Murdoch: DTH satellite will be free, cable companies to pay retransmission fees.
Richardcoulter
Posts: 30,342 Forum Member
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BBC2 are currently airing past clips from the Wogan shows that were shown years ago on BBC1.
The first interview today was with Rupert Murdoch. It was said that the interview took place just after he launched Sky TV in 1989.
Murdoch clearly stated that viewers would not be charged for their channels; but that cable companies would. He mentioned that the channels genres that he had in mind were sport, movies, entertainment and news. He was telling lies even then! When I first got Sky in 1991, the movie channels were encrypted pay channels and Sky Sports was a free soft scrambled channel. Not too long afterwards, Sky Multichannels started and most basic channels were encrypted- the rest is history!
What Sky channels were there in 1989? I know that their first channel was Sky Channel which become Sky 1 and that in 1988 Sky signed up with Astra as their first customer.
Anybody interested can see it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05p6ckc/wogan-the-best-of-9-unusual
The first interview today was with Rupert Murdoch. It was said that the interview took place just after he launched Sky TV in 1989.
Murdoch clearly stated that viewers would not be charged for their channels; but that cable companies would. He mentioned that the channels genres that he had in mind were sport, movies, entertainment and news. He was telling lies even then! When I first got Sky in 1991, the movie channels were encrypted pay channels and Sky Sports was a free soft scrambled channel. Not too long afterwards, Sky Multichannels started and most basic channels were encrypted- the rest is history!
What Sky channels were there in 1989? I know that their first channel was Sky Channel which become Sky 1 and that in 1988 Sky signed up with Astra as their first customer.
Anybody interested can see it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05p6ckc/wogan-the-best-of-9-unusual
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Comments
sky movies
sky news
eurosport before sky sports
That's even true today, e.g. Sky paying towards costs of channels to go HD (and for HD to become Sky exclusive by doing so)
The first few years SKY & the EBU controlled Eurosport. SKY losed interest when it merged with BSB.
SKY Sports was still 5 months away when that happened until Astra 2 started.
So remember that benevolent Sky do not charge customers to make a profit, it's totally for our benefit.
Were they still free at this time and just encrypted to appease rights holders?
Can always remember when the day came that sky movies scrambled...the decoder box was bigger than the actual satellite receiver box itself haha. The filmnet/rtl4 decoders were far smaller and gave you far more interesting programmes lol
Yep. initially afternoon movies were free but sky movies rarely started before 2pm during the week at the time
Is it true that a condition of being part of the multi channels package was that Sky had to own a share in the channel?
Of course when they merged the policy of quantity over quality ruled plus charges came into effect
Add too that sky brought rights to show premier league from the off & the rest is history
Sky eventually moved from 19.2 east sat to its own position of 28.2 east sat
Meaning no competition from rival european broadcasters for viewers
Sky digital boxes meant you couldn't buy your own box that was capable of watching alternative broadcasters even if you wanted to
Sky was presumably reasonably relaxed about it as the BSB merger had resulted in them owning 'The Sports Channel' anyway - which would of course become Sky Sports.
TF1 went on to take Sky's stake in the Eurosport venture, and it returned to the air shortly afterwards. Of course, some years later, their rival Screensport would end up closing, although it was presented as a 'merger' with Eurosport.
What was stopping anyone? ;-)
I believe that these decoders were supplied free of charge in return for a refundable deposit. If you've still got it, you should be due for a refund!
Yes, they started encrypting around 6pm, they were still FTV at that time, the pay came later.
Only sky digital boxes had the nd$ cam built in to decode their pay/subscription channels
Sky never released a 'stand alone' cam for ND$ which allowed you to watch Sky pay channels on a non sky digital box
Prior to the switch to digital (in 2000 I think? )
In the analogue days you could buy any satellite receiver & dish
if you wanted to watch/subscribe to sky you had to buy a suitable separate decoder (videocrypt) & plug it it plus ring up sky for a viewing card
Hope this makes sense
Yes, it's now clearer to me what you meant
Encryption began on 5th February 1990. I'm not sure how long it took for the channel to go encrypted full time, probably only a few weeks.
This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbXsbZBg5xY) features adverts shown on Sky One in January 1990, which include a promotion for Robocop (at 14:13) and an announcement about the scrambling of Sky Movies at 18:09.
I first got Sky in June 1991 and both Sky Movies+ and The Movie Channel were fully encrypted.
Another example if Ofcom asleep on the job!
Not really, since Ofcom wasn't formed until 2003.