SKY TV nostalgia

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

In the early days of pan-european satellite tv channel, EUROSPORT you noticed it had a strong Sky TV marketing feel about it as you'll notice from this film footage links that follow. As far as I recall, the early days of Eurosport was a broadcasting partnership that included SKY and the EBU. Following the launch of the FA Premier League in the early '90s Sky went on to set up it's own sports network SKY SPORTS channel followed by additional sister channels in it's sports network. Once Sky Sports was in place Sky would eventually withdraw from it's involvement in Eurosport channel and the feel and presentation would become more French after a while. At one stage I thought Eurosport would go under after Sky departed to set up Sky Sports but a few years later Screensport was the sports channel to eventually close down altogether.

1990 Eurosport ident & soundtrack4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_kXvPA7r6I

1991 Eurosport promo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg_CYSqs_IA

1991/1992 Eurosport Open/Close Signature (the iconic Yellow-The Race promo soundtrack but this copy quality is actually quite poor)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP-J7bXkTJc

In those days Eurosport was available on most local analogue cable tv systems and it used broadcast free to air on analogue satellite systems across Europe alongside channels like Sky News, CNN International and so on. Unfortunately, Eurosport did not broadcast free-to-air on digital satellite when people were migrating across from analogue satellite in late '90s/early '00s

As far as I know Eurosport and Screensport emalgamated in to one sports channel but kept the Eurosport brand.

rubadub

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I still vividly remember when Cablelink had a free weekend on and Die Hard was the feature (I also remember it scrambling at midnight for a minute or two before they copped the movie wasn't over!)

I remember figuring out a trick to get free movies & sports on occasions like this for months afterwards, according to the forum rules I might be banned for discussing, even if it was over 25 years ago! In some countries I could probably admit to murder and get off

Sky one had "threes company", I still wonder why so many stations shut down at night and do not continue broadcasting old shows like this which must cost pittance, or even just rerun shows they already had in the day, their own shows.

Also had sally jessy raphael, the KKK episodes were amazing. Geraldo too, long before jerry springer who many think started that stuff.

Julius Massive Tuxedo

Julius Massive Tuxedo wrote: »

As far as I know Eurosport and Screensport emalgamated in to one sports channel but kept the Eurosport brand.

Screen Sport (as it was originally, the space was removed in '88 or so) launched first. Eurosport followed and was a joint venture between Sky and the EBU. Screensport contested this arrangement in court and won. So Eurosport closed down for a short period until TF1 took over. Eventually, Screensport and Eurosport merged, with the former going off air in early 1993.

In the meantime, Sky got hold of BSB's The Sports Channel as part of the BSkyB merger. This became Sky Sports in mid 1991.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Karsini wrote: »

Screen Sport (as it was originally, the space was removed in '88 or so) launched first. Eurosport followed and was a joint venture between Sky and the EBU. Screensport contested this arrangement in court and won. So Eurosport closed down for a short period until TF1 took over. Eventually, Screensport and Eurosport merged, with the former going off air in early 1993.

In the meantime, Sky got hold of BSB's The Sports Channel as part of the BSkyB merger. This became Sky Sports in mid 1991.

It's all coming back to me now. Thaks for the info.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

rubadub wrote: »

I remember figuring out a trick to get free movies & sports on occasions like this for months afterwards, according to the forum rules I might be banned for discussing, even if it was over 25 years ago! In some countries I could probably admit to murder and get off

Sky one had "threes company", I still wonder why so many stations shut down at night and do not continue broadcasting old shows like this which must cost pittance, or even just rerun shows they already had in the day, their own shows.

Also had sally jessy raphael, the KKK episodes were amazing. Geraldo too, long before jerry springer who many think started that stuff.

I remember going over to Newyork to visit my sister and she got us tickets to go and see Sally Jessy Raphael. Before the show started the production team gave the audience pizzas and drink. The studio was very small and of course we were told when to clap, boo, and jeer the guests. Pure trash tv.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

rubadub wrote: »

I remember figuring out a trick to get free movies & sports on occasions like this for months afterwards, according to the forum rules I might be banned for discussing, even if it was over 25 years ago! In some countries I could probably admit to murder and get off

Sky one had "threes company", I still wonder why so many stations shut down at night and do not continue broadcasting old shows like this which must cost pittance, or even just rerun shows they already had in the day, their own shows.

Also had sally jessy raphael, the KKK episodes were amazing. Geraldo too, long before jerry springer who many think started that stuff.

