Media UK

BSkyB

British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB for short) was established on 30th October 1990 as the result of an 11th hour merger between Sky Television Ltd and British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB).

Both Sky Television and BSB operated satellite television services from two seperate satellites. Sky Television broadcast, from the Astra satellite, Sky Channel, Sky Movies, and Sky News. Sky Television also broadcast Eurosport, a joint venture with the EBU. BSB broadcast five channels from the Marco Polo satellite, The Movie Channel, The Sport Channel, Galaxy, NOW and The Power Station. After BSkyB was formed, the next day NOW and Galaxy were shut-down, whilst the arrival of MTV on Astra meant BSkyB closed The Power Station down in April 1991. The Movie Channel was made available to Astra viewers, and Sky Movies was made available to Marco Polo viewers in due corse. Perhaps the most significant part of the merger in terms of viewing was BSkyB selling their stake in Eurosport and rebranding The Sport Channel as Sky Sports.

Notable events in BSkyB's history include:

• The IBA/ITC withdrawing the license for BSkyB from broadcasting any services from the Marco Polo satellite.

• Introducing premium sports content.

• The creation of the Sky "multi-channels" subscription service in 1992.

• Introduction of pay-per-view sport and movie content.

• Launching the UK's first DVB television service on 1st October 1998.