This month marks the 20th anniversary of satellite broadcasting the UK. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky television service started on 5 February 1989.
At launch, just 4 channels were available, with that number now over 500.
Sky merged with rival BSB (remember the squarial?) in 1990, and now has over 9 million customers in the UK
Over the years, Sky’s innovated with services like Sky+, and now is pushing its Sky HD service – over 30 HD channels with the price of the HD box slashed to £49.
Sky’s has its share of setbacks too, most recently with the failed attempt to get its pay service available alongside Freeview, with the Sky Picnic offering – and with more on-demand services such as Virgin and BT Vision getting consumer attention, Sky must not be looking to increase its Internet and on-demand offering.
Still, Sky’s got the cash to pay out £1.6 billion for Premier League football rights for the next few years, and with over 9 million viewers, it must be doing something right…