I remember going over to Newyork to visit my sister and she got us tickets to go and see Sally Jessy Raphael. Before the show started the production team gave the audience pizzas and drink. The studio was very small and of course we were told when to clap, boo, and jeer the guests. Pure trash tv.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Karsini wrote: »

Screen Sport (as it was originally, the space was removed in '88 or so) launched first. Eurosport followed and was a joint venture between Sky and the EBU. Screensport contested this arrangement in court and won. So Eurosport closed down for a short period until TF1 took over. Eventually, Screensport and Eurosport merged, with the former going off air in early 1993.

In the meantime, Sky got hold of BSB's The Sports Channel as part of the BSkyB merger. This became Sky Sports in mid 1991.

It's all coming back to me now. Thaks for the info.

AwaitYourReply

Karsini wrote: »

Screen Sport (as it was originally, the space was removed in '88 or so) launched first. Eurosport followed and was a joint venture between Sky and the EBU. Screensport contested this arrangement in court and won. So Eurosport closed down for a short period until TF1 took over. Eventually, Screensport and Eurosport merged, with the former going off air in early 1993.

In the meantime, Sky got hold of BSB's The Sports Channel as part of the BSkyB merger. This became Sky Sports in mid 1991.

This is very interesting and rings a bell with me all those years ago. I think there is some footage of Jeff Stelling presenting on BSB's The Sports Channel before it evolved into Sky Sports. Meanwhile BSB's The Movie Channel was also to evolve into the Sky family simply known as The Movie Channel in it's early days and I think Sky Movies may have first brought in the Sky Movies Plus branding around this time if I recall correctly.

Delta2113

Loved that ScreenSport promo music - wish Sky would do some nostalgia show like you would get from the BBC or maybe a themed night.

AwaitYourReply

rubadub wrote: »

I remember figuring out a trick to get free movies & sports on occasions like this for months afterwards, according to the forum rules I might be banned for discussing, even if it was over 25 years ago! In some countries I could probably admit to murder and get off

Sky one had "threes company", I still wonder why so many stations shut down at night and do not continue broadcasting old shows like this which must cost pittance, or even just rerun shows they already had in the day, their own shows.

Also had sally jessy raphael, the KKK episodes were amazing. Geraldo too, long before jerry springer who many think started that stuff.

Yeah there were quite a few of these shows knocking around. Outside of the main prime-time evening chat shows some of the ones that were big probably include The Phil Donahue Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Joan Rivers Show, The Ricki Lake Show. In fact, one of Jerry Springer's security guards, Steve Wilkos would go on to host his very own programme called The Steve Wilkos Show and he's not doing a bad job asking the questions either to be fair!

Meanwhile, in the UK before you had The Jeremy Kyle Show you had the likes of Esther Rantzen with her show "Esther" and Robert Kilroy-Silk with his show "Kilroy" and Trisha Goddard presented her show called "Trisha". You also had Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan with their afternoon show "Richard & Judy" which followed their departure as original hosts of ITV show "This Morning with Richard & Judy".

AwaitYourReply

Super Channel (later NBC Super Channel) used have a show on weekday afternoons called "On-The-Air" with Clive Pearse which was like a radio programme broadcast on TV.

I miss the on-air speciality shows that used run on the original MTV Europe channel.
Shows like MTV Greatest Hits, 3 from 1, Hitlist UK, MTV Unplugged etc;
VJs like Ray Cokes, Paul King, Pip Dann, Lisa L'Anson, Davina McCall etc; were all great and gave the channel more of a distinct personality and clear identity which is sadly lacking in today's version. With so many FTA music video channels, MTV needed to maintain better quality music shows with it's offering.

In recent years, the winning formula for this type of music broadcasting in UK/Ireland has been Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" on ITV which I would have watched more in it's early years but I've grown to dislike the constant hype and repetition and back slapping egos. I look forward to it's demise in the future.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

Super Channel (later NBC Super Channel) used have a show on weekday afternoons called "On-The-Air" with Clive Pearse which was like a radio programme broadcast on TV.

I miss the on-air speciality shows that used run on the original MTV Europe channel.
Shows like MTV Greatest Hits, 3 from 1, Hitlist UK, MTV Unplugged etc;
VJs like Ray Cokes, Paul King, Pip Dann, Lisa L'Anson, Davina McCall etc; were all great and gave the channel more of a distinct personality and clear identity which is sadly lacking in today's version. With so many FTA music video channels, MTV needed to maintain better quality music shows with it's offering.

In recent years, the winning formula for this type of music broadcasting in UK/Ireland has been Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" on ITV which I would have watched more in it's early years but I've grown to dislike the constant hype and repetition and back slapping egos. I look forward to it's demise in the future.

