Sky One
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, it became Sky One and broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Ireland as British Sky Broadcasting's flagship channel, being the most watched television service in history. It existed until 1 September 2021, when it closed down as part of a restructuring with its EPG position taken by Sky Showcase and much of its content library  moved to Sky Max. Sky One included some very popular broadcasts both the original programmes such as "An Idiot Abroad", "", "The Russell Howard Hour", "Battlestar Galactica", and many imported from North America – including: "24" (seasons 3–9, and its spinoff ""), "X-files", "Star Trek The Next Generation", "Star Trek Deep Space Nine", "Star Trek Voyager", "Bones" (seasons 1–6, first half), "Caprica", "Fringe", "Modern Family", "Glee" (seasons 3–6), "House" (seasons 5–8), "Lie to Me", "Lost" (seasons 3–6), "Prison Break" (seasons 3–4), "The Simpsons", "Stargate" ("SG-1", "Atlantis" and "Universe"), "Touch", "About a Boy", "The Middle", Manifest , "You, Me and the Apocalypse" and "The  Blacklist". Other American imports included CBS military/action dramas, science-fiction and DC Comics superhero shows and "The Blacklist" (seasons 4–8). History. 1982–1984: Satellite Television. Sky One started on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television Limited, and was Europe's first ever cable and satellite channel, originally broadcasting from the Orbital Test Satellite aimed at cable operators all over the continent. At first, the station struggled financially due to disappointing ratings in the countries in which it was officially available, which in turn led to insufficient advertising revenue and increasing difficulty in covering the high transmission costs. Initially, the channel 's own programming and continuity was played out from the Molinare studios at Fouberts Place in the West End of London. On 27 June 1983, the shareholders of Satellite Television agreed a £5 million offer to give News International 65% of the company. Rupert Murdoch extended the broadcast hours and the number of countries the station broadcast to including the United Kingdom on 16 October of that year. 1984–1989: Sky Channel. On 16 January 1984, Satellite Television Limited was renamed Sky Channel, incorporating a large number of American imports in its schedules also increased the quantity produced of home  grown programmes, including a number of new music shows with Gary Davies, Tony Blackburn, Linda de Mol, Pat Sharp, David "Kid" Jensen, and Anthea Turner presenting programmes such as "Euro Top 40", and "UK Top 50 Chart". New children's programmes like "Fun Factory" and "The DJ Kat Show", many of which came not only from Sky's own studios in London (Sky having already abandoned the Molinare facilities by then), but also included programmes produced in the Netherlands by John de Mol's production company. On 8 June 1988, Murdoch announced his plans to expand Sky's four channels , thus creating the Sky Television Network. On 5 February 1989, the service (Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport) was launched as prime-time broadcasts to European cable operators ended being replaced by Eurosport, a joint venture between Sky and the European Broadcasting Union aimed at a pan-European audience (like Sky Channel had been up to that point for a time afterwards, some of Sky's previous pan-European programming continued to be broadcast before Eurosport's start-up, under the branding of "Sky Europe"). A new raft of shows were created for the channel, including the daily  talent show "Sky Star Search"; game shows ("Sale of the Century", based on the 1980s American version, and "The Price Is Right"); weekly documentary series "Frank Bough's World"; daily late night talk show "Jameson Tonight"; agony aunt advice show "A Problem Shared"; and "Sky by Day", Sky TV's variation on ITV's more popular "This Morning", hosted by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn (who by then had moved to commercial radio) and former "Magpie" presenter Jenny Hanley, as the show aired a mix of entertainment, gossip and fashion. The "New Sky Channel", as it was dubbed  in on-air promotion prior to its 5 February 1989 launch, continued to broadcast its signature children's programmes "The DJ Kat Show" and "Fun Factory", and expanded its early afternoon daytime programming with five back-to-back soaps ("The Sullivans", "Another World", "General Hospital", "As the World Turns" and "Loving") while reducing music programming to only one or two hours per day. Classic sitcoms ("The Lucy Show" and "Family Affair") and more recent comedies ("Three's Company" and "Family Ties") as well as put on the schedule along with dramas ("The Streets of San Francisco", "Trapper John, M.D.", "Emergency !", "The Love Boat", "Fantasy Island", "Voyagers!" and "Eight Is Enough") were included. Sky Channel also aired classic movies, made-for-TV movies and miniseries (beginning with "Spearfield's Daughter" on its first night). Dolly Parton's recent variety show "Dolly", popular Australian science and technology show "Beyond 2000", the "Nescafé UK Top 50" chart show, Sunday morning religious programme "Hour of Power", hour-long weekend edition of celebrity news magazine "Entertainment Tonight" and telecasts of World Wrestling Federation rounded out Sky Channel's weekend schedule. Special event programming included late night live telecasts of boxing matches and various music concerts  (such as Bon Jovi and Bros in August 1989). 