Sky Portfolio Changes

[JetixFann450]

Brainiac was a fairly big hit for them I think. It's amazing how cheap the show looked if you watch it back now. I'd say most Sky shows today look pretty premium and feel like they've had a decent budget whereas Brainiac and their other UK shows around that time looked like proper low budget affairs.

Brainiac reasonably did well for Sky, as well as some of their stints at documentaries and countdown shows. I'd argue Sky One was at it's best when Sky was able to produce the majority of its programming (or outsource them to companies like Shine and Twofour) with the big US acquisitions being able to carry the shows on top of them.

[OldSkoollCITV]

When did Sky One stopped having new and exclusive daytime shows?

[JAS84]

In the late 90s and early 2000s the channel was obsessed with Star Trek spin-offs, Simpsons and that terrible Dreamteam as one of their only UK commissions. It was content with a narrow appeal.
They could and should have built a schedule like the current Channel 5 with some populist British stuff around selected imports. Earlier investment in content away from sport and movies could have helped drive a bigger audience share - might have helped drive subscribers too. Look at the premium of original content now.

The only Sky 1 commissions that I can ever remember really penetrating public consciousness were An Idiot Abroad and before that Gladiators revival (briefly). Even then I'd be hard pushed to suggest people were driven to subscribe so they could watch these.

Like it or not, The Simpsons and Star Trek once commanded an audience who would be motivated enough to subscribe to watch those things.

Indeed I remember the days where I would subscribe to sky just to watch Star Trek, Stargate SG1, and the Simpsons. Star Trek and the Simpsons were also on bbc two at some stage. Not forgetting shows like Lost which were massive at the time.

Though they only aired Lost from season 3 onwards. It was on Channel 4 before that.

[Rdd]

You have to remember 1990s Sky One, up to about 1998 certainly, wasn’t about original commissions. It’s USP was that was the home of all the big US shows, first, at a time when the UK terrestrials were showing less of them and clearing them out of prime time, if a US show wasn’t suitable for early evening then it was late night for it. There were always some original shows, but they were few and far between certainly until post-1998. Around that time there was stuff like Al Murray’s Time Gentleman Please, Dream Team, Mile High, and yes, about 10,000 clones of Ibiza Uncovered late at night. But US prime time programmes were still its main focus, in a pre-Netflix/Prime etc era it was where you went to see them first. And it was the only general entertainment channel (that didn’t try to put a particular spin on its output) on satellite for a lot of that time, and was (certainly in Ireland) a mainstream channel in a way it hasn’t really been since the mid-2000s and the explosion in content firstly from digital channels and more lately from streaming.

[AllWillBeWell]

The only Sky 1 commissions that I can ever remember really penetrating public consciousness were An Idiot Abroad and before that Gladiators revival (briefly). Even then I'd be hard pushed to suggest people were driven to subscribe so they could watch these.

Like it or not, The Simpsons and Star Trek once commanded an audience who would be motivated enough to subscribe to watch those things.

Indeed I remember the days where I would subscribe to sky just to watch Star Trek, Stargate SG1, and the Simpsons. Star Trek and the Simpsons were also on bbc two at some stage. Not forgetting shows like Lost which were massive at the time.

Though they only aired Lost from season 3 onwards. It was on Channel 4 before that.

Yes I recall Davina McCall introducing the first episode up next live on Big Brother!

I remember when they did some kind of uplink from the states on Sky so U.K. viewers could see it at the same time as the U.S, but it kept breaking up. Wish I had a recording of that!

[WillPS]

I remember when they did some kind of uplink from the states on Sky so U.K. viewers could see it at the same time as the U.S, but it kept breaking up. Wish I had a recording of that!

That was just the final episode. They didn't play adverts as I recall either, just showed a caption for a few seconds.

[London Lite]

Sky One was certainly great when it got first run episodes of US shows before the terrestrial channels, but times changed where people were watching those shows elsewhere or by using illegal means to watch at US pace instead.

Sky's policy of splitting the general entertainment shows onto linear/VOD hybrid brands seems to have worked to the point where viewers are choosing to watch comedy on one channel, quality US drama on another, which left Sky One out of sync with some UK commissions, The Simpsons and left-over CW Marvel commissions.

The overall changes should be an improvement for linear viewers who with Sky Max will no longer get sports events or old films, but a more curated schedule of general entertainment similar to what Sky One is doing now, while Showcase keeps The Simpsons and allows Sky to promote Sports/Cinema to Ent only customers along with the other entertainment channels in Sky's portfolio.

[Solari]

Sky One was certainly great when it got first run episodes of US shows before the terrestrial channels, but times changed where people were watching those shows elsewhere or by using illegal means to watch at US pace instead.

Sky's policy of splitting the general entertainment shows onto linear/VOD hybrid brands seems to have worked to the point where viewers are choosing to watch comedy on one channel, quality US drama on another, which left Sky One out of sync with some UK commissions, The Simpsons and left-over CW Marvel commissions.

The overall changes should be an improvement for linear viewers who with Sky Max will no longer get sports events or old films, but a more curated schedule of general entertainment similar to what Sky One is doing now, while Showcase keeps The Simpsons and allows Sky to promote Sports/Cinema to Ent only customers along with the other entertainment channels in Sky's portfolio.