When MTV first started in Europe it was a great music channel with wall to wall music videos but when other music channels started to appear MTV for some reason slowly moved away from been a top class 24 hour music channel and started to morph in to a general entertainment channel it is today. I used to love Ray Cokes and MTV unplugged. I don'think we will ever see shows of that calabre again.

AwaitYourReply

Interesting to read the timeline account in the below article which suggests that although satellite tv was not an entirely new concept but it only really began to gather pace around in 1988 and so by February 1989 Sky Television took a giant leap forward from it's original days.

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/celebrating-20-years-of-uk-satellite-tv-493729

Another thing I noticed about Eurosport was in the TV Ark links, the third video down the page:

http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/skytv/eurosport.html

This is a startup from 12/08/89 and includes an announcement of a transponder change. So Eurosport wasn't on transponder 4 from the start. I can't find a definite source, but the Wikipedia page for Astra 1A states that it was on transponder 9 initially.

I wonder why it changed? The following is entirely speculation but an educated guess nonetheless. The only thing I can think of is because of the way the beams were set up on Astra 1A. 1A had four different footprints:

Transponders 1, 5, 9 and 13
Transponders 2, 6, 10 and 14
Transponders 3, 7, 11 and 15
Transponders 4, 8, 12 and 16

The footprint of the H1 beam was quite poor on the fringes of Europe so it's entirely possible that this change was made in order to improve reception. Also, the other three Sky channels were on 8, 12 and 16. So by moving Eurosport to 4, it ensured that all of the channels had the same reception characteristics.

AwaitYourReply

More channel memories for me include:
"Europa" - I never saw the channel in action but I see to recall a slide still image of "Europa" often coming through the static when I used go searching on our old VHF analogue tuner on an old Murphy's colour TV set around 1985. I read with interest that RTÉ Ireland was one of 5 European countries had an interest in the now defunct Europa channel but it only lasted about 14 months apparently.

Another one that used come thru was a channel called "Worldnet" but it was mainly US politics if I recall correctly.

In the 1980s we just had the two channels RTÉ 1+2 however; my next door neighbours used have cable TV and I discovered if I messed about with the jack plug going into the back of our old analogue tv set I could find a way to pick up some reception of Cork Multi-Channel TV service in the 1983-1990 period. The trick also involved turning down the contrast setting as well! HaHa! A few years later we went and got a UHF TV set and colour-king aerial so that we could gain access to a nearby TV Deflector Signal at a site close to Cork Airport which I suspect was boosted from South Coast Community TV based in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. When the site at Cork Airport was shut down by the Dept of Communications, we were unable to pick up a strong enough signal reception from Carrigaline and so we eventually took up a subscription for cable tv in January 1991 for a number of years. In 1998 we ditched cable for our first satellite system installation but we had to upgrade to a Sky Digital system in April 2001 due to most english language services having migrated over to digital satellite format only.

In 2001, when I first signed up for Sky Digital, one of the channels we had was called TARA TV which was around in the days before RTÉ/TV3/TG4 were available on the Sky Ireland EPG. TARA was the only way you could watch some of RTÉ programme output via digital satellite tv. Programmes like RTÉ News, Primetime, Fair City, The Late Late Show were among the programmes shown live. I understand that when TARA closed down they owed RTÉ and others substantial sums of money. Shortly after this the Irish channels were eventually carried on Sky Ireland but would always require a subscription as they are encrypted. Talk of a replacement service for the Irish diaspora in the UK under the working title "RTÉ International" has never materialised and given the losses made by Ireland's national public service broadcasting service it looks highly unlikely that this will happen anytime soon.

AwaitYourReply

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

Super Channel (later NBC Super Channel) used have a show on weekday afternoons called "On-The-Air" with Clive Pearse which was like a radio programme broadcast on TV.

I miss the on-air speciality shows that used run on the original MTV Europe channel.
Shows like MTV Greatest Hits, 3 from 1, Hitlist UK, MTV Unplugged etc;
VJs like Ray Cokes, Paul King, Pip Dann, Lisa L'Anson, Davina McCall etc; were all great and gave the channel more of a distinct personality and clear identity which is sadly lacking in today's version. With so many FTA music video channels, MTV needed to maintain better quality music shows with it's offering.

In recent years, the winning formula for this type of music broadcasting in UK/Ireland has been Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" on ITV which I would have watched more in it's early years but I've grown to dislike the constant hype and repetition and back slapping egos. I look forward to it's demise in the future.

I forgot all about another MTV Europe VJ Kristiane Backer (from Germany) who I remember mostly from the MTV Coca Cola Report. She was a memorable presenter and her delivery was so laid back! And not to mention that VJ Ray Cokes could not have done it without "Rob" the Cameraman! Ah happy days!