1989–2021: Sky One. On 31 July 1989, the channel was renamed Sky One and closed in most European countries, broadcasting only to the United Kingdom and Ireland. During September of that year, Sky One began to air more recent programming as an early success being "Moonlighting" (which the BBC had previously screened but not repeated), "ALF" and "Wiseguy", also aired the British television premiere of a new drama series "21 Jump Street". Back-to-back soaps ("Rich Man, Poor Man" and "Falcon Crest") as well as action shows ("Riptide" and "Hunter ) were also added to its prime time schedule. A number of Australian drama series mainly include Against the Wind", "Boney", "A Town Like Alice", "Barrier Reef", "Return to Eden" and children's programmes such as "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" also aired on Sky One. In 1990 and early 1991 (prior to the launch of Sky Sports), Sky One broadcast numerous live cricket telecasts during which it pre-empted its regularly scheduled programming. Following the merger with British Satellite Broadcasting's Galaxy on 2 November 1990, Sky One also picked up new sitcoms ("Parker Lewis Can't Lose", "Growing Pains", "Murphy  Brown", "In Living Color", "Wings" and "Designing Women"), dramas ("China Beach" and "Hill Street Blues"), reruns of classic sitcoms ("Bewitched" and "The Addams Family"), a new animated series "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" was added to children's programmes, and daily dating game show "Love at First Sight" was presented by Helen Brumby and Bruno Brookes. Following the daily repeats of "" and "Lost in Space", Sky One picked up a number of science-fiction shows which became a crucial part of its evening line-up such as the UK premiere of "Alien Nation", also added reruns of "V" (1983 miniseries, "The  Final Battle" and the television series) and "Battlestar Galactica" in 1991. After the 1992 airing of "The Flash", Sky One also picked up "" which had previously aired on BBC2 began a long twice per day run of the franchise in a late afternoon and a late evening timeslot on Mondays to Fridays. A staple of Sky One prime time schedule in its early years were glossy American miniseries such as "Roots", "Shōgun", "Masada", "The Thorn Birds", "North and South" and "Lonesome Dove", which aired mostly in two-hour installments each week Sundays to Tuesdays. As the format was beginning to  fade in the United States, the miniseries were reduced to two nights in late 1992 and then rescheduled to Tuesdays and Wednesdays in early 1994 under its new title called "Midweek Drama", before being dropped altogether shortly after that and reappearing only as special event programming. In 1993, Sky One finally replaced its long-running Sunday night drama "21 Jump Street" with exclusive premiere of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" and later "". The Sunday night timeslot was ultimately given to new episodes of the hit teen soap "Beverly Hills, 90210" which was later paired off with its spin-off "Melrose  Place". After many years in the clear on 1 September of that year, Sky One was encrypted as part of the new Sky Multichannels subscription package, and could no longer be viewed outside Britain and Ireland without exporting a box, or receiving it over cable (although it had already been encrypted for a while since its original launch and first went in the clear in around 1987). On 1 October 1998, Sky One's digital feed launched with Sky Digital. Sky One was one of the four last remaining channels on the analogue platform when it was switched off at  midnight, 27 September 2001. In 2000, a dedicated feed of Sky One for Ireland was launched for most of this Irish feed's existence, the only difference between it and the United Kingdom feed has been differing commercials and programme promotions. In June 2003, the channel started broadcasting in widescreen. However, all television commercials were broadcast in 4:3 until 21 November 2005, because they were played off the same servers for all Sky channels, many of which were not broadcast in widescreen. On 25 August 2012, Stuart Murphy,director of Sky entertainment channels, announced that a one-hour timeshift of  Sky One and Sky Atlantic will due to