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Sky UK

Sky UK Limited, doing business as Sky is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in 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[2] 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.

This article is about the British telecommunications company. For a wider corporate history and profile, see Sky Group. For the Irish subsidiary, see Sky Ireland.

Formerly

British Sky Broadcasting Ltd (BSkyB)

Mass media

2 November 1990 (1990-11-02) (as British Sky Broadcasting)

Broadband
Video on demand
Broadcasting
Satellite
IPTV
Internet
Television production
Mobile

Sky Ireland
The Cloud
Sky Broadband
Sky Home Communications
Now TV
Sky Subscriber Services
Sky In-Home Services

Formed as British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in November 1990 through the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting,[3] 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.[4] 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).[5] The UK subsidiary's name 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.[6]

Sky Mobile[edit]

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+.[54] On 5 January 2017 Sky Mobile went live to the public across the UK. Coining itself as 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 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 the "piggybank" facility to allow customers to "cash-in" piggybank data to bring the monthly cost of a phone down.[55]


As of 30 March 2017, Sky Mobile is offering handset deals. Products are available from manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony and Apple.

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Sky Showcase

Sky Max

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Sky Atlantic

Sky Comedy

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Sky Witness

Sky Replay

Sky Sci-Fi

Sky Mix

(+1 available) (joint venture with Paramount Global)

Comedy Central

(joint venture with Paramount Global)

Comedy Central Extra

Challenge

Marketing[edit]

Sky (formerly marketed as Sky Digital) is the brand name for Sky Group's United Kingdom digital satellite television and telecommunications services. Slogans that have been used for marketing include "What do you want to watch?", "Entertainment your way" and the current slogan "Believe in Better".[56] Sky has also aired several advertisements featuring characters from Toy Story for Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story That Time Forgot, Minions, Inside Out, Kung Fu Panda 3, The Secret Life of Pets, The Lego Batman Movie, Despicable Me 3 and Monster Family.

In early 2006, most channels received new numbering. This shake-up was intended to split up the original ten categories into sixteen. For example, several channels that had been listed under the 'Entertainment' category were split off into a new 'Lifestyle & Culture' category while the 'News & Documentaries' category was split into two. The 'Specialist' category, which had included shopping, dating, gambling, and international and adult channels was split into several genres.

[82]

Following the integration of into Sky in early 2011, several prominent slots were freed up as many channels were closed down. It was, reported Broadband TV News, the biggest reshuffle in EPG positions for over a decade, with MTV, Comedy Central, Universal Channel, Syfy, News Corporation's FX, and 40 HD channels moving to more prominent places.[83]

Living TV Group

Documentaries and other channels moving towards general entertainment programming and many other channel categories are being overspilled into other parts of the EPG. Sky reshuffled the channels again on 1 May 2018 which merged the documentaries and entertainment channels making many documentaries move to more prominent slots which had been occupied by time shift and standard definition channels which had been given their own areas in the 200s and 800s with the 800s being also filled with SD channels from other categories.

[84]

Virgin Media dispute[edit]

Virgin Media (re-branded in 2007 from NTL:Telewest) started to offer a high-definition television (HDTV) capable set top box, although from 30 November 2006 until 30 July 2009 it only carried one linear HD channel, BBC HD, after the conclusion of the ITV HD trial. Virgin Media has claimed that other HD channels were "locked up" or otherwise withheld from their platform,[88] although Virgin Media did in fact have an option to carry Channel 4 HD in the future.[89][90] Nonetheless, the linear channels were not offered, Virgin Media instead concentrating on its Video on Demand service[91] to carry a modest selection of HD content.[92] Virgin Media has nevertheless made a number of statements over the years, suggesting that more linear HD channels are on the way.[88][93][94]


In 2007, Sky and Virgin Media became involved in a dispute over the carriage of Sky channels on cable TV. The failure to renew the existing carriage agreements negotiated with NTL and Telewest resulted in Virgin Media removing the basic channels from the network on 1 March 2007. Virgin Media claimed that Sky had substantially increased the asking price for the channels, a claim which Sky denied, on the basis that their new deal offered "substantially more value" by including HD channels and Video On Demand content which was not previously carried by cable.[95]