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

I remember my first sky analouge receiver which was an alba and could only store around 20 channels. When I got it installed I could only get a handful of english speaking channels like Sky One, Sky Movie channel, Sky News, and then there was The Childrens Channel, Eurosport, Screensport and MTV. I used to love searching for the German channels such as ZDF which used to show alot of sport even though you could not understand the commentary.

AwaitYourReply

If memory serves me correct, Amstrad was a major player in the analogue satellite receiver market in the 80's/early 90's. I used often buy "What Satellite and Digital TV" magazine (publications ceased during 2014) but it was an expensive publication especially if you were on a modest income but it was a great information source on all things concerning satellite tv in those days before you had the Internet full of online forums. Adverts for services like Filmnet and Teleclub would feature prominently and it was where I first came across the term HDTV and that during 1989/1990 period. In those days, the average household could not afford to spend serious money on luxury items as basic TV and technology equipment was a lot more expensive in those days. I bought my first analogue satellite system in 1998, I think it was a Philips receiver model which had a digital display of the channel name on the front window panel.
My 1998 analogue satellite system did not have free access to some popular channels like Sky One or MTV as these channels were already scrambled at that stage unless you took out a Sky satellite tv subscription but you still had other free-to-air channels available such as Sky News, Eurosport, CNN International and Channel 5 (Channel 5 commenced broadcasting in 1997 which had been the only UK terrestrial tv channel to appear on Analogue satellite if I recall apart from BBC Radio stations). You also had plenty of other foreign language channels from Western/Northern Europe especially German. I cannot remember if Ted Turner's "TNT" or "TCM" channels were free-to-air on analogue satellite in the late 90's as I had them at some point but it may have been when I was a subscriber of Sky Digital from April 2001/2002 period.

By the time we got to the year 2000, you found that most english language channels were leaving the analogue satellite platform, so you would often get a slide image of "Bob the Sky TV installer" encouraging you to join him over at Sky Digital satellite and once the BBC Radio channels had all ceased analogue satellite transmissions, I knew it's days were numbered as far as english language broadcast channels was concerned.

AwaitYourReply

Julius Massive Tuxedo wrote: »

I remember my first sky analouge receiver which was an alba and could only store around 20 channels. When I got it installed I could only get a handful of english speaking channels like Sky One, Sky Movie channel, Sky News, and then there was The Childrens Channel, Eurosport, Screensport and MTV. I used to love searching for the German channels such as ZDF which used to show alot of sport even though you could not understand the commentary.

Yeah I recall some of the foreign tv channels like ZDF, Sat 1, RTL, ARD etc; as they were available free-to-air on analogue satellite at the time.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

If memory serves me correct, Amstrad was a major player in the analogue satellite receiver market in the 80's/early 90's. I used often buy "What Satellite and Digital TV" magazine (publications ceased during 2014) but it was an expensive publication especially if you were on a modest income but it was a great information source on all things concerning satellite tv in those days before you had the Internet full of online forums. Adverts for services like Filmnet and Teleclub would feature prominently and it was where I first came across the term HDTV and that during 1989/1990 period. In those days, the average household could not afford to spend serious money on luxury items as basic TV and technology equipment was a lot more expensive in those days. I bought my first analogue satellite system in 1998, I think it was a Philips receiver model which had a digital display of the channel name on the front window panel.
My 1998 analogue satellite system did not have free access to some popular channels like Sky One or MTV as these channels were already scrambled at that stage unless you took out a Sky satellite tv subscription but you still had other free-to-air channels available such as Sky News, Eurosport, CNN International and Channel 5 (Channel 5 commenced broadcasting in 1997 which had been the only UK terrestrial tv channel to appear on Analogue satellite if I recall apart from BBC Radio stations). You also had plenty of other foreign language channels from Western/Northern Europe especially German. I cannot remember if Ted Turner's "TNT" or "TCM" channels were free-to-air on analogue satellite in the late 90's as I had them at some point but it may have been when I was a subscriber of Sky Digital from April 2001/2002 period.

By the time we got to the year 2000, you found that most english language channels were leaving the analogue satellite platform, so you would often get a slide image of "Bob the Sky TV installer" encouraging you to join him over at Sky Digital satellite and once the BBC Radio channels had all ceased analogue satellite transmissions, I knew it's days were numbered as far as english language broadcast channels was concerned.

Before Sky Digital launched I used to go to my local news agents for my copy of what was called back then What Satellite Magazine. The shop would order a copy for me and I would collect it every Friday. It was brilliant for news on technical info like new receviers where to get them and also where to get the old Sky videocrypt card chipped for around five pounds. Also it was great for info on new channel launches and as you would manually have to search the frequency they would list all frequencies and I would get excited as I would find some test cards which would mostly be for German channels. Good days indeed just to see something new outside our own RTE channels.

