- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: SKY CHANNEL LAUNCHES SATELLITE SERVICE.
- Date: 6th February 1989
- Summary: 1. GV,SV Sky control room counting down to start of programme (2 shots) 0.13 2. SV and GV Murdoch and associates at press call (3 shots) 0.18 3. SV Murdoch speaking 0.28 4. CU Sky Promotion film 0.39 5. CU Sky newsroom presenters 0.42 6. SV VisNews MCR speaking to Sky and Newsrooms (3 shots) 0.47 7. SV Monitor with Sky local station on screen 0.51 8. CU Sky Executive chairman Andrew Neil speaking 1.01 9. Sky MCR 1.08 10. CU B.S.B Promotional film 1.13 11. SV satellite dishes 1.19 12. CU Sky promotional graphics 1.25 13. SV and Cu Murdoch in Sky studio and speaking to reporters (2 shots) 1.41 14. SCU Reporter, John Defterious, speaking to camera. 1.57 Transcript Sequence 3: Murdoch: Let's say I thought excitement, anticipation. We look forward to serving the audiences there who want to watch us. Andrew Neil: Out there people do want to watch Sky. I don't think there's any question of it. It will command an audience, just how big and how quickly it will grow is the big imponderable, of course. Transcript Sequence 13: Murdoch: We've got a record of taking some very long term plays but we haven't always won at them but mostly enough we have. Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 21st February 1989 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA3D1W23L3EKAYSLRN3SGNKTV19
- Story Text: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
A new era of British satellite broadcasting opened on Sunday when Sky Television launched the first four of its six planned channels.
All programmes will be beamed to British homes via the Astra satellite some 22,000 miles (35398 kilometres) in space.
The four channels will include a 24-hour news service, a 24-hour entertainment service, a movie channel and a sports service.
To receive any of the channels British viewers will have to install a 60-centimetre satellite dish on their homes. A Sky spokesman said that approximately 20,000 dishes had been bought so far, but the company anticipated that three hundred thousand dishes would be operating within three months. During the first weeks of service, most of the audiences will be made up from the 53,000 homes already connected to cable networks. A satellite dish will cost around 200 pounds sterling (350 U.S. Dollars), including remote control and installation.
Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News International, parent company of Sky Channel, said during the launch ceremonies that it would bring competition, choice and quality to British television. Executive Chairman Andrew Neil said the company was confident of meeting its target of reaching 1.5 million British homes by the end of 1989
<strong>Source: REUTERS - Ken Harding</strong> - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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