start in the autumn, with the former launching on 12 November of that year. For New Year's Day 2014 (1 January), Sky One was temporarily renamed Sky Onesie aiming "to encourage viewers to snuggle up in front of the television wearing onesies, in a bid to recover from the previous night's celebrations". Since 2017, Sky One has broadcast some sports coverage includes a partial simulcast of "Soccer Saturday", highlights of, and occasional live coverage of, Formula One motor racing and the occasional live football match. The summer of 2019 saw  Sky One show highlights of the 2019 Cricket World Cup and live coverage of England's matches in the 2019 Netball World Cup. Sky Two and Sky Three. The success of the channel led to the launch of a sister service Sky 2 on 1 September 1996, broadcasts more first-run programmes between 7.00pm and 6.00am only. The spin-off channel was not a success until it was closed on 31 August 1997, which was replaced by the UK's version of National Geographic from the following day, and Sky One reverts back to its original name. On 9 December  2002, the channel was relaunched as Sky One Mix. On 21 September 2004, the channel was renamed Sky Mix. On 31 October 2005, Sky Mix was renamed Sky Two with the launch of a second sister channel Sky Three. Sky Two was renamed Sky Replay on 27 August 2020, and Sky Three was renamed Pick on 28 February 2011. High-definition. To coincide with the launch of Sky HD, Sky One HD began broadcasting on 22 May 2006. The channel is a simulcast of Sky One and screens high-definition versions of some of the channel's programming, which include  Lost, "Bones", "24", "WWE SmackDown", "Fringe", "Prison Break", "House", and most recently new episodes of "The Simpsons". Programmes that are not available in HD are "upscaled" (although Sky One showed its widescreen version of the television show "Malcolm in the Middle", unlike most American broadcasts, since the film was originally filmed on Panavision widescreen film but cropped to full-screen by most broadcasters. This airing of the show preserves the film's appearance without stretching or upscaling, although some scenes were compromised for widescreen and had to be upscaled). Sky stated that they intended to increase the amount of HD  content they show, and hoped that by the end of 2008, two-thirds of all prime time shows, and 90% of their own original commissions, would be in HD. A new logo was introduced along with the rebrand on 31 August 2008. On 1 October 2010, Sky One HD launched on Virgin Media channel 122, with Sky Two moving to channel 123 and Sky Three (now Pick) moving to channel 180 on 22 September 2010, to make way for the new service. Virgin Media dispute. On 1 March 2007 at midnight, Sky's basic channels – which included Sky One, Sky  Two, Sky Three, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra – were removed from the Virgin Media cable television services after a dispute from BSkyB. This was due to the expiry of their previous carriage agreement and the companies' inability to reach a new deal. Virgin issued legal proceedings against Sky over the dispute in April 2007. At the beginning of March 2008, the two companies were reported to have resumed discussions over the dispute. Virgin chief executive Neil Berkett was reported as saying they had "continued interest in securing Sky basics back on our platform". The  resumed talks had followed shortly after both Virgin and BSkyB had launched appeals against a recent Competition Appeal Tribunal ruling on BSkyB's 17.9% stake in ITV plc. On 4 November 2008, a carriage deal between BSkyB and Virgin Media was reached and BSkyB's channels were available on Virgin's cable service from 13 November of that year. The Sky basic channels were spread across each tier of Virgin's cable television service: Sky Three and Sky News were made available in the lowest M tier; Sky Sports News joined the M+ tier; Sky One and Sky Two were  made available in the L tier; and Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 joined the XL tier. Closure. It was announced on 27 July 2021 that Sky One would be retired and that a new channel, Sky Showcase would replace its EPG slot on Sky. Another channel, Sky Max would launch on the same day. Most of Sky's original content and the drama output would move here, while the most of the comedy output would move to Sky Comedy. "Prodigal Son" was the channel's last programme. At the time of  closure, it was available via digital satellite on Sky, digital cable on Virgin Media, IPTV on TalkTalk TV and online via Sky Go and Now. In the Republic of Ireland, the channel was available via Sky Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland and Eir Vision. Continuity announcers. Bruce Hammal was the station's continuity announcer from 1984 to 1997. Absolute Radio DJ Claire Sturgess has been a "voice" of Sky One since 1998, and was the sole announcer from 2001 until 2005. As one of Sky One's four announcers, her voice-overs are pre-recorded once a week and played out  by an automated system. Live continuity announcements air each evening. In 2009, they were voiced by announcers Dave Kelly, Faye Bamford and Philippa Collins. In 2010, three new continuity announcers were hired, Katie Morton, Katie Hudson and Paul Daniels, replacing all the previous announcers. In 2011, two new part-time announcers were hired. During the day, pre-recorded announcements air, promoting shows from all the different Sky channels. Programming. 