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 It commissioned Hughes Aircraft to provide two high-powered satellites using launch vehicles from McDonnell Douglas. Both companies were American and had established reputations for reliability. Hughes was the main contractor and offered a commercial space industry first, "in orbit delivery", whereby BSB's risk was reduced because payments became due only after the satellites were launched and operational. On 8 June 1988, rival tycoon Rupert Murdoch, having failed to gain regulatory approval for his own satellite service, and failing to become part of the BSB consortium, announced that his pan-European television station, "Sky Channel", would be relaunched as a four-channel UK-based