31-08-2023, 02:54 PM
Even if Sky hadn't happened, chances are someone else would have come along and launched services aimed at the UK on the commercial satellites, free of the regulatory restrictions BSB had, though I guess it's possible BSB themselves may have done it themselves. Those restrictions were always going to be the death of BSB when others would be able to run services with much cheaper and widely available PAL equipment and weren't restricted to 5 (or 10) channels.
Astra wasn't just Sky after all, even in early 1989 there were the likes of MTV, TCC, Lifestyle and Screensport which were nothing to do with Sky (at first anyway, MTV and TCC later ended up behind their paywall) which suggests there'd likely have been a fair amount of English language channels building up on there even if Sky hadn't got involved.
Astra wasn't just Sky after all, even in early 1989 there were the likes of MTV, TCC, Lifestyle and Screensport which were nothing to do with Sky (at first anyway, MTV and TCC later ended up behind their paywall) which suggests there'd likely have been a fair amount of English language channels building up on there even if Sky hadn't got involved.