Sky UK

Sky UK Limited is a satellite television company owned by Comcast. It used to be called British Sky Broadcasting Limited, BSkyB and Sky. It offers television and broadband Internet services in the United Kingdom. 

History

 Origins 
The present service can trace its heritage back to 1990, when BSkyB's predecessors British Satellite Broadcasting encrypted their respective film channels – Sky Movies and The Movie Channel which required viewers to get decoding equipment and a subscription to watch the channels. After the two companies merged, subscribers could get access to both channels, and two years later, the sports channel Sky Sports also became encrypted.

 Present Day 
In January 2020, Sky renewed a deal to offer Netflix to its customers.

In March 2020, Sky announced a deal with Disney under which Disney+ would be made available for purchase to Sky customers with movies and film titles from 20th Century Studios would be available on Sky channels. The Sky Cinema Disney channel closed down at the end of 2020. 

in November 2020, Sky signed a deal to show library and upcoming titles from Entertainment One.

In 2021 Sky bought television rights to the German Bundesliga. In 2025, a new deal split the rights between Sky, Amazon Prime Video and the BBC.

In 2021, Sky renewed a deal with ViacomCBS to show movies from Paramount Pictures on its channels and to make Paramount+ available to customers of Sky Cinema in 2022. In January 2025 customers were moved from the ad-free to the ad-supported version of the streaming service.

In November 2021, Sky made a version of the U.S. streaming service Peacock, owned by its parent company Comcast, available on its on-demand platforms. The separate service was shut down in January 2024.

In May 2023, Sky renewed a deal to show movies from Sony Pictures.

In connection with the upcoming U.K. launch of HBO Max in 2026, in December 2024 Sky reached a new distribution deal with Warner Bros. Under the deal, HBO produced TV shows premiering before the end of 2025 would continue to be available on Sky channels and first-run movies from Warner Bros. would continue to be available on Sky Cinema, while the ad-supported version of HBO Max would be made available to Sky customers with new shows such as the Harry Potter TV series.

In 2025, Disney Jr. returned as a TV channel exclusively on Sky after Disney had shut down all its TV channels in the UK in 2020.

In February 2026, Sky announced a new deal with Disney under which customers would get access to the ad-supported version of Disney+ and Sky Cinema would launch a Disney+ movie channel. Sky also announced that one of its TV packages would include Netflix, the ad-supported versions of Disney+ and HBO Max and Hayu.

 Related pages 
Sky Sports
Sky News

References


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Category:1990 establishments in the United Kingdom