Sky One

This article is about the British and Irish TV channel. For the New Zealand TV channel, see SKY 1.

Sky One

Ownership
Owner	BSkyB

Sky One is a British Sky Broadcasting entertainment channel in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The channel first launched in 1982, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the UK, behind BBC One (1 October 1936), ITV (22 September 1955) and BBC Two (20 April 1964). (Channel Four began several months later.)

History

Sky Channel

Sky One started in 1982 as "The Satellite Channel". The channel was bought by Rupert Murdoch in 1984 and renamed Sky Channel. The channel produced a number of home grown programmes, including Sky Trax which covered European music and children's programmes like Fun Factory and The DJ Kat Show. In 1989, the channel moved to the Astra satellite when Murdoch created the Sky Television Network. At the same time broadcasts to European cable operators ended.

Sky One share of viewing 1992-2007. Peak was 9.5%, July 1993, current 0.9%

See also: Origins

British Sky Broadcasting Network

Initially the channel's programming remained much the same, except for a few international travel documentaries. On 30 July 1990 the channel was renamed Sky One and began broadcasting to UK and Ireland only. But it was not until 1990-1 that it began to acquire more recent programming, an early success being Moonlighting, which the BBC had previously screened but not repeated. Sky One also picked up some programming (and more importantly, advertisers) from its merger with BSB's Galaxy Channel. On 1 September 1993 Sky One was encrypted as part of the Sky Multichannels subscription package, and could no longer be viewed outside the UK and Ireland without exporting a box, or receiving it over cable.

A companion channel, Sky 2, launched on 1 September 1996 but was not a success and closed after just one year, on 31 August 1997.

In 2000, a dedicated feed of Sky One for the Republic of Ireland was launched. For most of this Irish feeds existence, the only difference between it and the UK feed has been differing commercials and programme promotions. However, from 9 January 2006, Sky One Ireland has simulcast the 18:30 bulletin of Sky News Ireland in place of the programme shown on the UK feed. However, the logic - or more specifically, the need - of the Sky News feed on Sky One Ireland, has been questioned, as all services in Ireland which carry Sky One, also carry Sky News (which has the same bulletin at the same time). Sky News Ireland has since been cut from the scheduling of both Sky One and Sky News.

In 2002, Sky One again gained a sister channel, Sky One Mix, which was intended as a "catch-up" channel, screening repeats of key Sky One programmes later in the same week. The channel was subsequently renamed Sky Mix. Before again being renamed to Sky Two on 31 October 2005 when a second sister channel, Sky Three, launched.

In June 2003, the channel started broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen. However, all trailers and commercials were in 4:3 until November 2005 due to the fact that they were played off the same servers for all Sky channels, many of which were not broadcast in widescreen.

Sky One (along with Sky Two and Sky Three) is now fully broadcast in native widescreen, with the exception of programmes that are only available in the 4:3 picture format (such as The Simpsons or Futurama).

Sky One HD

To coincide with launch of Sky HD, Sky One HD began broadcasting in May 2006. The channel is a simulcast of Sky One and screens high-definition versions of some of the channel's programming, which include Lost, Bones, and later episodes of Malcolm in the Middle. Programmes that are not available in HD are upscaled. Sky have stated that they intend to increase the amount of HD content they show, and hope that by the end of 2008, two thirds of all prime time shows, and 90% of their own original commissions, will be in HD.

Virgin Media dispute

See also: Virgin 1

On March 1, 2007, at 00:00 GMT, Sky's basic channels, which included Sky One (along with Sky Two*, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra), were removed from the Virgin Media cable television services after a dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB. This was due to the expiry of their previous carriage agreement, and both companies inability to reach a new deal.

^{*Sky Two was not previously available to Telewest customers.}

Sky's Picnic plan

Ofcom has launched a public consulation on Sky's plan to replace its free channels on digital terrestrial television - Sky Three, Sky News, and Sky Sports News - with a pay service named Picnic.

Sky unveiled Picnic on Monday, 1 October 2007. The service would offer Sky Sports 1, Sky One and Sky Movies SD1 as well as two channels - one factual, the other aimed at children.