AwaitYourReply

Julius Massive Tuxedo wrote: »

Before Sky Digital launched I used to go to my local news agents for my copy of what was called back then What Satellite Magazine. The shop would order a copy for me and I would collect it every Friday. It was brilliant for news on technical info like new receviers where to get them and also where to get the old Sky videocrypt card chipped for around five pounds. Also it was great for info on new channel launches and as you would manually have to search the frequency they would list all frequencies and I would get excited as I would find some test cards which would mostly be for German channels. Good days indeed just to see something new outside our own RTE channels.

Ah yes, it was originally just called "What Satellite TV" magazine as the "& Digital" addition in the magazine title came some years later if memory serves me correct. I used enjoy checking out all the latest news developments on satellite/channel launches. It was like the bible for all technical data even if you are not usually that way inclined. Also ideal place to find satellite frequency transponder parameters and what way the industry was heading. Barry Fox was contributing editor and had regular columns. For me, it's weakest point had to be the TV channel programme schedule guide but I understand this was not the publications own fault as the various broadcasters often did not release details all that much in advance so a monthly magazine was always going to find it difficult to showcase accurate listings more than 7 days in advance in those days apart from Christmas/New Year schedules.

In fact, back in 1989/1990 you would have found it very difficult to obtain RTÉ TV guide programme schedules well in advance as the RTÉ Guide once had a complete monopoly in this regard here in the Republic of Ireland. I think either Magill Magazine or The Sunday Tribune newspaper may have challenged RTÉ on this matter back in the '80s if I'm not mistaken but I'm open to correction on this. The RTÉ Guide magazine was a huge revenue stream for RTÉ back in those days and I'd say the Radio Times (BBC) and TV Times (ITV/C4) had similar dominance over in the UK at that time too as far as advance publication of TV listings was concerned.

There are some people who often forget that in 1989 RTÉ TV used still closedown both RTÉ 1 and Network 2 overnight although this changed around 1996 possibly around the same time that the new 3rd Irish TV channel TnaG (now TG4) commenced broadcasting on 31/10/1996. Radio 2FM was only after getting a 24hr licence as it previously used to have to shut down at 01:50am each morning up to the late '80s. RTÉ Radio One ALSO extended their hours to 24hrs but it came after 2FM if I recall.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

I remember as far back as the 1970s when our local town newspaper used to publish the tv listings for RTE ONE, RTE 2, which used to start at 7.00pm and BBC1and TWO. I don't know how the got the listings it must have been through the RTE Guide. I wonder did the RTE Guide ever list the analouge channels that were part of Sky before digital came along?

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

I remember as far back as the 1970s when our local town newspaper used to publish the tv listings for RTE ONE, RTE 2, which used to start at 7.00pm and BBC1and TWO. I don't know how the got the listings it must have been through the RTE Guide. I wonder did the RTE Guide ever list the analouge channels that were part of Sky before digital came along?

Gonzo

I was only 15 when we first got our satellite dish. This was a massive change, from living in the countryside with just 6 channels to having 16+ satellite channels (sky channels, dutch tv and german tv).

At first we didnt have Sky Movies so was glued to MTV Europe and for movies there was RTL4, some of them were scrambled, but many of them would be clear and in english with dutch subtitles. I remember them showing 15s and 18s movies early in the evening and as a 15 year old teenager, this was very exciting.

Filmnet used to clear sometimes as well, sometimes showing a full movie, never had a decoder for that channel unfortunately, but at the time it was far better than Sky Movies.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

RTL 4 there used to be some great American shows on but I couln'd understand why certain shows were blocked and others weren't. Also RTL 5 and SBS 6 two more dutch channels with english audio and dutch subtitles but these were encrypted all the time apart from the dutch news. SBS 6 showed some great movies as good as any of the movies on the Sky movie channel.

AwaitYourReply

I recall when HTV Wales - part of the ITV network first went 24hrs through the night with it's NightClub segment which would come on around 11:30pm each night and I reckon this began around late Summer 1988. Shows that were in the schedule included Prisoner Cell Block H, Married with Children etc; I suppose at that stage commercial channels like ITV and Channel 4 in the UK felt that cable & satellite tv was growing with channels like, MTV Europe, Super Channel and Sky Channel all knocking about eating into their market share with popular programming especially targeted at younger viewers.

http://www.hhg.org.uk/close.html


When we had a cable tv subscription in the early '90s you had some filler channels like Channel 18 (Sat 1 Germany) for those who had Cork Multi-Channel TV's Black Box (earlier versions set-top-box were actually brown!) Sat 1 showed a lot of soft porn filth on weekends that looked like it was filmed in the '70s - it was funny to watch at first but it repeated same content and then it eventually became a yawn! On the analogue satellite front - subscription movie channels like Filmnet and Teleclub were also around when Premiere was operating if I recall.

