[Stuart]

When Sky on Demand first came round it was only available to Sky customers. That was eventually dropped.

But on the other hand, when it was just Sky TV and internet was only available via dial-up, Sky didn't do this (being TV only at the time), and they only entered that market by buying somebody else when broadband became a thing in the early/mid 2000's.

Probably safe to say the company they bought did do dial-up before Sky came along, under the model that Freeserve premiered in 1998 that eventually saw the end of the Compuserve and AOL way of internet access.

I think Sky went down quite a progressive route from the beginning which matched the technology available at the time.

- PPV from the movies service from timed channels on analogue
- then up to 700 digital channels which was a 'view once only' at staggered times mixed with pre-loaded 'Anytime+'
- then the full SVOD download when cancelling the staggered broadcasts

I think they played the game rather well.

I think that Sky's policy of still allowing HQ downloads from all catch-up services is one of their best features.