| About Sky |
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BSkyB) is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company based in London, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
Formed in 1990 by the equal merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, BSkyB is the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the United Kingdom with over 10 million subscribers.
Sky+ HD is the brand name of the HDTV service launched by BSkyB on 22 May 2006 to enable high definition channels on Sky to be viewed.
On 30 June 2011, Sky announced that the total number of homes with Sky+HD currently stands at 3.822m.
Sky began to broadcast programmes in 3D in April 2010. This included new 3D channels, including a Sky Sports 3D and Sky Movies 3D. Sky previously experimented with 3D broadcasting by broadcasting an Arsenal vs Manchester United football game live in 3D in nine pubs situated throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Sky also offers a Freesat service called Freesat from Sky, a valid card is required to watch Free-To-View channels.
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| History of Sky 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 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 ONdigital (later ITV 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.
Originally Sky Digital launched with a set top box known as the Sky digibox, however, in more recent years the Sky+ and Sky+ HD boxes have launched alongside the original box.
Sky+ is a digital video recorder with an internal hard drive which 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 Sky HD receiver began appearing in magazines in August 2005. All Sky+ HD 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.
The rest of the hard drive is now used by Sky set top boxes to store up to 30 hours of Anytime TV from the previous week.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.
In early 2012, Sky released an update to its Sky Anytime service. This update offers customers the chance to buy and rent films from the Sky Store. In June 2012, Sky launched a new EPG for Sky+ HD boxes. The update boasts a new modernised look and improved functionality.
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| Technical Information |
| Sky'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 and most of the HD material uses the DVB-S2 standard. 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 (9.75/10.600 GHz) 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 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 the user's contract with Sky and invalidates the user's rights to use the card.
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BSkyB has no veto over the presence of channels on their EPG, with open access being an enforced part of their operating licence from Ofcom. 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 channel's content or carriage issues such as picture quality. Recent years have seen the launch of numerous low-budget channels, including foreign and shopping channels, often with very poor technical quality.
Sky has stopped taking channel launch applications for its Electronic Programme Guide (EPG). Ofcom has said that this will give existing channels an unfair advantage and may force Sky to replace older set-top boxes for customers with the newer ones. |
| Due to either limited regional availability of certain channels, or conditions relating to their must-carry status, Sky operate four regional variations of their EPG for domestic customers. The four different EPGs transmitted are: Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England/Scotland. The Northern Ireland EPG has the most listed channels, with the Republic of Ireland having the least, the difference is major as the ITV channels, Channel 5 and BBC Radio are missing. Much of the missing content for Irish viewers is available through 'Other Channels' though Sky+ viewers cannot record from 'Other Channels'. These missing channels are a bone of contention for Irish viewers, who are often forced to seek out grey market UK Sky cards if they want the missing channels.
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| Customers in Ireland pay 20% more and get an inferior service. Each viewing card or smartcard provided by Sky is programmed with the customer's postcode, so when inserted into the user's set-top box it selects which EPG is used, as well as determining which regional variation is allotted to the BBC One, BBC Two and ITV channels for users of the England/Scotland EPG. All regional variations of BBC One and BBC Two are available to all UK viewers on channels 971-992. |
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| Encryption (NDS Videoguard) |
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VideoGuard produced by NDS, is a digital encryption system for use with conditional access television broadcasting. It is used on digital satellite television systems - some of which are operated by News Corporation, which owns about half (49%) of NDS. Its two most widely used implementations are BSkyB's Sky Digital in the United Kingdom and Ireland and DirecTV in the United States, the former of which launched the digital version of the system in 1998.
Videoguard is unusual in that legitimate external Conditional Access Modules are not available, the encryption system instead being built in to the hardware and firmware of platform-supplied set top boxes. |
Since the majority of content provided by companies like BSkyB requires subscription, VideoGuard protects that content by encrypting both standard subscription channels and pay-per-view movies and events. Access flags can be downloaded to the subscriber's card either over the air (via 'hidden' data streams) or by using the box's built in modem, thereby allowing rapid changing of channel packages and ordering of events.
