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
Satellite television by region Satellite television by region Satellite television varies in the different regions around the world. South African-based Multichoice's DStv is the main digital satellite television provider in sub-Saharan Africa, broadcasting principally in English, but also in Portuguese, German and Afrikaans. Multichoice's DStv had 6 million paid subscribers on 30 September 2016. CanalSat Afrique, owned by France's Canal+ and Vivendi, is the main provider in French-speaking Africa. Another entrant into the satellite television circuit in Africa is MyTv Africa, a subsidiary of Dubai-based Strong Technologies. The launch of Free2view has made satellite TV available to the masses in Africa. Free2view currently broadcasts