Only On Sky / Satellite / Digital

[Richard1978]

Until the end of the 1980s there was a very good chance of seeing imported shows, though viewers could be at the mercy of their local ITV company purchasing & scheduling departments.

After Sky started quite a few imports were only shown on satellite channels, & this gave some prestige to people who were early adopters.

With the growth of satellite / cable / digital this has grown, though most people have at least got access to Freeview these days.

When I was at school in the 1990s conversations were often about TV shows I had no chance of seeing, as my parents didn't get digital cable in late 1999.

Shows that fit into the category:

The Simpsons (before 1996)

WWF Wrestling

I'm sure there are many more.

[Heather74]

Re: Only On Sky / Satellite / Digital

MTV was talked about quite a lot at school, so thats one topic of conversation I could not participate in as we didn't get cable until after I'd left in 1990

Back in the days when Virgin was called Nynex which then became Cable and Wireless, and then NTL and the internet was on dial up!!!!

[Richard1978]

Re: Only On Sky / Satellite / Digital

I can remember in the mid to late 1990s it was hard to see any music videos if you didn't have MTV or watched the saturday morning shows.

I remember the evolution of cable providers, my parents signed up not long after Nynex changed to C & W. The manhole cover still have Nynex on them.

Another reason to get connected was to have a second line for the internet, before broadband became cheap.

[RetroAEROSMITH]

Re: Only On Sky / Satellite / Digital

I remember in the very early 80s a family close to ours had cable and they used to have a music show maybe called "the box" but it also had like a presenter with a puppet like roland rat. I remember a different live aid show playing at the same time as our tv channel. He could watch films that were never shown in this country - evil dead and phantasm for starters - I also remember it had a tendency to break down quite often.

I used to think it would be so cool to have cable and when in the early 90s we did get sky I always thought we would get all the USA stuff and the USA ad breaks etc but no it was just cheap british tv and the same adverts...oh plus those German channels that showed risky stuff later on at night...which i never watched.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Only On Sky / Satellite / Digital

I have spent my entire life as an outsider to the world of satellite and cable TV. My parents never had it and I've never had it either, although I do have freeview now. I've had years of friends talking about shows that I've only seen occasionally at other people's houses but it's never bothered me as I don't really watch that much TV now.

[makum101]

Re: Only On Sky / Satellite / Digital

I had Sky from night one (i had a dish before it launched and watched Virgin's "Super Channel").

Back in the early days the BBC were hell bent on down talking Satellite TV, even making a sit com called KYTV, which mocked it.

However the turning point soon came when Sky outbid the BBC for the second series of Moonlighting. Very embarrassing for the Beeb having to justify the licence fee when loosing their shows to crappy Satellite TV.

The mocking soon stopped and the Beeb fell silent on the subject.

[Richard1978]

Re: Only On Sky / Satellite / Digital

Sky managed to buy up a lot of American sitcoms early on, which never seemed to find their way to the other channels. 21 Jump Street & Family Matters come to mind.

ITV were also wary of competition from Sky, which explains the gradual deregionalisation (is that a word?) from the late 1980s onwards. Also there seemed to be a move away from material deemed too "working class".

Channel 4 lost the 'first run' rights to Friends & ER to Sky at one time.