You didn't mention The Simpsons. I don't have any figures to back this up, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if Sky didn't do a phenomenal job in upping subscriptions when they got their hands on that in the early 90s.
I gather Sky's on the same wavelengths as Channel 5 these days. From what little I've watched of Sky One over the years (and their latest ad campaign) it seems to have tightened its operation from gaudily cheerful to entertaining rumination.
You didn't mention The Simpsons. I don't have any figures to back this up, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if Sky didn't do a phenomenal job in upping subscriptions when they got their hands on that in the early 90s.
I gather Sky's on the same wavelengths as Channel 5 these days. From what little I've watched of Sky One over the years (and their latest ad campaign) it seems to have tightened its operation from gaudily cheerful to entertaining rumination.
So good I said it twice.
The original stuff on Sky One is all pretty rubbish, and the US imports aren't much better. Isn't anyone making good TV anymore?
The only things I watch are the Simpsons (99% repeats) and Star Trek (100% repeats). Everything else looks either dull and generic, or loud and boring. Multichannel TV was supposed to herald an era of innovation but what we've atually ended up with is more people making the same kind of programs at progressively lower levels of quality.
"The original stuff on Sky One is all pretty rubbish, and the US imports aren't much better."
Sky One does have Deadwood and Battlestar Galactica which are both (in different ways) ace. But the domestically produced stuff (the football thing?, the witch thing?) is dire.
I actually think of Sky One as the downmarket version of Channel 5, similar types of programs are shown but sometimes C5 will show documentaries of various sorts. And not just the Top 100... kind either.
No love for Time Gentlemen Please?
DREAM TEAM has been a consistently strong performer for Sky One, though, and HEX - albeit quite possibly because of ELizabeth Murdoch's involvement - has been picked up for a second series.
The second series of 'Hex' is actually a bit worse than the first. This has to be some kind of acheivement in UK broadcasting. I'm sure Sky can make up an award to give themselves.
BZ
Did they ever make a second series of "Time Gentlemen Please"? If so, in the name of God why?
Anyway - Sky will trundle on happily enough because it is the perfect platform for niche broadcasting, notably of sports. As the major sports move inevitably towards a complete pay-per-view system (I give football three years), Sky's dominance will only grow.
It's pay-per-movie service is also highly popular.
Murdoch has shown zero interested in acquiring unique mainstream entertainment for his service and I doubt he'll start bothering now.
Freeview will dominate the general audience until 'broadcast on demand' kills the entire debate.
I don't know if anybody really goes for Sky because of Sky One or the niche channels - most of which is fairly dire and not essential since the most popular foreign stuff does end up on terrestial anyway, usually C4.
Sky's major advantage is being able to offer in-depth and comprehensive sports coverage unimpeded by the need to fit it around exisiting schedules.
Although given how football's popularity is wearing out, that's not going to be as big a weapon as it used to be.
Sky One, their in-house mainstream channel, is still hugely overreliant on American imports, and has never really found a replacement for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Don't forget that they actually cancelled Buffy, only reinstating it after it got popular via BBC2.
Similarly, The X-Files was tucked away at midnight on Sunday nights until its popularity exploded on the BBC.
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