On 8 June 1988, Murdoch announced at a press conference his plans to expand Sky's service to four channels, thus creating the Sky Television Network, and that he plans to distribute and launch the service throughout the United Kingdom by early 1989. Sky Channel alongside the other three channels would move to the pan-European Astra satellite system (leasing four transponders on Société Européenne des Satellites' RCA Astro-built satellite, Astra 1A, intended for direct-to-home reception), and the new network would centre its operations more specifically to the United Kingdom, whether Sky had from its initial satellite moved to the ECS-F1 (Eutelsat I-F4) system.