Global InformationSky Group information
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 Sky Campus in Isleworth | |
Trade name | Sky |
|---|---|
| Company type | Division |
Traded as | LSE: SKY |
| Industry |
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| Predecessor |
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| Founded | 2 November 1990 |
| Headquarters | Sky Campus, Isleworth, Greater London , England |
Area served | Europe |
Key people |
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| 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 |
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| Subsidiaries |
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| Website | skygroup.sky |
| Footnotes / references [1][2][3] | |
  | |
| 1912 | Universal Pictures is founded |
|---|---|
| 1926 | NBC is founded |
| 1928 | Universal Cartoon Studios (later known as Walter Lantz Productions) is founded |
| 1943 | MCA Inc. establishes Revue Studios (later Universal Television) |
| 1953 | NBC begins first compatible color broadcasts, preceding other networks by nine years |
| 1956 | NBC's first peacock logo debuts |
| 1963 | American Cable Systems is founded |
| 1964 | Universal Studios Hollywood opens |
| 1967 | NBC broadcasts the first Super Bowl |
| 1968 | American Cable Systems rebrands to Comcast |
| 1972 | Comcast began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) |
| 1975 | Universal releases Jaws |
| 1980 | PolyGram renames Casablanca Record & Filmworks to PolyGram Pictures |
| 1982 | Universal releases E.T. The Extra Terrestrial |
| 1984 | Walter Lantz Productions is sold to Universal |
| 1985 | Universal releases Back to the Future |
| 1986 | General Electric buys RCA for $6.4 billion, including NBC and a stake in A&E |
| 1989 | NBC relaunches Tempo Television as CNBC |
| 1990 | Universal Studios Florida opens Law & Order premieres on NBC Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merge to form British Sky Broadcasting Universal Cartoon Studios (later Universal Animation Studios) is established |
| 1993 | Universal releases Jurassic Park |
| 1994 | DreamWorks Animation is founded |
| 1996 | NBC and Microsoft launch MSNBC |
| 1997 | Barry Diller purchases Universal's domestic television assets |
| 1998 | Seagram acquires PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Universal Television is renamed Studios USA Television |
| 1999 | PolyGram Filmed Entertainment is folded into Universal Pictures Universal Studios Florida expands to become Universal Orlando Resort Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premieres on NBC |
| 2001 | Grand opening of Universal Studios Japan Universal releases The Fast and the Furious Vivendi purchases Studios USA |
| 2002 | NBC acquires Telemundo and Bravo Studios USA assets are folded into Universal Focus Features is formed Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband for $44.5 billion |
| 2003 | Universal becomes the first studio with five summer releases breaking the $100 million mark |
| 2004 | GE and Vivendi merge NBC and Universal into NBCUniversal |
| 2005 | The Office premieres on NBC Comcast sets up a joint-venture with PBS, Sesame Workshop & HIT Entertainment to form PBS Kids Sprout Comcast & Time Warner Cable jointly acquire Adelphia Cable assets for $17.6 billion |
| 2006 | USA Network begins 13-year streak as #1 cable network in total viewers |
| 2007 | Illumination is founded |
| 2010 | Universal releases Illumination's first film Despicable Me |
| 2011 | Vivendi divested in NBCU; Comcast buys 51% of NBCU from GE, turning it into a limited liability company NBCUniversal Archives is founded |
| 2012 | Universal celebrates its 100th anniversary NBCUniversal divests its A&E Networks minority stake |
| 2013 | Comcast buys GE's remaining 49% of NBCU Comcast/NBCU assumes full ownership of Sprout |
| 2014 | Comcast attempts to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion NBCUniversal reaches a new long-term deal with WWE |
| 2016 | NBCU acquires DreamWorks Animation |
| 2017 | Sprout relaunches as Universal Kids |
| 2018 | Comcast acquires Sky after a heated bidding war with 21st Century Fox |
| 2019 | NBCU acquires Cineo Lighting |
| 2020 | NBCU launches Peacock |
| 2021 | Grand opening of Universal Beijing Resort |
| 2023 | The Super Mario Bros. Movie becomes Illumination's highest-grossing film |
Sky Group Limited[4] is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Comcast, and headquartered in Isleworth. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue (as of 2018[update]),[5] with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019.[2][6] The company is primarily involved in satellite television, producing and broadcasting. The current CEO is Dana Strong.
Initially formed in 1990 by the equal merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, BSkyB became the UK's largest digital pay television company.[7] In 2014, after completing the acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, the merged company changed its name to Sky plc.[8]
Prior to November 2018, Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox owned a 39.14% controlling stake in the company;[9] on 9 December 2016, following a previous attempt under News Corporation that was affected by the News International phone hacking scandal, 21st Century Fox announced that it had agreed to buy the remainder of Sky, pending government approval. However, after a bidding war that included the Walt Disney Company (which was, in turn, acquiring most of 21st Century Fox's assets), US media and telecoms conglomerate Comcast acquired the entirety of Sky in 2018 for £17.28 per share. NBCUniversal, which is Sky Group's sister company, is also a subsidiary of Comcast.
Before the acquisition by Comcast, Sky was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and had a market capitalisation of approximately £18.75 billion (€26.76 billion) as of 2018.[10]
- ^ "Sky ad revenue down 9% as Comcast reports lower profit". the-media-leader.com. 26 January 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ a b "Sky at a glance". Sky. Archived from the original on 4 November 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
- ^ "Sky to double down on originals under in-house Studios banner". TBI Vision. 12 June 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ^ "SKY GROUP LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
- ^ "Leading European pay TV operators by revenue 2018". Statista. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
- ^ "News Corp. slows BSkyB bid". Ottawa Citizen. 14 October 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Mike, Snider (15 December 2016). "Murdoch's Fox acquires U.K.'s Sky network". USA Today. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
- ^ "Sky creates Europe's leading entertainment company". Sky. 13 November 2014. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ "Phone Scandal Poses Defining Test for a Murdoch Son". The New York Times. 8 July 2011. Archived from the original on 9 July 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- ^ "FTSE All-Share Index Ranking". stockchallenge.co.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2011.