Gonzo

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I recall when HTV Wales - part of the ITV network first went 24hrs through the night with it's NightClub segment which would come on around 11:30pm each night and I reckon this began around late Summer 1988. Shows that were in the schedule included Prisoner Cell Block H, Married with Children etc; I suppose at that stage commercial channels like ITV and Channel 4 in the UK felt that cable & satellite tv was growing with channels like, MTV Europe, Super Channel and Sky Channel all knocking about eating into their market share with popular programming especially targeted at younger viewers.

http://www.hhg.org.uk/close.html


When we had a cable tv subscription in the early '90s you had some filler channels like Channel 18 (Sat 1 Germany) for those who had Cork Multi-Channel TV's Black Box (earlier versions set-top-box were actually brown!) Sat 1 showed a lot of soft porn filth on weekends that looked like it was filmed in the '70s - it was funny to watch at first but it repeated same content and then it eventually became a yawn! On the analogue satellite front - subscription movie channels like Filmnet and Teleclub were also around when Premiere was operating if I recall.

I remember reading at the time around late 1980's that a few local cable networks across the country used to have FilmNet before Sky movies started, which resulted in uproar from some parents as the channel would show hardcore porn on a Wednesday and Saturday night after 10pm. Filmnet never had any censorship and would show regular 15's and 18's movie at any time of the day, while Sky Movies would show endless repeats of Lassie movies and cut versions of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' up to 8pm in the evenings.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Gonzo wrote: »

I remember reading at the time around late 1980's that a few local cable networks across the country used to have FilmNet before Sky movies started, which resulted in uproar from some parents as the channel would show hardcore porn on a Wednesday and Saturday night after 10pm. Filmnet never had any censorship and would show regular 15's and 18's movie at any time of the day, while Sky Movies would show endless repeats of Lassie movies and cut versions of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' up to 8pm in the evenings.

Aswell as filmnet showing hardcore porn TV1000 would also show it. Sat 1 the german channel used to show softcore porn a couple of times a week and I remember they didn't leave much to the imagination and this was free to air.

AwaitYourReply

Gonzo wrote: »

I remember reading at the time around late 1980's that a few local cable networks across the country used to have FilmNet before Sky movies started, which resulted in uproar from some parents as the channel would show hardcore porn on a Wednesday and Saturday night after 10pm. Filmnet never had any censorship and would show regular 15's and 18's movie at any time of the day, while Sky Movies would show endless repeats of Lassie movies and cut versions of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' up to 8pm in the evenings.

HaHa - I'm sure there was a whole front cover page of an early "What Satellite TV" magazine devoted to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" starring Bob Hoskins which is interesting as I wonder if Sky TV sponsored it or were charged for the advertising. I cannot remember if Sky or one of Rupert Murdoch's other companies such as News International had a share in ownership of What Satellite TV magazine.

I also reckon that the frequency of repeats of movies is one key reason why so many tv viewers felt that subscriptions to such premium film channels was not such great value as you were still bombarded with commercial advertising other promos at certain times when you switched on such channels.

I almost forgot that FILMFOUR (now FILM4) had originally been a premium subscription channel dedicated to British independent film. I think I saw an advertisement paying tribute to it's 20th anniversary the other day with Trainspotting movie which is also 20 years old! Where did all those years go? I preferred the original style of the channel when the channel became free-to-air in recent years.

AwaitYourReply

Julius Massive Tuxedo wrote: »

Aswell as filmnet showing hardcore porn TV1000 would also show it. Sat 1 the german channel used to show softcore porn a couple of times a week and I remember they didn't leave much to the imagination and this was free to air.

I forgot all about "TV1000" - long time since I saw them referenced anywhere! Sat 1 showed very outdated cheap and slutty porn on a regular basis. That old fella with the stupid hat running around the room was bordering on the ridiculous as he looked so sleazy & uncool when those films were broadcast in the late '80s/early '90s.

AwaitYourReply

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yeah this was all exposed around the time Red Hot Dutch came on to the scene in a big way. It seems the UK regulatory authorities were unsure how to handle their every move.

Gonzo

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I forgot all about "TV1000" - long time since I saw them referenced anywhere! Sat 1 showed very outdated cheap and slutty porn on a regular basis. That old fella with the stupid hat running around the room was bordering on the ridiculous as he looked so sleazy & uncool when those films were broadcast in the late '80s/early '90s.

back then softcore porn was regular and broadcast in the clear on Astra 1

from memory quite a few channels showed it on a Saturday, sometimes as early as 9pm:

- Sat 1
- RTL
- Vox
- RTL2
- Pro Sieben

sometimes RTL4 (but was mostly scrambled)

Gonzo

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I almost forgot that FILMFOUR (now FILM4) had originally been a premium subscription channel dedicated to British independent film. I preferred the original style of the channel when the channel became free-to-air in recent years.

We had the original Filmfour for about 2 years. It was a much better channel when it was a subscription service, especially when they had sister channels Filmfour Extreme and Filmfour World.

The current free to air Film4 is only a shell of what the original channel was.

As for Sky Movies, now Sky Cinema, going on demand has improved it massively with access of 15s/18s movies any time of the day.

AwaitYourReply

Gonzo wrote: »

We had the original Filmfour for about 2 years. It was a much better channel when it was a subscription service, especially when they had sister channels Filmfour Extreme and Filmfour World.

The current free to air Film4 is only a shell of what the original channel was.

As for Sky Movies, now Sky Cinema, going on demand has improved it massively with access of 15s/18s movies any time of the day.

I completely forgot about FilmFour sister channels from the early days (i.e.) FilmFour Extreme and FilmFour World but I gather Extreme and World were a both sharing in same epg slot just at different hours. I understand that following the closure of both FilmFour Extreme and FilmFour World up to 2003 and then along came FilmFour Weekly until this closed in mid-2006. I suspect FilmFour+1 timeshift version was not around in those early days and eventually became a replacement for FilmFour Extreme/FilmFour World and FilmFour Weekly services.

The whole feel and vibe of the original subscription based FilmFour was so different when it was proud to promote independent British film unlike the current free-to-air format which may occasionally have a dedicated strand to english film but it shows too much main stream Hollywood productions these days and it's almost the polar opposite of it's original mission statement.

Gonzo

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

The whole feel and vibe of the original subscription based FilmFour was so different when it was proud to promote independent British film unlike the current free-to-air format which may occasionally have a dedicated strand to english film but it shows too much main stream Hollywood productions these days and it's almost the polar opposite of it's original mission statement.

There probably wasn't enough people subscribing to Filmfour and sadly when it went Free to Air, so did the quality of the channel. I haven't watched Film4 in years.

We ditched Sky Movies around 2002, it became so stale and nothing but family films till 8 or 9pm. Also the bitrate/quality became worse, I started buying dvd's which were cheap at the time in HMV.

Sky Cinema has certainly freshened things up alot, if it wasn't for the On Demand I still wouldn't bother. Picture quality is also much improved. Sky has finally started showing some independent and foreign films, but I still reckon they could do more. They could easily have a 24 hour Sky Cinema channel dedicated to Asian/foreign films and another 24 hour channel dedicated to english language Independent films.

AwaitYourReply

Satellite Television Limited's "SKY Channel" first appearance on a UK cable tv operator back in the early 1980's

The launch of SKY Channel for viewers on the Swindon Cable Network in 1983

You can adjust the settings to improve the picture resolution - it is probably one of the best quality versions up there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiQ_ryISsa4

AwaitYourReply

Sky Channel later renamed: Sky 1

Sky1 1982 - 2011
Various brand ident visual images over the years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jv0cCQe4-Q

AwaitYourReply

For those people who were based in the large urban populated areas of Ireland back in the 1980's starting gaining access to analogue cable television channels like SKY Channel, Super Channel, Music Box, Lifestyle, The Children's Channel etc; in addition to the UK terrestrial channels.

Most punters tended not to bother forking out for a satellite dish as english language channels like BBC1+2, ITV, Channel 4 were relatively late to launch services on satellite tv. In fact, BBC1+2, ITV, Channel 4 never appeared on analogue satellite at all from what I recall. Things began to change once BSkyB began to subsidise new subscribers if they signed up for their Sky Digital packages on the more modern digital satellite systems as they offered new customers a "FREE" satellite dish/receiver/remote control if they stayed in contract for a minimum 12 months period in the UK/Republic of Ireland. Many still had to pay for standard installation costs but they would own the equipment and could always cancel after 12 months without penalty and still use the dish for other channels that broadcast free-to-air like Sky News, CNN International, BBC1+2 etc; if they ended their contract with Sky. Some users even got free standard installation too with later promos in subsequent years. Once all the UK terrestrial channels (not to mention their sister channels eventually too) became free-to-air on digital satellite, it tilted the balance from Cable TV Vs Sky Digital Satellite as viewers in Ireland mainly subscribed to such services in order to gain access to UK terrestrial tv channels which was vital for those not living close to the border with Northern Ireland or along the east coast of Ireland where there was signal reception over-spill. Some viewers did not even have access to cable tv so if they wanted choice, then satellite was the only option pre-internet streaming days.

