Sky Television plc Sky Television plc Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated a nine-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989. Sky Television and its rival British Satellite Broadcasting suffered large financial losses and merged on 2 November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). Programming merger took effect on 1 December 1990. Sky Television plc was originally Satellite Television Ltd. (SATV), a consortium set up by Brian Haynes in November 1980. Haynes was a former journalist employed at Thames Television. In 1979 he produced a documentary for the "TV Eye" strand which
British Satellite Broadcasting general entertainment and living/current affairs. Unfortunately, this increased the size of the dishes which the public had to purchase from 25 centimetres to 35–40 centimetres; subsidies from BSB helped maintain retail prices at £250. BSB's satellite channels for the general public were: With a sixth for business users: BSB launched its service on 25 March 1990, with the slogan "It's Smart to be Square". The launch, six months late, came 13 months after Sky's launch. BSB was due to start broadcasting in September 1989 but was delayed by problems with the supply of receiving equipment and because BSB wanted to