Sky Portfolio Changes

[AcerBen]

Is there a reason Challenge isn't being re-branded as Sky Challenge?

For the same reasons Pick, Syfy, E!, Movies 24 (sorry if I forgot something else) aren't.

They're not "genres" either or they're not core genre channels, also because "Challenge" is a bit dated as a concept?
I mean, I'm not criticizing it, I'm just saying that such a channel, wouldn't be launched in 2021

Also,, what would Sky gain having "Sky Challenge" as a FTA channel along with premium brands such as Witness, Atlantic, Arts and Comedy?
It's a barely taken care of channel too

But in general it seems to me all these channels (even Syfy apparently) have been demoted as secondary channels

Why do you think Challenge is a dated concept? Quiz shows are still the staple of mainstream daytime TV so makes sense to have a channel of them.

[faizkizlan2000]

I'm sad to see the Sky One name disappear.

The 1989-1993 ident had a great soundtrack...

https://soundcloud.com/tvlivewebsite/sky...soundtrack

Did they ever make a full composition of the 1993 soundtrack?

If I remember, the full composition of the 1993 soundtrack can be heard during Sky Multichannels promo in 1993, albeit with some voiceover there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL1ZYU3rxl0

[Kunst]

Why do you think Challenge is a dated concept? Quiz shows are still the staple of mainstream daytime TV so makes sense to have a channel of them.

Sorry, I haven't explained this one correctly.

I believe that this kind of very thematic channels were more frequent in the past and Sky happened to inherit one of these, but while quiz shows are staple of daytime TV, they're not as ratings winners as more premium content obviously are (or they're not as they used to be), or attract more a certain demographic.

Sky simply keeps the whole things running because the channel is relatively cheap and makes earn some money, but they're not investing on it, at all.

[Neil Jones]

I notice they kept changing their mind as to whether they want to call it Sky One or Sky 1. It first became Sky 1 in 1996, in the second stage of the tombstone look then went back to Sky One the following year, then in 2008 I think it was, became Sky1 again, before morphing back into Sky One.

I always liked the 1995 corporate (?) theme, though it sounded more like a movie theme than anything else, so it sounded a bit out of place when it popped up on Sky Sports for example:
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=79462

Don't think it lasted too long though,, as it was replaced the following year.

[JAS84]

Why does the DOG on that video say Sky Gold CH.60? I thought analogue didn't have fixed channel numbers? It's odd that this graphic existed at all - they didn't use a DOG when airing movies so the movie channels had no use for them. And there's another Sky Movies Gold logo on that menu.

By the way, the music on that video is a medley, it starts off as the Sky Movies music, then turns into a guitar version a minute in - the version meant for Sky Sports! That's followed by Sky One's version and then Sky News.

This is the 1995 version - the other video posted earlier must've been 1996's.

[Neil Jones]

Why does the DOG on that video say Sky Gold CH.60? I thought analogue didn't have fixed channel numbers? It's odd that this graphic existed at all - they didn't use a DOG when airing movies so the movie channels had no use for them. And there's another Sky Movies Gold logo on that menu

The receivers would have had "channel numbers", though they weren't fixed like Sky Digital. I think IIRC there were only a fixed range of frequencies and of course you had the situation where there were about six channels fighting on one transponder at one point, including Sky Sports 2 and Sky Soap. These may have had their own "channels" in the receivers, so they were effectively duplicates. I can't recall if you rescanned like you see on Freeview or if it was something you had to do manually.

[StevieB]

Here's the soundtrack to the 1993 symphony. I always thought this was the best Sky era.


https://www.google.com/search?q=sky+symp...9XbU4,st:0

[Rdd]

The 1993 Sky Symphony promo

https://youtu.be/cWbu2AD1kng

The subsequent 1995 and 1996 themes, which worked on the same basis (the same melody recorded in a number of different arrangements to suit the channel mood), were often dubbed “Sky Symphony II” and “III” respectively.

The 1989 music identically always went out with no voiceover when it was first introduced. Only in late 1990, after the BSB merger, was the standard voiceover “A part of the British Sky Broadcasting network” introduced. At the subsequent 1993 rebrand “From the Sky satellite network” was introduced. Although Sky One had always had CAs, they didn’t voice over the idents until the 1993 rebrand and they were obliged to include the “From the Sky satellite network, this is Sky One” in every announcement, which could lead to them rushing to finish the announcement before the ident froze!

