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Did you have Sky TV in the 80's?
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If you were born that is:p
As a kid I was always a bit envious when I saw the dish on the wall of peoples houses which meant they were getting the mysterious 'extra' channels. I never knew anyone with Sky though so never got to see what it was.
Last week however I was given some 8 hour tapes of the 'Sky Channel' in the late 80's. I was shocked how bad it was. Now it is famous for new dramas and comedy but I am suprised anyone went for it back then. It seems like some dodgy shopping channel with faded made for cable films bunged in. New years day 1989 was like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5-FiVuNQjo and it plays like a parody of bad TV. I put a few clips off my tape onto YT.
When did it change for the better? Is it still anything like this?
As a kid I was always a bit envious when I saw the dish on the wall of peoples houses which meant they were getting the mysterious 'extra' channels. I never knew anyone with Sky though so never got to see what it was.
Last week however I was given some 8 hour tapes of the 'Sky Channel' in the late 80's. I was shocked how bad it was. Now it is famous for new dramas and comedy but I am suprised anyone went for it back then. It seems like some dodgy shopping channel with faded made for cable films bunged in. New years day 1989 was like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5-FiVuNQjo and it plays like a parody of bad TV. I put a few clips off my tape onto YT.
When did it change for the better? Is it still anything like this?
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I seem to be in the minority in my family though.
can't think who made it though.
They used to rent their TV and the cost gradually fell so that when Sky started they could have it for the same price that renting a TV, alone, cost a few years before.
Main thing I always noticed, and which still happened a lot all the way up to a few years ago, was that they'd play the same stuff over and over again.
It seemed like Sky News, for example, would record one show and just play it over and over again, every couple of hours, all through the day.
Used to spend quite a bit of time, in far-away places, sitting and watching Sky while waiting for something to happen and it wasn't just similar things appearing. It was the exact same programme, over and over again.
I like my sky, but i dont like the way it cuts off during bad weather
Was it Amstrad?
We didn't have Sky when it launched, however we had BSB from day 1 right up until Sky took them over.
The TV shows may have seemed awful or cheap, but you have to remember no one had the internet back then, we only had 4 channels on the normal TV and VHS. When BSB/SKY came along offering another 5 or so channels it was something exciting.
When SKY took over BSB we still had the BSB kit for ages until Sky came and put up a big grey dish on the side of our house. The BSB dish was a small square plate, it's a shame sky didn't keep those. Our BSB box still worked for ages and we were able to tune in a few foreign channels.
Here is a good picture comparing the two dishes. Sky dishes are a bit smaller these days.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dickyhart/105209978/lightbox/
Eventually, around 1995/6 we got rid of sky and got cable put in as it was a better deal. We kept that until digital cable launched and then in around 2005 we got sky back in the house with sky+ multiroom, however now we just have freeview HD as we got sick of paying for TV we never watched.
Back then a lot of the channels were free to air, even the most basic Sky box was only Free to Air - the Decoder or Pay part was originally sold as a separate add on unit! The main unit had 16 channel presets.
Later the decoder (pay) box was built into the main decoder. Many people had the Amstrad version of this, but I remember the Pace unit (9200 I think) which had a better tuner and could maintain weak signals for longer.
Don't think it was. I'm still googling various terms to see if i can find a picture of it but no luck so far.
I remember the quiz show on one of the german channels that involved the contestants stripping off - that was rather popular back then !
Since I was still living at home, I had to ask my mum if it was ok to put the dish up
*edit
Found it !. It was an Amstrad - the Fidelity SRX200 which was released in 1989.
http://content.onliner.by/forum/1a9/071/329793/800x800/2c575ebf6d767bf51368925f8223ee55.jpg
Mind you, it hasn't got much better in my opinion.
Not that we spent time watching the Sky Channel or Sky News, probably if anything Eurosport and RTL.
The only one channel at a time access throughout the house?
Got Sky and Sky plus in 2003 , best thing ever!
I miss Sky, I had hours of fun searching through an endless list of channels only to find there is nothing to watch with easy listening music playing in the background.