
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- This article is about the British and Irish TV channel. For the New Zealand TV channel, see SKY 1
| Sky One
<tr><th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">Image:SKYONE.png</th></tr> <tr><th>Launched</th><td>Summer 1982</td></tr><tr><th>Owned by</th><td>BSkyB</td></tr><tr><th>Audience share</th><td>1.6% (September 2006, Source:[1])</td></tr><tr><th>Formerly called</th><td>Satellite Television Limited (until 1984), Sky Channel (until 1989)</td></tr><tr><th>Sister channel(s)</th><td>Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky One HD</td></tr><tr><th>Website</th><td>www.skyone.co.uk</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #BFDFFF; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2">Availability </th></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #d0e5f5;" align="center" colspan="2">Satellite</th></tr><tr><th>Sky Digital</th><td>Channel 106</td></tr><tr><th>Sky HD</th><td>Channel 197</td></tr><tr><th>Direct TV</th><td>9996</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #d0e5f5;" align="center" colspan="2">Cable</th></tr><tr><th>NTL:Telewest</th><td>Channel 120</td></tr><tr><th>NTL Ireland</th><td>Channel 114</td></tr><tr><th>Chorus Digital</th><td>Channel 9</td></tr><tr><th>WightCable</th><td>Channel 7/111</td></tr> |
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.
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[edit] Sky Channel
It all started in 1982 with the ground breaking Sky Channel. At that time to get a market Sky produced a number of home grown programming. Most famous is 'Sky Trax' which covered European music. (many clips still can be found on the Internet)
In 1989 Sky Channel ended its broadcasts to European cable operators. However, Sky Europe continued to broadcast.
In the mid 80's (around 1985) the company was brought by Rupert Murdoch who later, in 1989, moved the channel to Astra and created the Sky Television Network.
See also: Origins
[edit] Sky Television
When Murdoch expanded his satellite operation by launching Sky Television in 1989, Sky Channel was included in the package and its programming remained much the same, with a few international travel documentaries thrown in to add a small amount of variety. 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.
[edit] Premiere screenings
With different programming came greater confidence and bigger budgets, and the channel began to rely more and more heavily on premiere screenings of US series, many of them from Murdoch's Fox Network in the United States. An early hit was The Simpsons, which has been a Sky One fixture ever since. Once the series had accumulated sufficient episodes Sky One began running as many as three episodes every day of the week, with new episodes (if any) usually airing on Sunday. 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 managed to outbid Sky One and gain exclusive first run rights to both shows, although Sky One still held the repeat rights for the early seasons of each shows for several years.
Sky One is currently the only UK TV channel to show the newest series of The Simpsons. Other Hit Premiere Screenings have included Futurama, Family Guy, Dilbert, Malcolm in the Middle and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sky also acquired rights to premiere screenings of the Star Trek franchise, beginning with Season 4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also premiered The X-Files in Britain along with episodes of the ever popular Stargate SG-1 . More recently it has acquired the first run rights to 24 from its 3rd Season onwards, as well as Stargate Atlantis, Nip/Tuck, Las Vegas, Battlestar Galactica, Rescue Me, Deadwood and Eureka which was renamed A Town Called Eureka for the UK. Also, as announced on October 19 2006 Sky One has managed to get the exclusive first run rights to Lost for Season 3 and 4, after successfully outbidding Channel 4, and unlike Channel 4 who showed the series several months after their US premier, Sky One will begin broadcasting the series in November, just 1 month after their US debut. It is likely that Lost Season 3 will air on Sky Three at a later date.
[edit] Home grown programmes
Sky started commissioning UK-made programming (which it had not done in a large scale scene the the pre-Astra days of Sky Channel) 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 despite its high production values); 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. Less successful shows include Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show.
[edit] Recent history
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. More recently, Sky One Mix (since renamed Sky Mix and then Sky Two in October 2005) was launched as a "catch-up" channel, screening repeats of key Sky One programmes later in the same week. A second sister channel, Sky Three, launched on 31st October 2005.
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)
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.
On 21 September 2004, Sky One relaunched again with another new logo and on-air presentation package. Some have commented that this logo appears to read "SKY Onc" and not Sky One, and as a result, it has been referred to as Sky Onc by a number of media websites, not as typo but as a joke. (Likewise for its sister channels, "Sky Tuo" and "Sky Thrcc".)
The channel started broadcasting 16:9 widescreen programmes in their original format in June 2003, although all trailers and commercials were in 4:3 due to the fact that they were played off the same servers for all SKY channels, many of which are not yet in widescreen. However, these switched to 16:9 too in November 2005.
In late July, 2006, US-based satellite broadcaster DirecTV added several channels to their online guide that are apparently not available to viewers, including Sky One. Leading to some speculation as to whether these channels may be made available to American viewers. It was later revealed, however, that these had been added for the benefit of Tony Blair, who was visiting the United States at the time.
On 19th October 2006, BSkyB secured a lucrative deal with distributor Buena Vista International Television to air seasons three and four of the ABC series, Lost believed to have cost £20 million. The deal is a big blow to rival network Channel 4 who had previously broadcast the first two series of the show with huge ratings success. It is believed the show will be aired on Sky One and Sky One's HD channel on November 19th. [2]
The popular show Pop Idol recently came up for grabs due to its contract running out with ITV. Simon Fuller has recently been in talks with new broadcasters such as Sky One and Five to re-broadcast the show with a brand new format. It is more than likely the show will be broadcast on Five because it is one of the main core five channels in the UK, with more availability for the UK audience to watch, as not all people in the UK have digital tv yet.
[edit] Censorship
Sky is often criticised for imposing more censorship than people feel is necessary on its programming. Recent examples include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 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 2nd, 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).
[edit] Wrestling on Sky One
Sky One broadcasted WWE's Bottom Line and Friday Night Smackdown before putting it onto Sky Sports 3. However there are still talks about Raw and Smackdown being placed back onto Sky One and reducing the amount of 'pay-per-view' WWE programing for the Sky Sports Channels.
[edit] Logos and Idents
Used From September 1993 - September 1995 |
Used From September 1995 - September 1996 |
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Used From September 1996 - September 1997 |
Used From September 1997 - May 1998 |
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Since September 21 2004 |
