It was 20 years ago today, 6pm on Feb 5 1989, that Sky Television first went on air with a portfolio of 4 channels, broadcasting from Astra’s debut satellite at 19.2 deg East. Sky kicked off with 4 pay-TV channels, although viewers could also see a handful of German channels.
Rupert Murdoch had announced his plans for Sky Television in June 1988, but all depended on the launch of the first Astra satellite. That went well on Dec 11 1988, and after a few weeks of technical tests and trials, transmissions went live on Feb 5 1989.
Sky Television, in the shape of a single free-to-air channel, had been on air over Europe since 1978 – and losing a fortune of cash. It went through various versions, and ownerships, most importantly as ‘Satellite Television UK Ltd’ and with backing from Brian Hayes, formerly of Thames TV. By any measure in its early days it could be considered an illegal service given that it was using a highly dubious licence to operate which allowed it to beam a signal from Finland to Malta – although in the process it could be picked up by all the European cable head-ends under the low-power satellite’s (ESA’s Orbital Test Satellite 2) footprint. Later Eutelsat’s very first 1F1 service at 13 deg East carried the signal.
Murdoch bought the near-bankrupt Sky channel in 1983 and poured cash into the venture, losing every penny. The losses would continue. At the time of the launch on Astra the UK had an estimated 263,000 satellite homes, and only a handful of speciality DTH dishes. Set-top boxes came from Amstrad and Cambridge, and were basic in their functionality. Amstrad’s initial ‘Fidelity’ set-top box was supplied as a push-button model for the “8 channels that you can view today”. Sky’s 4 channels (Sky Channel, Eurosport, Sky News and Sky Movies) were initially totally free to air because reliable encryption methods started charging subscription fees in the winter following its 1989 launch.
The early months were problem-filled. Sky couldn’t keep up with demand! Dishes, and set-top boxes were in extremely short supply, and costs at Sky meant that Murdoch’s investment was losing £2m a week. Worse, a rival outfit British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was chasing Sky’s tail with its own 5-channel system. The two rivals agreed to merge in November 1990, with BSB having lost close to £2bn. In March 1992 BSkyB reached operating profit for the first time, and the following year (May 1992) signed the English premiership to an exclusive contract. By the end of 1992 it had 2m subs. Today’s number is 9.24m, and many more if cable and IPTV connections are included.
