Sky Channel

Background

On 16 January 1984, Satellite Television was renamed Sky Channel and launched in the United Kingdom on Swindon Cable as well as many more international territories.

The rebrand gave way to great success, and eventually on 5 February 1989, Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television launched, consisting of four networks (Sky Channel, Sky Movies, Sky News, and Eurosport). At this point, Sky Channel restructured to focus exclusively on the UK and Irish markets, with its slot on European cable operators across the world being replaced with Eurosport, although a late-night block of Sky programmes titled Sky Europe operated on the network to fulfill existing contracts.

On 31 July 1989, Sky Channel was renamed as Sky One.

1st ID (1984-1989)

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Visuals: Against a cloudy background, or a space background, the text "SKY" in a 3D, chrome stylized font, flips toward the screen, stops and shines. The text "Europe's number #1" wipes in. Sometimes, the screen pans through the SKY logo and it zooms out. "CHANNEL" fades in.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A majestic fanfare, with an announcer saying "This is Sky, Europe's number 1." On the space variant, a synth guitar theme plays, then after the announcer says "This is Sky," a choir sings "We're Europe's number 1".

2nd ID (5 February-April 1989)

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Visuals: The sequence starts with an extreme close up of the SKY logo, panning through the letters. Then the screen zooms out, and a gold line writes in the word "channel".

Technique: CGI done by Pacific Data Images on an SGI 4D/25.

Audio: Same as the BSB ID. On the "TELEVISION" variant, a single synth theme (also composed by Frank Gari) was used.

3rd ID (May-30 July 1989)

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Visuals: On a black background is the SKY logo rotating into place, with what looks like glass swirls spinning counterclockwise around it. When it stops, tilted at an angle, a gold line writes out the word "Channel". The letters "glow".

Technique: CGI. This was designed and animated by Pacific Data Images.

Audio: Same as the previous ID.

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Sky Channel

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