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| Type | Pay TV network |
|---|---|
| Country | Germany |
| Availability | Cable Satellite |
| Founded | 28 February 1991 |
| Slogan | Das Besondere sehen. |
| Broadcast area | Germany, Austria |
| Owner | Sky Deutschland AG |
| Key people | Mark Williams, Chairman |
| Former names | Premiere |
| Official Website | http://www.sky.de/ |
Sky Deutschland AG (Premiere AG until 9 July 2009) is a German media company and owns 100 percent of its subsidiary Sky Deutschland Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG (formerly Premiere Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG), who operates the first German pay television platform, offering several channels of digital content via satellite and cable.
The channel originally started off as a single analogue channel on the Astra 1A satellite, showing films in original audio as well as dubbed in German, live football matches from the German Bundesliga and at one time the UEFA Cup. As well as documentaries, TV series and in the mid 90's late-night erotic films. After the coming of the digital age, the service has since consisted of many channels with many new ones added over the years. On 4 July 2009 the channels were rebranded as "Sky".
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History
The German Sky has its origin in the analogue premium channel "Premiere". It was owned by Kirch Group, Bertelsmann and Canal+ and started broadcasting in 1991.
In 1996, Kirch Media launched a digital satellite platform called DF1 which offered several different channels, including premium movie and sports channels.
Premiere started broadcasting three digital channels in 1997, one channel mirroring the analogue channel and two showing the same content at different times.
Premiere and DF1 merged to form "Premiere World" on 1 October 1999. Many of the channels offered on DF1 were carried over to Premiere World, others were rebranded or closed.
In 2002, the service became known as simply "Premiere". Many of the channels were rebranded and the package structure was overhauled at the same time. At the same time, KirchGroup filed for bankruptcy. In 2003, investment group Permira stepped in and took control of Premiere.
Exclusivity was for a long time a major selling point for Premiere, and most of its channels were only available through the Premiere platform. This changed in September 2007, when Premiere launched "Premiere Star", a new satellite package made up of channels that weren't exclusive to Premiere. The package included TNT, Sat.1 Comedy, Kabel eins Classics, AXN, Kinowelt.TV, RTL Living, e-clips, Animax, Playhouse Disney, Toon Disney, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, MTV Music, ESPN, MTV Entertainment and Nick Premium.[1]
On 4 July 2009, Premiere was rebranded to become Sky Deutschland. In conjunction with the relaunch, many channels would disappear from the platform, many would switch packages, many were renamed and several new channels were added. The rebrand resulted a return of News Corporation's Sky brand in Germany since the encryption of the Sky Channel (now Sky1) in 1993, apart from availablity of Sky News.
Sky is owned 39% by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
Channels
The channels that make up the Sky package broadcast from the Astra 19.2°E satellite position, using the Astra 1H, Astra 1L, and Astra 1M satellites. Channels are uplinked by ASTRA Platform Services.
See also
References
- ^ "Premiere Star announces full channel line-up". broadbandtvnews.com. August 16, 2007. http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2007/08/16/premiere-star-announces-full-channel-line-up/.
External links
- Consumer Website (German)
- Corporate Website (German)
- English language Corporate Website
- Channel and Transponder List (English)
- Premiere Direkt Guide (English)
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