Programming

See also: List of programmes broadcast by Sky One

US programmes

The channel relies heavily on screenings of US television programmes, with many coming from Murdoch's Fox Network. The Simpsons has been a regular Sky One fixture since the early days. As many as four episodes of The Simpsons are broadcast each evening, with any new episodes generally being shown on Sunday. Sky One has exclusive rights in the UK to show the most recent series of The Simpsons. Another early and long running fixture was Married With Children, which ran all through the 1990s, but in the early 2000s the show suddenly disappeared from its regular schedule and has not appeared on any Sky channel since its apparent disappearance.

Sky One was also the original home to the UK's first run showings of episodes of ER and Friends, giving Sky One some of the highest ratings for any satellite channel. In 2000, 2.8 million viewers watched an episode of Friends, the highest rated show on any satellite channel. However when Channel 4 launched their own digital sister channel E4 they outbid Sky One for exclusive first run rights to both shows. However, Sky One still held the repeat rights for the early seasons of both shows for several years.

Sky One previously broadcast WWE's Bottom Line and SmackDown! before moving them to Sky Sports 3. Sky One currently broadcasts WWE Experience, a one-hour roundup of RAW, SmackDown! and ECW programming.

Programmes that have had their UK premiere screenings on Sky One have included The X-Files, Stargate SG-1, Futurama, Family Guy, Dilbert, Malcolm in the Middle, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24 (from Season 3), Stargate Atlantis, Nip/Tuck, Las Vegas, Battlestar Galactica, Rescue Me, Deadwood, Father of the Pride, Bones, Eureka (renamed A Town Called Eureka in the UK), LOST (seasons 3-6) and Prison Break (season 3). Sky also acquired rights to premiere screenings of the Star Trek franchise, beginning with Season 4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Programmes commissioned by Sky One

Sky has commissioned a number of UK-made programmes such as Dream Team, a drama series based on a fictional football team; The Strangerers (a science fiction sitcom that was dropped after one series and never repeated); Al Murray's sitcom Time Gentlemen Please; and Baddiel's Syndrome. Hex another sci-fi show has proved popular, but was axed in April 2006 and Mile High also proved quite popular but it only lasted from 2003-2005. Sky One commissioned Terry Pratchett's Hogfather for Christmas 2006 proving to be their most successful programme ever. Sky also co-produces The 4400 sci-fi TV show and co-financed the first season of Battlestar Galactica.

It also screens many "reality" shows such as Cruise with Stelios, Road Wars, Shock Treatment, World's Deadliest Gangs, World of Pain, Road Raja, Ibiza Uncovered and the most recent series Cirque de Celebrité. It also recently has received success with entertainment science shows Brainiac: Science Abuse and spin-offs, Brainiac: History Abuse and Brainiac's Test Tube Baby and also Mission Implausible. Less successful shows include Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show.

Sky One have also commissioned a number of game shows including Blockbusters. The most recent game show is from Mark Burnett, Are You Smarter Than a 10-Year Old, based on a United States format.

Censorship

Sky is often criticised for imposing more censorship than people feel is necessary on its programming . Examples include editing episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for violence and the depictions of dangerous actions that can easily be imitated and banning episodes of South Park due to strong violent and/or sexual overtones, but the most notable is arguably the broadcaster's treatment of The Simpsons, which would frequently be edited for the tamest of sexual and drug references, as well as swear words ("crap" was even routinely removed at one point. However, on the odd occasion, The Simpsons has required censorship - the word "wanker" has appeared at least 3 times in the show (Homer, Mr Burns and a member of U2 have said it), and Willie said the word "shite", (referring to new tractors in the episode where Lisa makes a newspaper) at the end of one episode, in the premiere showing of this episode, it wasn't removed but in repeats it has been cut). This editing style was also imposed on Family Guy when it premiered in the United Kingdom and was so excessive (due to Sky's decision to show it at inappropriate times like 5pm - before The Simpsons), that many thought the programme was no longer enjoyable, as that particular show features a large amount of racy and politically incorrect jokes, and the BBFC rate the show at age 15.

Many episodes of The Simpsons that were edited by Sky were eventually shown uncut on BBC Two. As of February 2 2000, Sky relaxed their policies and restored many lines that had been previously removed.

Voice-over

Current Xfm DJ Claire Sturgess has been a "voice" of Sky One since 1998, and was the sole announcer from 2001 until 2005. As one of Sky One's only two announcers, her voice-overs are pre-recorded once a week and played out by an automated system. Dave Kelly is the male voice-over who does live links.

External links

• www.skyone.co.uk Main site
• Sky One at sky.com
• Sky Channel and Sky One at TV Ark