1980s and 1990s. Sky commissioned many homegrown programmes since it first started broadcasting back in 1984, but it was not until 1989 when content went beyond music and children's shows . During the early years in commissioned some new game shows including: The channel commissioned a number of home grown programmes (for example, dramas such as "The Wanderer", "Springhill", "Dream Team" and "Space Island One") while expanding its small number of Australian television series, notably include: 2000s and 2010s. Sky One focused in science-fiction and other series in the 2000s which did not have a lot of successes, including: Sky One also screened reality television shows such as: The channel received relative success with scientific shows such as: Sky One commissioned a two-part "Terry Pratchett's Hogfather" series for  Christmas 2006, this proved to be successful and so in 2008, Sky brought out an adaptation of "The Colour of Magic" and its second half "The Light Fantastic". In 2010, Sky One also released "Terry Pratchett's Going Postal", the 33rd book in The Discworld series. Sky One had also re-commissioned a number of earlier game shows including "Blockbusters", which brought the series back once again between 30 October 2000 and 23 March 2001 was produced by Grundy (now owns the format) and presented by Liza Tarbuck, but did not capture the same degree of popularity as the Bob  Holness incarnation. The most recent game show was from Mark Burnett, "Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old?", based on a United States format. On 30 January 2008, Sky One announced plans to bring back the British 1990s combat-based game show "Gladiators", which was subsequently cancelled in 2009. They also showed the sketch show "Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show". In 2010, Sky One focused on commissioning several quite long-running or well known comedy infused shows, starting with "A League of Their Own", "An Idiot Abroad" and "Little Crackers". In 2011, Sky One premiered supermarket sitcom  Trollied, which had broadcast six series and over 50 episodes, becoming Sky One's longest running comedy series. Not all shows were well received, at least by its home country audience, including "Parents" which was broadcast in 2012 and was not popular, leading Sky not to commission it for a second series. "Moone Boy", a series written by and starring Chris O'Dowd, first screened in 2012, became an instant hit internationally. It lasted three series, and ended in 2015. In 2017, Sky One stopped showing factual content and moved to showing more comedy and drama programmes as well as selected  sports coverage. Music. In 1994, Sky One started their own music show called "The Coca Cola Hit Mix" (also known as "The Hit Mix") hosted by Terry Christian, featuring music news and guests at the time. The show featured regular competitions, phone-ins with guests and other features. This later evolved into a late night broadcast called "Hit Mix Long Play" which would broadcast simultaneously on both Sky One and Sky Two playing music videos from various genres; the show also featured themed topics such as "Step by Step" which would feature music videos with stairs in the song or  video when the scheduled programming had finished. This became a popular part of the brand and would often have exclusive first play on new releases that week. A later expansion of the music brand would be Sky One's "Morning Glory" show which would feature music videos in the early morning before the scheduled programming would start, which also featured various themes as well as caller requests. Films. Sky One occasionally screened feature films which were shown with advertisement breaks, as well as several premium movie channels including Sky Cinema and its sister services. American imports. The channel became known  for its first-run American imports such as: "Seinfeld", "Rescue 911", "Unsolved Mysteries", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "South Park", as well as some older programmes included "Hill Street Blues", "M*A*S*H", "Quantum Leap" and Lucille Ball's various comedy series. It relies heavily on screenings for this network as they coming from Rupert Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting Company with other shows like "The X-Files", "In Living