The 1989 music did get a brief revival in 1999, with a “Celebrating 10 years” ident (I think there were two versions, the other may have had Brimful of Asha or whatever they were using at the time). Sky by that stage were “forgetting” they had been on air before 1989 but if you watched Sky Channel in late Jan 1989 promos for “The New Sky Channel” - what became Sky One - were all over the place and there was actually only one day (Saturday 4th February 1989) on which no programmes were broadcast.

[OldSkoollCITV]

Do Sky One plans to commission a live farewell show as a last show?

[Kunst]

Do Sky One plans to commission a live farewell show as a last show?

I pretty much doubt it, especially as it's hardly BBC or ITV

And I doubt it especially because Sky doesn't see as a funeral, but as nothing more than a rejigging.

At the end of the day, are they wrong? The same content will be on Sky Max but also Sky Showcase, they're just "optimizing" their offer (while also closing down Sky Replay), and Sky One now is hardly the catch-all channel of the 90s/00s.

Anyway, many believe Sky should've kept the 1/2/3 formula, but while the element idents were very good, I think the current "genre" formula (already going back to One/Living/Atlantic) is better, if not inevitable.

People forget they only invested on Sky1 back then anyway, 2 and 3 were hardly "channels

[Kunst]

Why does the DOG on that video say Sky Gold CH.60? I thought analogue didn't have fixed channel numbers? It's odd that this graphic existed at all - they didn't use a DOG when airing movies so the movie channels had no use for them. And there's another Sky Movies Gold logo on that menu.

By the way, the music on that video is a medley, it starts off as the Sky Movies music, then turns into a guitar version a minute in - the version meant for Sky Sports! That's followed by Sky One's version and then Sky News.

This is the 1995 version - the other video posted earlier must've been 1996's.

I might be wrong, but I think Sky had fixed numbers (?).

Anyway, that problably was part of the menu graphics at closedown, not the channel itself.. but I might be wrong

[Solari]

Why does the DOG on that video say Sky Gold CH.60? I thought analogue didn't have fixed channel numbers? It's odd that this graphic existed at all - they didn't use a DOG when airing movies so the movie channels had no use for them. And there's another Sky Movies Gold logo on that menu.

By the way, the music on that video is a medley, it starts off as the Sky Movies music, then turns into a guitar version a minute in - the version meant for Sky Sports! That's followed by Sky One's version and then Sky News.

This is the 1995 version - the other video posted earlier must've been 1996's.

I might be wrong, but I think Sky had fixed numbers (?).

Anyway, that problably was part of the menu graphics at closedown, not the channel itself.. but I might be wrong

I think that was the transponder number - so Sky Movies Gold would have been presumably assigned to transponder 60 on the satellite, and that was the channel’s default ‘number’ - but of course channels could be rearranged by the user.

[BcastCornwall]

Spreading content far too thinly now. It's clear to me that they're doing so to drive users of the Entertainment service to on demand content, this seemingly a step in doing so. I'd doubt if we'll see any more channels now.

[Stuart]

I notice they kept changing their mind as to whether they want to call it Sky One or Sky 1. It first became Sky 1 in 1996, in the second stage of the tombstone look then went back to Sky One the following year, then in 2008 I think it was, became Sky1 again, before morphing back into Sky One.

That's not really any different to BBC1/ONE, BBC2/TWO/2, or ITV/ITV1/ITV, just a rebranding gimmick.

[Solari]

The Simpsons' is clearly a far far far cry from what it used to be.

But Sky shows a lot of older episodes too (and at least here on Italy, older episodes seem even more frequent than newer seasons are, on TV), and these are obviously at risk too

Yep - The Simpsons still dominates a lot of the top slots on the ratings for the channel for bog standard repeats. It's so intertwined with Sky One's identity that it makes a lot of sense as I think to lose The Simpsons whilst Sky One still exists would really expose the channel for what it now is (or is not).

Also makes sense why they aren't moving it to Sky Comedy or Mix. At the moment it looks like it will be the only show to air on Sky Showcase but not elsewhere on the Sky network

Someone at the other place, who claims to be some sort of insider, seems to think that The Simpsons will ultimately disappear from Sky. If that is the case, I wonder if it will stay on Channel 4, or if it will disappear from linear TV completely? Either way, it’d be pretty big, considering it’s been on Sky since the very beginning. Indeed, I’d argue Sky One is The Simpsons.