Sky Multi Channels - 10 years on

Sky Multi Channels was priced at £3.99 per month for 14 (Actually 12 channels at launch)

IIRC the UK Living DOG included a coloured corner to the screen, this changed to a diffrent colour depending on the genre of the programme being broadcast

I remember the launch of the Multi-channels very clearly though wasn't QVC's launch date October 1st? They normally go quite well out on celebrations for their anniversaries, or they did when I watched more regularly (around their fifth anniversary).

Interesting point made about having to pay now for channels, this was also the time when Sky Sports began getting all the premiership rights and Sky's profile grew overnight. Looking back on it, it was a brave move to make in letting a relatively new and inexperienced broadcaster take those rights and thankfully, Sky didn't let the league down with the quality of their coverage.

Oddly, the other day I found the original information pack Sky had sent us when they were explaining to existing customers the new multi-channel package.

It had Sky Soap, Sky Travel, CMT and others in it.

I think it might even have had Chris Tarrant and Anna Walker - faces of Sky, I think? - plastered on the front cover.

It was black, with a giant red SKY logo and a catchphrase I can't remember.

And then I threw it away.

The slogan was "Sky - No Turning Back"

At launch it took up, like, a quarter of the screen - slight exaggerttion, but you get the idea.

Well, 'Sky - 6 Channel Television' was getting a bit dated by then

We didn't get the information pack, since whilst we watched Sky, not subscribing to the premium channels they didn't know us from Adam, but ISTR that when we got our viewing card, there was a 'no turning back' car sticker that came with it.

That's it.

Now you mention it, I remember thinking what an intimidating and frankly odd slogan that was.

I mean, you wouldn't go and buy something from Marks and Sparks and find printed on the reciept: Returns Policy - YOU'VE BOUGHT IT NOW. TOUGH.

I'm sure it was meant to apply to the Sky operation, but the idea that the first thing a customer would get dropping through their letter box after giving their credit card details to Sky is "SKY - NO TURNING BACK" is a little questionable in the marketing world, surely.

Shame that some of those channels aren't still on the air, we only got cable in 1997 unfortunately, so we didn't get any chance of seeing The Family Channel. Though I am certain that I read somewhere that UK Living launched in 1995? Well it's certainately a different channel, I can't remember the idents too well, but I remember one which had a massive muffin or chocolate cake. But didn't Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports Gold also launch in 1993? And hadn't MTV been on Sky for sometime anyway? But I think before Tiny Living launched, didn't it used to be Tiny TCC? (The reason I know that was when TCC UK closed, CWC switched to TCC Nordic, which showed old TCC UK Programmes and there was a daytime strand called Tiny TCC) So I assume this was where that format started?

Though it's nice to see Nick celebrating 10 Years on air, shame they still haven't got any of the old presenters anymore, the only original one still there is Yolly, everyone else has gone to other things, Matt Brown (Seen alot on Sky and ITV2) Dave Berry (TRL) Mike McClean (The Big Breakfast) Simon Amstell (Popworld) and the list goes on. And frankly What was wrong with Watch Your Own Wednesday? I cannot stand U Pick Live.

Don't think the UK Nickelodeon is actually 10 years old as I'm sure for a couple of years or so we had Nick from the USA before Nick UK finally opened a studio at the Trocadero (with the kids all banging on the glass!)

A lot of those you mention there were Nick's second generation of presenters, the first generation being the likes of:
Lucy Alexander (TV Travel Shop), Sarah Cawood (the latest being an appearance on Loose Women), Helen Chamberlain (Soccer AM), Rick Adams (Gone off the face of the earth lately) etc

Ahhhh the early days of Satellite. Our household since Sky launched on day 1 with a just an old Amstrad box which had no decoder (hence no space to put your card) as initially all Sky channels were free - but that changed pretty quickly...but we never subscribed to Sky Sports and Sky Movies Plus/The Movie Channel anyway so it was of no consequence to us really.

I remember getting a second system especially for the launch of the Sky multi-channel package. It's complicated but we had previously bought BSB for our smaller room, and since that went off the air we invested in a new system (which was needed for the multi-channels) - so we had two Sky systems!! I remember the painful wait. We were told to leave the box on UK Gold and waiting about an hour and a half for the black and white scrambled picture to finally change to Goldie the dog - it was made worse by the fact that you could hear what was going on!!

It was very exciting, it was like a new era all over again, as multi-channel TV increased once again.

As for the early "UK" channels - UK Gold and UK Living, didn't Thames Television have an interest in both of these stations...I know the BBC and Flextech were involved from a very early stage - but I'm sure Thames was involved...as it was in an explanation of why The Bill still showed on UK Gold after Thames sold on their share.

EDIT: I wasn't far wrong - from thamestv.co.uk:

"Thames backed start-up channels such as UK Gold and UK Living, providing them with catalogue and new programming."