Yes, I agree - certainly a change for the better. Though I do question the merits of them axing the Sky One brand, something which has been around for more than 30 years, and resonates with viewers in a way that I somehow doubt 'Sky Showcase' will. But we shall see - indeed I, along with some others here and elsewhere, suspect that it is a way of making a clean break should Sky indeed lose the rights to The Simpsons, a show that has surely defined Sky One over the years more than any other (certainly more than any original commission).

[London Lite]

Sky One was certainly great when it got first run episodes of US shows before the terrestrial channels, but times changed where people were watching those shows elsewhere or by using illegal means to watch at US pace instead.

Sky's policy of splitting the general entertainment shows onto linear/VOD hybrid brands seems to have worked to the point where viewers are choosing to watch comedy on one channel, quality US drama on another, which left Sky One out of sync with some UK commissions, The Simpsons and left-over CW Marvel commissions.

The overall changes should be an improvement for linear viewers who with Sky Max will no longer get sports events or old films, but a more curated schedule of general entertainment similar to what Sky One is doing now, while Showcase keeps The Simpsons and allows Sky to promote Sports/Cinema to Ent only customers along with the other entertainment channels in Sky's portfolio.

Yes, I agree - certainly a change for the better. Though I do question the merits of them axing the Sky One brand, something which has been around for more than 30 years, and resonates with viewers in a way that I somehow doubt 'Sky Showcase' will. But we shall see - indeed I, along with some others here and elsewhere, suspect that it is a way of making a clean break should Sky indeed lose the rights to The Simpsons, a show that has surely defined Sky One over the years more than any other (certainly more than any original commission).

I think An Idiot Abroad was Sky One's last swansong to be honest. For the last few years it's limped on with a couple of half decent UK commissions which haven't ben accepted as much as An Idiot Abroad, along with CW shows and The Simpsons. The Russell Howard Hour was the last show I felt was appointment to view tv, but even then I'd watch it on VOD over linear.

The more credible UK stuff went on Atlantic instead which was the start of the beginning of the end.

Max has potential with some of the current Sky One formats, such as A League of their Own and The Russell Howard Hour, but without having to worry about linear ratings as much. VOD will be the factor which keeps those shows on-air rather than bums on seats when they're scheduled on the linear channel.

[Brekkie]

I wouldn't dismiss League of their Own as a flop - it's been a flagship show for a decade and must be by far their longest running original show. They've been serving up multiple comedies too and strong original drama with the brilliant Brassic and the now tarnished Bulletproof. I think on that side of things if you take off the rose tinted spectacles they've remained strong and competitive with the likes of ITV2 and E4. Yes, they probably do less overall but I'd say it's of a higher quality to the likes of Dream Team and Prickly Heat, and virtually all UK channels probably offer far less than they used to on the entertainment front too.

[Neil Jones]

Think I mentioned this before but every time Sky jack up prices a letter goes out justifying the rise and how they're spending a fortune and then some more in original programming off the back of your paying an extra £2 a month or whatever. They'll be spending (it says here) a billion pounds on new original programming by 2024, thanks to their new studio construction in Elstree.

Not sure how that contrasts with ITV's budget for programming.

[JAS84]

Sky One was certainly great when it got first run episodes of US shows before the terrestrial channels, but times changed where people were watching those shows elsewhere or by using illegal means to watch at US pace instead.

Sky's policy of splitting the general entertainment shows onto linear/VOD hybrid brands seems to have worked to the point where viewers are choosing to watch comedy on one channel, quality US drama on another, which left Sky One out of sync with some UK commissions, The Simpsons and left-over CW Marvel commissions.

The overall changes should be an improvement for linear viewers who with Sky Max will no longer get sports events or old films, but a more curated schedule of general entertainment similar to what Sky One is doing now, while Showcase keeps The Simpsons and allows Sky to promote Sports/Cinema to Ent only customers along with the other entertainment channels in Sky's portfolio.

CW DC commissions, not Marvel. Marvel is owned by Disney, so their shows are on Disney+ now. The CW is half-owned by Warner, which owns DC, which is why DC Comics shows air on CW in the US.

Also, they may still have the Simpsons - but not for long. That's Disney owned too, so when the current contract expires, it's gone. Possibly another reason why Sky One was axed.

[Kunst]

Speaking of Sky, Sky Sport 4K will launch as a linear channel in Italy, this Summer (the remaining 4K content is On Demand).

Wouldn't it be better for Sky UK also, to have a linear 4K channel than everything "hidden" under the red button?

[WillPS]

Speaking of Sky, Sky Sport 4K will launch as a linear channel in Italy, this Summer (the remaining 4K content is On Demand).

Wouldn't it be better for Sky UK also, to have a linear 4K channel than everything "hidden" under the red button?

Unless they launch one for each of their channels that has 4K content (all of them except Racing?) I can see it being more trouble than it's worth.

[Kunst]

Speaking of Sky, Sky Sport 4K will launch as a linear channel in Italy, this Summer (the remaining 4K content is On Demand).

Wouldn't it be better for Sky UK also, to have a linear 4K channel than everything "hidden" under the red button?

Unless they launch one for each of their channels that has 4K content (all of them except Racing?) I can see it being more trouble than it's worth.

?

Why does it have to be so problematic?

Sky launching something à la Sky 3D, a mixture of content (even active during simulcasts only) wouldn't be so much of an issue, IMO