In response, Sky ran a number of TV, radio and print advertisements claiming that Virgin Media doubted the value of the channels concerned, at first urging Virgin Media customers to call their cable operator to show their support for Sky, and later urging Virgin Media customers to migrate to Sky to continue receiving the channels. The broadcasting regulator Ofcom subsequently found these adverts in breach of their code.[96]


The availability (at an extra charge) of Sky's premium sports and movie services was not affected by the dispute, and Sky Sports 3 was offered as a replacement for Sky One on many Virgin Media packages. This impasse continued for twenty-one months, with both companies initiating High Court proceedings.[97] Amongst Virgin Media's claims to the court[98] (denied by Sky) were that Sky had unfairly reduced the amount which it paid to VMTV for the carriage of Virgin Media's own channels on satellite.[99]


Eventually, on 4 November 2008 it was announced that an agreement had been struck for Sky's basic channels â€“ including Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 to return to Virgin Media from 13 November 2008 until 12 June 2011. In exchange, Sky would be provided continued carriage of Virgin Media Television's channels â€“ Living, Livingit, Bravo, Bravo +1, Trouble, Challenge and Virgin1 for the same period.[100]


The agreements include fixed annual carriage fees of £30m for the channels with both channel suppliers able to secure additional capped payments if their channels meet certain performance-related targets. Currently, there is no indication as to whether the new deal includes the additional Video On Demand and High Definition content which had previously been offered by Sky. As part of the agreements, both Sky and Virgin Media agreed to terminate all High Court proceedings against each other relating to the carriage of their respective basic channels.[101]

Discovery Networks dispute[edit]

On 25 January 2017, Discovery Networks announced that they were in a dispute with Sky UK over the costs of payment fees to the broadcaster.


The broadcaster threatened to blackout their channels on the Sky platform, which includes Eurosport, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, DMAX, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Shed, Discovery Science, Discovery History and Home & Health, unless Sky accepted their request for fair pricing. Sky indicated that they will not bow down, and the channels would likely become unavailable from 1 February 2017.


The same day, Discovery sent out a press release on the dispute and also blocked access to its own website with the news. Discovery stated enough is enough and claimed that Sky is paying less for its channels than it was ten years ago. At that time, Discovery had stated that its viewing share has grown by more than 20%. Managing Director Susanna Dinnage stated in the press release:"We believe Sky is using what we consider to be its dominant market position to further its own commercial interest over those of viewers and independent broadcasters. The vitality of independent broadcasters like Discovery and plurality in TV is under threat."


In response, Sky stated that they had been "overpaying Discovery for years." It comes after Sky had paid £4.2 billion on Premier League rights for the following three seasons.[102]


The channel 'blackout' would have also affected the Sky-owned NOW TV with the removal of Discovery Channel from both the live stream and On Demand service.


On 31 January 2017 at around 21:00, Sky UK revealed that they would continue to broadcast the Discovery Networks Channels by releasing the following statement: "Great news, we can confirm that Sky will continue to carry the Discovery and Eurosport channels. This means you can still watch channels including: Animal Planet, Discovery HD, Discovery History, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Science, Discovery Shed, Discovery Turbo, DMAX, Eurosport1, Eurosport2, Investigation Discovery, TLC, and Quest." At the time of the statement release, it had not been revealed how much Sky UK had paid Discovery Networks.

Litigation[edit]

In July 2013, the English High Court of Justice found that Microsoft's use of the term "SkyDrive" infringed on Sky's right to the "Sky" trademark. On 31 July 2013, Sky and Microsoft announced their settlement, in which Microsoft will not appeal the ruling, and will rename its SkyDrive cloud storage service after an unspecified "reasonable period of time to allow for an orderly transition to a new brand," plus "financial and other terms, the details of which are confidential".[103][104] On 27 January 2014, Microsoft announced "that SkyDrive will soon become OneDrive" and "SkyDrive Pro" becomes "OneDrive for Business".[105][106]


Hello Games was in legal negotiations with Sky over the trademark on the word "Sky" used for the title of their video game No Man's Sky for three years. The issue was ultimately settled in June 2016, allowing Hello Games to continue to use the name.[107]

Edit this at Wikidata

Official website

Archived 2 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine — official production and distribution arm of Sky TV

Sky Vision

— online 'electronic programme guide' (EPG)

Sky TV Guide

— at www.TVChannelLists.com wiki site

List of channels on Sky Q (UK and Ireland)