About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Sky Digital (UK)

Encyclopedia : S : SK : SKY : Sky Digital (UK)

 

For a wider corporate history and profile see: British Sky Broadcasting.
right Sky Digital is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2°E (Astra 2A/2B/2D) and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E.

BSkyB's analogue broadcasts ceased in 2001, so the service is now more commonly marketed as just Sky.

Contents

History

Evolution of UK satellite television
Enlarge
Evolution of UK satellite television

Sky Digital was officially launched on 1 October 1998, although small-scale tests were carried out before then. For the first time, BSkyB used the newly-launched Astra 2 satellites, which have since come to broadcast exclusively to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. At this time the use of the Sky Digital brand made an important distinction between the new service and Sky's analogue services. Key selling points were the improvement in picture and sound quality, increased number of channels and an interactive service branded Open.... Sky Digital competed with the ON Digital terrestrial offering.

New Astra satellites joined the position in 2000, and the number of channels available to customers increased accordingly. This trend continued with the launch of Eurobird 1 in 2001.

In recent years the Sky Plus (Sky+) was launched. This digital video recorder with internal hard drive allows viewers to 'pause live television' (by switching from a live feed to a paused real-time recording that can be restarted at any point) and schedule programs to record in the future. Sky launched HDTV services in May 2006. The first photos of a prototype SkyHD receiver began appearing in magazines in August 2005. All SkyHD receivers incorporate a version of Sky Plus using a 300GB hard drive (of which 160GB is available to the user) to accommodate the necessary extra data.

Additionally, some channels occasionally receive new numbering — However, in early 2006, the majority of channels received new numbering, with some receiving single digit changes, whilst others received new numbers entirely.

Technical information

Sky Digital Minidish
Enlarge
Sky Digital Minidish

The Sky Digital electronic programme guide, or EPG
Enlarge
The Sky Digital electronic programme guide, or EPG
Sky Digital's standard definition broadcasts are in DVB-compliant MPEG-2, with the Sky Movies and Sky Box Office channels including optional Dolby Digital soundtracks for recent films, although these are only accessible with a Sky+ box. Sky HD material is broadcast using MPEG-4. Interactive services and 7-day EPG use the proprietary OpenTV system, with set-top boxes including modems for a return path. Sky News, amongst other channels, provides a pseudo-video on demand interactive service by broadcasting looping video streams.

Provided a universal Ku band LNB (9.75/10.600GHz) is fitted at the end of the dish and pointed at the correct satellite constellation, most digital receivers will receive the free to air channels. Some broadcasts are free-to-air and unencrypted, some are encrypted but do not require a monthly subscription (known as free-to-view), some are encrypted and require a monthly subscription, and some are pay-per-view services. To view the encrypted content a Videoguard UK equipped receiver (all of which are dedicated to the Sky Digital service, and cannot be used to decrypt other services) needs to be used. Unofficial CAMs are now available to view the service, although use of them breaks your contract with Sky and invalidates your rights to use the card.

BSkyB has no veto over the presence of channels on their EPG, with open access being an enforced part of their contract with Ofcom to operate the service. Any channel which can get carriage on a suitable beam of a satellite at 28 East is entitled to access to Sky's EPG for a fee, ranging from £15-100,000. Third-party channels which opt for encryption receive discounts ranging from reduced price to free EPG entries, free carriage on a Sky leased transponder, or actual payment for being carried. However, even in this case, Sky does not carry any control over the channels content or carriage issues such as picture quality. Recent years have seen the launch of numerous low-budget channels, often with very poor technical quality.

Due to either limited regional availability of certain channels, or conditions relating to their must-carry status, Sky operate a number of distinct regions for their EPG — with the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the rest of Great Britain having different channel lineups, and Wales having a different EPG order to the rest of Great Britain. The Northern Irish EPG has the most listed channels, with the Republic of Ireland having the least, although the difference is minor — around 6 entries.

Channels

EPG

All channels are pay-tv channels on Sky's "Sky World" package, unless stated.

Entertainment

Lifestyle and Culture

Movies

Music

Sport

News

Documentaries

Kids

Shopping

All shopping channels (FTA).

Box Office

Religious

All religious channels FTA.

International

Gaming and Dating

Specialist

Adult (most premium, all disabled on child-friendly EPG)

Other

All BBC regions FTA, ITV 1 London with audio description FTA, Channel 4 with audio description FTV. EPG 971-992, UK only.

Sky Information

Radio Channels

All FTA. BBC stations not on ROI EPG *The Hits, TMF, Sky Sports News, UKTV History, UKTV Bright Ideas, FTN, E4, E4+1, More 4, More 4 +1 and ABC1 are free to air on Freeview, but not on Sky. Additionally, CNBC, Bloomberg, Eurosport, DW-TV, TV5, TVEi and MTV are available free to air on alternate satellites (though some are also European channel variants).

See also

External links


List of cable, satellite and other specialty television providers
Cable television: Adelphia | Bresnan | Bright House Networks | CableOne | Cable TV Hong Kong | Cablevision (US) | Cablevision (Canada) | Canal Digital | Charter | Cogeco | Comcast | Cox | Eastlink | Foxtel | GCI | Global Destiny | Insight | Kabel Deutschland | Knology | Mediacom | Midcontinent Communications | Millennium Digital Media | NTL | Neighbourhood Cable | Optus | Persona | RCN | Rogers | Service Electric | SkyCable | SelecTV | Shaw | StarHub CableTV | Suddenlink | Telewest | Saturn | Time Warner | TransACT | Vidéotron | WOW! Internet Cable Phone | WightCable

Satellite television: Athina Sat | Astro | Austar | Bell ExpressVu | Canal Digital | CanalSat | Cyfra+ | DirecTV | Dish Network | DStv | Freesat | Freesat from Sky | FreeView (NZ) | Foxtel | GlobeCast World TV | Home2US | NTV Plus | NOVA Cyprus | NOVA Greece | Sky Angel | Sky Digital | Sky Italia | Sky PerfecTV! | Sky TV (NZ) | StarChoice | STAR TV | Tata Sky | TPS | Viasat | Voom | WOWOW

IPTV: Canal Digital | now TV | TeliaSonera | HomeChoice

Terrestrial television: Boxer TV Access | FreeView (NZ) | Freeview (UK) | Top Up TV | MiTV | USDTV

Fiber-Optic: Verizon FiOS
''[edit template]

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: