Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed.
British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with Sky Television plc on 2 November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting.
Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group. In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on demand content are available through these as well as via Now, EE TV and TalkTalk TV.
Discovery Real Time was a British television channel owned by Discovery Networks UK focused on educational and learning content.
Sky Box Office is Sky's pay-per-view (PPV) system operated in the United Kingdom and Ireland. There were three branded divisions of Sky Box Office – Sky Cinema Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office and Sky 3D Box Office. Until 1 February 2011, the system ran under unified Sky Box Office branding. On 4 January 2017, all Sky Cinema Box Office channels ceased broadcasting, with only Sky Sports Box Office remaining available.
The Power Station was a British television channel that was operated by British Satellite Broadcasting. It was a dedicated music channel.
Sky Soap was a British and Irish satellite television channel operated by British Sky Broadcasting devoted to American and British soap operas that include Emmerdale Farm, Take the High Road, Families and Albion Market.
Analogue television in the United Kingdom includes terrestrial, satellite and cable services that were broadcast using analogue television signals. Following the termination of Virgin Media's analogue cable television service in Milton Keynes in November 2013, all television in the United Kingdom is broadcast in digital only.
Sky Arts is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, films, documentaries and music. The channel is available in the United Kingdom through Freeview, Freesat, BT TV, Sky, Virgin Media, and TalkTalk TV and in the Republic of Ireland via Sky Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, Vodafone Ireland and Eir, included in most basic subscription packs, but started life as a premium service requiring an additional payment on top of the monthly Sky subscription. The channel launched on Freeview and Freesat as a free-to-air service in September 2020.
Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated a nine-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989. Sky Television and its rival British Satellite Broadcasting suffered large financial losses, and merged on 2 November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting. A programming merger took effect on 1 December 1990.
Disney Channel was a British-Irish children's pay television channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company (UK) Ltd., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Active from 1 October 1995 to 1 October 2020, the channel served young audiences in the region. This iteration is distinct from the original namesake American channel of the same name, which remains operational.
Now was a British television channel transmitted as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting service during 1990. The channel aired news and current affairs on weekdays and documentaries and arts programmes on weekends.
The Comedy Channel was a short-lived satellite television network owned by British Sky Broadcasting during the early 1990s.
Sky Movies is a group of subscription television movie channels in New Zealand operated by Sky. Sky Movies was started in 1990 as one of the original channels on the Sky UHF Service. Sky Movies has progressed from the original channel in 1990 to six separate movie channels screening special interest movies, today. All Sky Movies channels are broadcast in high definition.
Sky Movies 007 HD was a premium subscription television movie channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland operated by BSkyB. The channel was dedicated to the James Bond films and first went on-air on 5 October 2012 after Sky secured the broadcasting rights to the back catalogue of Bond films, and to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Bond film, Dr. No in 1962. After initially airing for a month to celebrate the anniversary the channel returned from 1 January 2013 to 21 January 2013, then again in February. Its last airdate was 17 August 2013. In November 2013, ITV re-acquired the franchise after signing a deal with the distributor, and the films returned to terrestrial television. On 8 July 2016 Sky Movies was rebranded as Sky Cinema. As part of the rebrand, Sky acquired the rights to show the latest James Bond film (Spectre).
This is a timeline of the history of Sky Television.
This is a timeline of cable television in the United Kingdom.
HGTV is a British free-to-air interior home and garden-orientated lifestyle television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel originally launched on 1 November 1997 as UK Style and then was rebranded to Home on 30 April 2009 and was rebranded to its current form on 21 January 2020. HGTV is broadcast 24 hours a day on Sky. UK Style was transmitted by terrestrial provider ITV Digital 24 hours a day until the company's collapse in 2002. After a slight rebrand to UKTV Style, the channel made a return to terrestrial screens for a time in the mid-2000s as part of the now-defunct Top Up TV system. Before 2016, HGTV was a pay channel. Home became available as a free-to-air linear service on Freeview from 1 March 2016.
This is a timeline of the history of Sky Cinema.
This is a timeline of the history of Sky One and its spin-off channels.
