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Sky One boss quits

(October 2003)

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MD
mdtauk
Sara Ramsden, head of Sky One, is leaving the company after less than a year.

Her departure comes after a collapse in ratings at the channel which is best known for down-market programming such as Ibiza Uncovered, Temptation Island, as well as hit series such as The Simpsons.

In September the channel's audience share however slipped to a nine-year low and speculation is rife that Sky Networks boss Dawn Airey is to make major changes at the channel and possibly move it upmarket.

The channel has come under mounting pressure from rivals such as ITV2 and E4, and today BSkyB learned that US giant Disney was about to launch a new challenge with an advertising funded general entertainment channel in the UK.

Ms Ramsden was poached by Ms Airey after she joined BSkyB 10 months ago.

MediaGuardian
MD
mdtauk
This sounds interesting. It is common knowledge Sky One is falling foul with viewers, who are sick of the USshows/football/and f*cking shows which make up the schedule along with Star Trek and Simpsons.

This may bring about a turn towards the more popular agenda with Sky One 9 years ago.
NE
Neil__
martinDTanderson posted:
This sounds interesting. It is common knowledge Sky One is falling foul with viewers, who are sick of the USshows/football/and f*cking shows which make up the schedule along with Star Trek and Simpsons.

Aside from the slide in ratings, do you have any specific information to back that up? You see, I can distinctly remember you stating in the past how much you like dislike US shows, and it could be seen as partly your prejudice there.
I've always suspected that quite a few people get Sky partly to have access to some of the better US shows which do get to Sky One (or E4) long before they get to terrestrial (if they make it there at all). It was certainly a factor for me in the days when I signed up to OnDigital.

Quote:
This may bring about a turn towards the more popular agenda with Sky One 9 years ago.

What sort of difference was there in the schedule on Sky One back then? I have no idea, so would be interested to see how much it's changed.
BB
Big Brother Founding member
I knew something would happen regarding this news of Disney.

Also US TV Shows are a hit over here - mainly the comedies because the programming differs so much from that of UK Programmes. Friends & Will & Grace etc wouldn't be so successful if it were british - although there is some programme doing something similar in the UK if I'm not mistaken. (like Friends or something)

I could see in the future more tactile programming on the likes of ITV2 when this new disney-effort arrives.
TI
This Is Granada
martinDTanderson posted:
Sara Ramsden, head of Sky One, is leaving the company after less than a year.
MediaGuardian


Could not stand the heat so got out of the Kitchen I see. At least she got out while still alive!!
I wonder who will replace her and if replacing her will make a big difference?
SP
sparkiestu
Well they have lost 1% in audience share in the last year so whoever takes the channel up you would hope that they are very, very good in order to improve the channels performance.

S
RO
roo
I hardly think losing 1% in a world getting infested with more channels by the day should be a real cause for concern.
BO
boring_user_name
Quote:
I hardly think losing 1% in a world getting infested with more channels by the day should be a real cause for concern.


It is considering that audience share was around 1% last year!!
SP
sparkiestu
Barney Boo posted:
I hardly think losing 1% in a world getting infested with more channels by the day should be a real cause for concern.


Well when your audience share is 3.6% this time last year, and is now 2.5%, I'd say thats cause for concern!

S
NW
nwtv2003
I seem to fins myself watching less Sky One than I did some years ago, mainly because for a start that The Simpsons is on too much, don't get me wrong I like The Simpsons, but it gets annoying when they have repeated the same episode over and over again, it was better back in 1997 when it was on Mon-Fri at 7pm only and a double bill on a Sunday at 6pm, when the amount of episodes was right. I think they're putting on too much Kirstys Home Videos, (Kirsty IMO is the only reason why people watch it Wink and can you blame them?) but it's not good and it's shown too often. Plus I don't like this direction Sky One is taking with Football shows, we do have Sky Sports for a reason and that's where it should be, not on on Sky One. Plus some of their scheduling is awful and they're relying on too many home grown shows, the only one they should show is Dream Team, as that is half decent, Sky One was a popular channel which showed some good US Imports, but they've let all of this go to E4, Channel 4 and more embarassingly the BBC. From this is it any suprise the ratings have gone down? The last proper decent programme I watched on there a few weeks ago was the pilot of Dead Like Me, which was very good and should get a terrestrial showing IMO.
:-(
A former member
It is by all accounts a tough place to work Crying or Very sad

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