Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 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 (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They 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 TV, BT TV and TalkTalk TV.
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group. Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, it became Sky One and broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Ireland as British Sky Broadcasting's flagship channel, being the most watched television service in history. It existed until 1 September 2021, when it closed down as part of a restructuring with its EPG position taken by Sky Showcase and much of its content library moved to Sky Max.
Jonathan "Jono" Harry Coleman, was an English-born television presenter, radio announcer, writer, comedian, and advertorial spokesperson. He was known for his career in his native country and Australia.
CSC Media Group, formerly known as Chart Show Channels (CSC), was a British cable television broadcasting company. It was a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television. The company dissolved on 27 November 2019.
C4 was a New Zealand television channel owned and operated by MediaWorks New Zealand. C4 was available on both digital terrestrial and satellite platforms and played music around the clock, including from their radio side from The Rock, The Edge, The Breeze, More FM, George FM, Mai FM & The Sound. C4 also aired a lot of speciality music shows such as HomeGrown, Top 10/100, Video Hits, Fade To Black, Steel Mill and Biggest Records Right Now. The channel was originally launched in October 2003 as a re-branding of TV4 which had been broadcasting since 1997. On 1 May 2010, as C4 had been moving away from music programming since 2008, the jukebox side was split off and C4 launched a second C4 channel on Channel 9 called C4 2. C4 2 was only available on digital Freeview terrestrial and satellite platforms. At the end of 2010 an announcement was made that MediaWorks would again re-brand the current C4 channel as FOUR, which meant C4 2 would be converted to a music show as C4 was moved to its Channel 9 position. C4 shut down on Thursday 26 June 2014 at 01:00 am. It was replaced by The Edge TV the next day on Friday 27 June 2014 at 04:00 pm.
Sky Soap was a 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.
Sky Arts is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music. The channel is available in the United Kingdom via 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.
Galaxy was a short-lived British satellite television channel, owned and operated by British Satellite Broadcasting.
TVNZ 1 is the first national television channel owned and operated by the state-owned broadcaster Television New Zealand (TVNZ). It is the oldest television broadcaster in New Zealand, starting out from 1960 as independent channels in the four main centres of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, networking in 1969 to become NZBC TV. The network was renamed Television One in 1975 upon the break-up of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, and became a part of TVNZ in 1980 when Television One and South Pacific Television merged. The channel assumed its current name in October 2016.
Now was a British television channel transmitted as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting service during 1990.
The Movie Channel was a British television service which only aired movies. Launched on British Satellite Broadcasting, The Movie Channel was a predecessor of some of the Sky Movies channels, having survived the 1990 merger with Sky Television, another satellite service launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International.
Kutonen (Sixth) is a Finnish general entertainment channel that replaced the music-video oriented The Voice TV in September 2012. Kutonen is very closely related to its Danish counterpart 6'eren, sharing its visual branding and much programming with it, as well as having close strategic connections to other brands owned and operated by SBS in other European countries.
Bliss was a British music television channel owned and operated by the CSC Media Group.
Home Video Channel (HVC) was a British cable television service devoted to broadcast low-budget movies from 8.00pm to midnight, and the owners also operated The Adult Channel which started on 31 January 1992.
This is a timeline of the history of Sky Television.
This is a timeline of the history of Sky News, a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation.
This is a timeline of the history of Sky Cinema.