The VideoGuard system was introduced to the UK by NDS in 1998 with the launch of Sky Digital, replacing the VideoCrypt system (also supplied by NDS) in use on Sky's analogue broadcasts. The implementation of Videoguard in the UK has remained secure, although various pay per view flaws have been identified in the past. Even these flaws are related merely to the circuitry of the Set-Top Box (STB), rather than the NDS card. It is suspected that the version initially used by Sky Digital was either insecure or close to being broken, as a software update rolled out to all boxes required replacement of the BSkyB subscriber's viewing card. Even so, wholesale card replacements are rare, currently having occurred just twice during the lieftime of Sky Digital - once in 2002/2003, and again in 2009.
While most commonly used to protect pay-TV, VideoGuard is also used by numerous non-subscription broadcasters to enforce geographic rights restrictions. Videoguard has been used by the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 to restrict non-UK viewing, although in recent years these broadcasters have moved to broadcasting Free-To-Air (FTA) on a more geographically restricted footprint which is mainly, although not entirely, focused on the UK and Ireland.
Sky choose to pair their cards, meaning that a paired (also called "married") card can be used only in a specific receiver, although almost all non-premium channels will still allow viewing even if the box and card are not paired. Other channels, such as Sky's sports and movie channels, cannot be viewed unless the viewing card is being used in its specifically paired set top box. |
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| Sky+ HD |
Sky+ HD is the brand name of the HDTV service launched by BSkyB on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky Digital to be viewed. For the first 2 years after launch, the service was branded Sky HD. The service requires the user to have a Sky+ HD Digibox and an HD ready TV. Customers who pre-ordered by paying a deposit before 6 April 2006 were the first to receive the service, with installations starting on 21 May 2006. On 23 October 2009, Sky announced that the total number of homes with Sky+HD currently stands at 1.6m.
A number of FTA HD channels are available which do not require a subscription, only an HD capable digibox such as the Sky+ HD box.
BBC One HD and BBC HD, ITV 1 HD and Channel 4 HD broadcasts free to air. Channel 5 HD is currently Free-To-View.
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| Sky Go |
Sky Go is an online television service from Sky which launched in January 2006. The service allows users to watch live and on demand video content from their Mac, Windows PC, mobile phone or Xbox 360 via a broadband or Wi-Fi internet connection. On demand content comprises sports highlights, latest news, movies and TV programmes. Content is viewable for a limited amount of time and is protected by digital rights management software provided by Microsoft and the NDS Group, and therefore cannot be copied to disc or viewed beyond the date carried by its license. The service is available at no extra cost to existing Sky TV customers, with accessible content depending on the subscriber's Sky package. Non-Sky TV customers can access the service by subscribing on a pay-per-view basis.
Sky Go is viewable on up to two devices. The Microsoft Silverlight 3.0 browser plug-in is required to play content on computers. Due to viewing rights, certain programmes are not available to watch via Sky Go, and are 'blacked out' from the schedule. In order to have access to the full selection of live TV channels available on Sky Go, users will need either a Sky Multiroom or Sky Broadband Unlimited subscription, on top of the required TV packages that correspond to the available channels |
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| Sky Broadband |
Sky Broadband is an internet service provider for Sky customers. As of July 2012 Sky claims to have reached 4 million customers, and unbundled exchanges covering over 70% of the United Kingdom. Sky Broadband provides Sky customers with download speeds of up to 20Mbit/s (from Sky enabled exchanges, by means of LLU), using ADSL2+ via an Openreach landline (often still referred to as a BT line).
Sky also introduced a free broadband and calls package for its digital TV subscribers within the Sky Broadband network area. This means anyone on Sky can get free broadband (with a 2GB usage limit) and free evening & weekend calls, as long as the line is in a Sky Broadband network area. For customers whose exchange has not been Sky enabled, the Connect service is available using the BT Wholesale network. |
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