Color", "Cops", "Millennium", "King of the Hill", "Futurama", "Family Guy" and "Malcolm in the Middle". Another early and long-running fixture was "Married... with Children" ran all through the 1990s, but in the  early 2000s as the show suddenly disappeared from its regular schedule and has not been screened on any Sky channel since. Sky One was also the original home to the UK's first-run showings of "ER" and "Friends" for series 4–6 of both shows (Channel 4 had shown series 1–3 first), giving Sky One some of the highest ratings for any satellite channel. In 2000, 2.8 million viewers watched an episode of "Friends", the highest-rated show on this network. However, when Channel 4 launched their own digital sister service E4 they outbid Sky One for exclusive first-run  rights to both shows. However, Sky One still held the repeat rights for the early series of both shows for several years. Since 2011, "Friends" has been shown on Comedy Central. World Wrestling Entertainment. Sky One previously broadcasts World Wrestling Entertainment programming before it was moved to Sky Sports. However, it did continue to broadcast an edited one hour version of "Raw" on Sunday mornings before its all programmes moved to rival network BT Sport. Section::::"The Simpsons". On 2 September 1990, Sky One launched its hit American animated series "The Simpsons" which became an signature show and aired continuously on  the channel for 31 years until it was ceased in 2021 (as well as the Sunday morning religious programme "Hour of Power" was another to remain the schedule during most of its run), it had a long association within the series from its early years and remained the exclusive British broadcaster until it showed terrestrially on the BBC between 23 November 1996 and 7 May 2004, having lost the rights to Channel 4 on 18 February 2002. On 17 March 2009, Sky One broadcast the 20th season episode "In the Name of the Grandfather" for the first time – five days  before its original US airing – to be shown in the United Kingdom as gathered over one million viewers. Sky One had also aired episodes within three days after its US first-run, including "Judge Me Tender" on 27 May 2010. In November 2012, "The Simpsons" was not broadcast on the timeshift service because BSkyB is prohibited from doing so under the current terms of their licensing agreement with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution included an on-screen message appears redirecting viewers to Sky One. As of 2017, "The Simpsons" is available to watch on the timeshifted channel. Following the death  of voice actress Marcia Wallace, Sky One broadcasts three of best episodes from 6.30pm including "Bart the Lover", "The Ned-Liest Catch" and "Ned 'n' Edna's Blend Agenda" on 28 October 2013. Section::::"Star Trek". Sky One obtained the first-run rights for "Star Trek" on 1 July 1990, which previously had been with the BBC. During its entire run of "", Sky One had chosen three episodes – "Plato's Stepchildren", "The Empath" and "" – as well as were eventually shown on satellite television, but not screened by the BBC between 19 August 1992 and 19 January 1994 for similar reasons following  audience complaints after broadcast. "" was initially shown five nights a week at 5.00pm (repeated again at 10.30pm) between 5 October 1992 and 16 August 1993, starting with "Encounter at Farpoint" and running all the way up to "". The channel also acquired rerun rights to the episodes from the first three seasons previously aired on BBC2 – with the addition of "", which saw its first British broadcast on 29 November 1992 with the Irish reunification line edited out. A feature-length version of "" was shown on an exclusive movie channel rather than as part of this entire run. The whole series was  shown again with "" held over to act as the premiere to the on 31 July 1994, which was run every Sunday evenings at 7.00pm once it had completed production and was available to be shown before the aired on 29 January 1995. Sky One also bought the first-run rights for other "Star Trek" shows: The episodes of these later series were shown as they were in the United States with repeats between new ones, however soon held back broadcast the entire series at once, as well as various science-fiction shows that would fill the gaps including "Stargate SG-1  and Andromeda". It was moved to Sky Two for a short time, until the channel was ceased on 31 August 1997 due to poor ratings. Monday nights at 8.00pm was the traditional time for the series, however at the start of the was moved to Tuesdays within the place also taken by "The Simpsons", which lasted until the final episode was broadcast on 2 August 2005. Most watched. The following is a list of the ten most watched shows on Sky One, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB up to 30 November 2020, within the number of viewers  does not include repeats: