Original Channel
| Sky 2 | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1 September 1996 |
| Closed | 31 August 1997 |
| Owned by | British Sky Broadcasting |
| Country | United Kingdom, Ireland |
| Replaced by | National Geographic Channel |
| Sister channel(s) | Sky 1 |
| Availability (at time of closure) |
|
| Satellite | |
| Analogue | Astra 1E, 11.303H |
Sky 2 was originally a television channel from British Sky Broadcasting, which launched on 1 September 1996 as a sister channel to Sky One, as part of a new bouquet of Sky channels including The Computer Channel and Sky Scottish. For an opening night it held an X-Files theme night. While the channel was still being broadcast, Sky One was branded as "Sky 1". Unlike the later Sky One spin-off, Sky One Mix, the channel showed exclusive first-run television shows rather than the same programming as its parent. Prominent shows on its schedule included Xena: Warrior Princess, Profit, TekWar and Melrose Place.
Sky used the launch of the channel and the rebrand of Sky 1 to introduce Digital On-screen Graphics, on both channels.
While at some points the channel reached viewing figures nearly equal to that of its sister channel (such as for the initial episode of Xena: Warrior Princess), it was never very successful. It was eventually closed following the death of Princess Diana on 31 August 1997.
Read more about this topic: Sky Mix
Famous quotes containing the words original and/or channel:
“The salary cap ... will be accepted about the time the 13 original states restore the monarchy.”
—Tom Reich, U.S. baseball agent. New York Times, p. 16B (August 11, 1994)
“How old the world is! I walk between two eternities.... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel ever deeper, that forest that is tottering and those great masses above my head about to fall? I see the marble of tombs crumbling into dust; and yet I don’t want to die!”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)