Sky Group facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Sky Group Limited

Sky Campus in Isleworth
Formerly	British Sky Broadcasting plc (1990-2014) Sky plc (2014-2019)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Telecommunications Mass media
Predecessor	Sky Television British Satellite Broadcasting
Founded	2 November 1990; 34 years ago (2 November 1990)
Headquarters	Sky Campus, Isleworth, Greater London , England
Area served	Europe
Key people	Jeremy Darroch (executive chairman) Dana Strong (CEO)
Products	Direct-broadcast satellite, pay television, broadcasting, broadband and telephony services
Revenue	£14.5 billion (2022)
Number of employees	32,000 (2021)
Parent	Comcast (2018–present)
Divisions	The Cloud Diagonal View
Subsidiaries	Sky UK Sky Deutschland Sky Italia Sky Studios Now

Sky Group Limited is a big British company that works in media and telecommunications. It's now part of an American company called Comcast. Sky's main office is in Isleworth, England.

Sky operates in many countries across Europe, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. It's known as Europe's largest media company and pay-TV provider. In 2018, Sky had 23 million customers and over 31,000 employees. The company mostly provides satellite television services, and it also creates and broadcasts TV shows. The current boss (CEO) of Sky is Dana Strong.

Sky was first created in 1990. This happened when two companies, Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, joined together. The new company, called BSkyB, became the biggest digital pay-TV company in the UK. In 2014, BSkyB bought companies in Italy and Germany, so it changed its name to Sky plc.

Before 2018, a company called 21st Century Fox owned a big part of Sky. In 2016, 21st Century Fox wanted to buy all of Sky. However, there was a big competition to buy Sky. Another company, Comcast, also wanted to buy it. In 2018, Comcast won the bidding war and bought all of Sky.

Before Comcast bought it, Sky was listed on the London Stock Exchange. This meant its shares could be bought and sold by the public.

History of Sky

Sky has a long and interesting history, growing from two smaller companies into a huge media group.

How Sky Started (BSkyB)

How satellite TV changed in the UK.

British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was formed on November 2, 1990. This happened when Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merged. Both companies were losing money because they were competing against each other. The merger helped them become stronger together.

The government looked into the merger to make sure it was fair. They approved it a month later. Sam Chisholm became the new boss (CEO) to help fix the company's money problems. Many employees were let go, and the number of TV channels was reduced to save money. Sky also made new deals with Hollywood studios to lower costs.

By 1991, Sky was losing much less money each week. This was because many new customers joined. By March 1992, BSkyB even started making a small profit!

Sports on Sky

In 1991, Sky made a very important deal. It bought the rights to show live Premier League football matches. This was a big deal because another TV network, ITV, also wanted these rights. Sky teamed up with the BBC to make a winning offer. The BBC got the highlights, and Sky paid a lot of money to show up to 60 live matches each year.

This deal was a game-changer for Sky. Showing live sports helped Sky get many new customers. The company's owner, Rupert Murdoch, said that sports were like a "battering ram" for pay-TV. Sky continued to buy the rights to Premier League football for many years. Later, other broadcasters were also allowed to show some matches to increase competition.

Becoming a Public Company

In 1994, BSkyB decided to sell some of its shares to the public. This is called "floating the company" on the stock exchange. They sold 20% of the company, which helped them reduce their debt. Sam Chisholm, the CEO, was very successful during this time.

In 1995, Sky opened a second customer service center in Scotland. The company also joined the FTSE 100 Index, which lists the 100 largest companies on the London Stock Exchange.

In 1997, Sam Chisholm left Sky. Later, Sky worked with other companies to create a new digital TV service called ONdigital. Sky also started its own music channels, but these didn't do very well. Sky then bought a channel called Artsworld to offer more cultural content.

By 2007, another free TV service called Freeview had more customers than Sky Digital. In July 2007, Sky bought Amstrad, an electronics company. Sky also bought Virgin Media Television in 2010, which included channels like Virgin1. Virgin1 was later renamed Channel One.

In 2010, News Corporation (which owned a big part of Sky) tried to buy all of Sky. However, problems arose from a scandal involving a newspaper owned by News Corporation. This led News Corporation to stop its plan to buy Sky. James Murdoch, who was the chairman of Sky and News International, stepped down from his roles in the UK. In 2013, News Corporation split into two companies. One of these, 21st Century Fox, kept the big share in Sky.

