25 years of the SKY network in UK

By renting space on the Luxembourg-based Astra satellites, Murdoch circumvented British ownership laws, and using the existing PAL broadcast technology, Sky TV began broadcasting four channels of programming on 5 February 1989, including an upgraded version of the original Sky Channel, later renamed Sky One; Eurosport, a joint-venture between the European Broadcast Union and News International; Sky Movies, a fee-based all-film channel; and Sky News, a 24-hour news channel. Start-up costs reached £122 million; losses for its first year of operations were £95 million. Initially, Sky Channel's programming remained much the same (children's programmes, soaps, and US action series), except for a number of new game shows and a few international travel documentaries. Another programme that also came with the relaunch was Sky By Day, Sky TV's variation on ITV's more popular This Morning, hosted by ex-Radio One DJ Tony Blackburn (who had moved to commercial radio by then) and ex-Magpie presenter Jenny Hanley. The show had a mix of entertainment, gossip, fashion, etc. Yet it was noticeably low budget and had a small fan base. Prime-time broadcasts to European cable operators of Sky Channel were replaced by Eurosport, which was the only of Sky's new channels to be officially aimed at a pan-European audience (like Sky Channel had up to then).

During May 1989 Sky prepared to give away set topboxes and dishes to new customers in bid to increase customers, but was not helped when its joint venture with Disney collapsed at the same time. The discussion about the venture had been taking place since November 1988, but Disney felt it was no longer on equal footing on "decision-making responsibility" in 50-50 partnership. Disney was supposed to start up two channels, but when the talks broken-down, Sky tried to sue Disney for £1.5 billion, which was later dropped

25 years ago on this very day Rupert Murdoch re-forced his satellite operations to the UK only, which to be fair he may have been better off broadcasting the sky channel still to the rest of Europe.

I've still got a soft spot for the tombstone era.

Time to crack open this tune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVkiiXCQvb4
Probably more well known for the adverts Sky did in the pre-BSkyB period, practically begging for subscribers.

I do too. There were actually 2 tombstone eras: with the second (1996-97) using slightly different graphics where the 'silk' floated down off the tombstone itself, rather than just used to reveal the channel name as in the first set (1995-1996).

That's a great find with the full music score. It brings back happy memories.

FIRST SET (1995-1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0t12a4ZwQ

SECOND SET (1996-1997)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFen4I7Lmu8

In my view Rupert Murdoch is the greatest media mogul of our times. When in the UK I can never understand the flack and criticism he receives from some quarters. He completely revolutionised the way we watch television and I think his legacy will be as one of the best entrepreneurs of the 20th century.

No, he didn't.

The arrival of multichannel viewing options via satellite and cable had long been anticipated, and the processes for bringing both to mainstream availability were well underway. Murdoch simply found a back door way of getting the service on air quickly. Sky ended up beating BSB to air by a factor of a few months.

To suggest we wouldn't have had rolling news, subscription sport or pay-per-view movies with Murdoch is completely incorrect. It would have just happened (a bit) later.

That's like saying Steve Jobs deserves no credit for steering away from office-based PCs and making computers the consumer-friendly home machines we know today because that probably would've happened at some point in the future.