As some of us first got used to watching Sky Channel/Sky 1 along with other channels via our local cable tv operator, I forgot that SKY Channel (which later rebranded to Sky 1) was originally free-to-air on analogue satellite right up until 1st September, 1993 if you were watching via Astra 1A at the time. Then came a major sales/marketing promotion called the "Sky Multi-Channels" package whereby; 13 channels that had previously been broadcast free-to-air would now be scrambled so; if you wanted to continue to watch you would have to take out a subscription even for basic/general entertainment channels and the rest is history.

Sky multichannels dealer's promo tape (courtesy of "Mark Smith" on You Tube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL1ZYU3rxl0

Interesting timeline history from the below techradar.com website link if you wish to copy and paste same.

Source:
http://www.techradar.com/news/television/celebrating-20-years-of-uk-satellite-tv-493729

AwaitYourReply

Remembering the birth of SKY Channel from it's earliest days as Satellite Television in 1982!

SKY Channel 5th Birthday Party 1987 - courtesy of You Tube contributor, smartdriverd

Interesting historical look back at how the vast Sky empire had started out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOfLLROubVM

AwaitYourReply

February 5th, 1989 was a game-changer in terms of real choice when Sky Television took a giant leap forward from having not just one tv station called "SKY Channel" to a whole new network of tv channels. The channels in their early days started off unencrypted on analogue satellite systems but gradually this changed with genres like Movies and Sports among the first to go behind a paywall and requiring the customer to obtain a smart viewing card. Eventually general entertainment channels like Sky 1 would also be scrambled by September 1993.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ1QveN9SQ4&index=28&list=PLpFeuaktdn65_fJrFRqPg29j1hKfxOi25

Sky Advert: "We're the One"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHCLq2pOMj8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrE9iMpf9wM

Sky Advert: "Still The One" 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQPRvnwr_CY

Sky channels scrambling announcements - circa 1993
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e6XNcDu5fM&index=2&list=PLpFeuaktdn65_fJrFRqPg29j1hKfxOi25

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Gonzo wrote: »

back then softcore porn was regular and broadcast in the clear on Astra 1

from memory quite a few channels showed it on a Saturday, sometimes as early as 9pm:

- Sat 1
- RTL
- Vox
- RTL2
- Pro Sieben

sometimes RTL4 (but was mostly scrambled)

I remember those channels well showing soft porn. I remember waiting for the parents to go to bed and a couple of my mates would call round and we would watch usually Sat1 which sometimes bordered on the verge of hardcore porn.

AwaitYourReply

Sky NEWS Channel - first news bulletin on launch day February 5th, 1989 presented by Alastair Yates and Penny Smith

original presenters line-up 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNxSN9yXw90

first ever bulletin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYq1O2M0iSc

AwaitYourReply

One of the popular programmes broadcast on weekdays on Sky One (circa 1990-1992 period) was a show called "Love At First Sight" with host, Bruno Brookes (popular BBC Radio 1 DJ of The UK Top 40 singles charts countdown every Sunday afternoon). Brooke's assistant on Love At First Sight was Helen Brumby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zj6g5N-HUc

AwaitYourReply

Another regular staple of the earlier SKY Channel version from the 1980's was a show entitled: "SKY TRAX" presented by people like: Pat Sharp, Gary Davies etc; which featured requests & dedications along with pop/rock music videos of the time. Of course in those days, the typical viewer had no mobile phone to send SMS text, Internet Broadband so; it was essentially the letter/post card or telephone if you wanted to communicate with such shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa66jZWID-k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbdykJmUFgg

Sky TRAX's "The Great Video Race" with Gary Davies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypuRuTsbhuk

AwaitYourReply

Performance Channel on Sky Digital 270 / Virgin Channel 56
Channel used broadcast programmes such as: "Inside The Actors Studio" presented by James Lipton and other quality content from the world of the arts. Performance Channel was broadcast free-to-air on Sky Digital from 2003 -2008 when the channel closed having been on some cable tv systems for almost 25 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTmcuhnYX48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCFjk1Dhq8E
NOTE: Clip for Performance channel on 2nd link does not commence until 00:39secs

icdg

Look, I don't like cutting threads short, particularly interesting ones, but it's becoming clear to me that AwaitYourReply is effectively having a conversation with himself here.

For now I'll leave open and review tomorrow