Growing in Europe

In 2014, BSkyB announced plans to buy the rest of Sky Deutschland (Sky Germany) and all of Sky Italia (Sky Italy) from 21st Century Fox. This big deal, worth about £4.9 billion, brought all of 21st Century Fox's European TV businesses under one company. This new, larger company was sometimes called "Sky Europe." The deal was completed in November 2014.

Sky plc

After buying the companies in Germany and Italy, British Sky Broadcasting Group plc changed its name to Sky plc. This new name showed that it was now a bigger, European company. The UK part of the business was renamed Sky UK Limited. Sky plc then bought the remaining shares in Sky Deutschland in 2015.

Who Wanted to Buy Sky?

In 2016, 21st Century Fox again tried to buy all of Sky plc for £11.7 billion. This was their second attempt. The deal needed approval from the government. Some people were worried that this purchase would give the Murdoch family (who owned 21st Century Fox) too much control over news in the UK.

Then, in 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced it would buy most of 21st Century Fox's businesses, including its share in Sky. This made the situation even more interesting!

In 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority (a government group) suggested that Sky News should be kept separate or sold. This was to make sure Sky News stayed independent from the Murdoch family. Sky said it might have to rethink Sky News if the merger was too difficult.

Then, a new company joined the competition. On April 25, 2018, Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal) made a higher offer to buy Sky. This started a "bidding war" where companies kept offering more money to buy Sky. Comcast wanted to buy Sky to grow its business in English-speaking countries.

In June 2018, the UK government approved both 21st Century Fox's and Comcast's offers to buy Sky. Comcast then made an even bigger offer to buy some of 21st Century Fox's assets that Disney wanted. However, Fox decided to go with Disney's offer for those assets.

The competition to buy Sky continued. On July 11, 2018, Fox increased its bid for Sky. Just hours later, Comcast made an even higher offer! On September 20, 2018, a special auction was held to decide who would buy Sky. Comcast won the auction with a bid of £17.28 per share, which was higher than Fox's offer.

After winning, Comcast started buying Sky shares from the public. On September 26, 2018, Fox announced it would sell all its shares in Sky to Comcast. By October 4, 2018, Comcast had bought most of Sky.

Sky Group Ltd Today

On October 12, 2018, Comcast announced it would buy all the remaining shares of Sky. Sky was removed from the stock exchange on November 7, 2018, after Comcast bought all its shares.

In 2021, Sky Group made a deal with Paramount Global to bring the streaming service Paramount+ to the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Paramount+ launched for Sky customers in the UK and Ireland on June 22, 2022.

Sky's Leaders

Sky has had several important leaders over the years.

• Executive Chairman: Jeremy Darroch (since January 2021)
• Chief Executive: Dana Strong (since January 2021)

Past Leaders

Here are some of the people who used to lead Sky:

• Former Chairmen:

* Rupert Murdoch (1990–2007) * James Murdoch (2007–2012) * Nicholas Ferguson (2012–2016) * James Murdoch (2016–2018); second time

• Former Chief Executives:

* Sam Chisholm (1990–1997) * Mark Booth (1997–1999) * Tony Ball (1999–2003) * James Murdoch (2003–2007) * Jeremy Darroch (2007–2021)

Sam Chisholm was the first CEO of BSkyB. He helped reorganize the company after the merger. Later, Tony Ball became CEO and helped Sky switch from analogue to digital TV. He also brought the company back to making profits.

In 2003, James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's son, became CEO. Some people thought this was unfair because of his family connection. In 2007, James Murdoch became chairman, and Jeremy Darroch took over as CEO. Jeremy Darroch was CEO for many years.

In January 2021, Jeremy Darroch stepped down as CEO. He became the executive chairman for a year. Dana Strong then became the new CEO.

What Sky Does Now

Sky Group has many different parts and services.

Companies Sky Owns

Sky Group owns several companies that help it provide its services:

Partnerships Sky Has

Sky also works with other companies in different projects:

Sky Services in Different Countries

Sky offers different services depending on the country:

Past Operations

Sky has also had some businesses that it no longer owns or operates.

Former Companies Sky Owned

Former Partnerships Sky Had

Stake in ITV

Sky (then BSkyB) once owned a part of ITV plc, another big TV company. In 2006, BSkyB bought a large share of ITV. This move caused some debate and an investigation by the media regulator Ofcom. In 2014, Sky sold its share in ITV.

Images for kids

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  How satellite TV changed in the UK.