Sky Box Office (UK & Ireland)
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- This article is about the UK PPV system. For the New Zealand PPV system see SKY Box Office (New Zealand)
| Sky Box Office | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | January 1997 |
| Owned by | BSkyB |
| Website | www.skymovies.com |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| Sky Digital | Channels 700 - 752 |
Sky Box Office is the name of BSkyB's Pay Per View (PPV) system. It shows movies and occasionally sporting events. As of 2005, it has 52 'screens', Sky having recently closed 8 additional screens to save bandwidth for their HDTV services.
[edit] History
Sky Box Office launched on 16th March 1996 on Sky Analogue. At the time it carried mainly sporting events, such as major boxing fights. The first of these was Frank Bruno's WBC World Heavyweight Championship defence against Mike Tyson. Initially events were ordered by telephone, either on the day of broadcast for £14.95 or in advance at a reduced price of £9.99. Ordering an event charged the viewer's card with a token which, in conjunction with the VideoCrypt system, unlocked the broadcast. The charge would be levied unless the viewer cancelled prior to broadcast, or returned the viewing card as proof that the event hadn't been watched.
4 dedicated Sky Box Office channels were launched on 1st December 1997 on Sky Analogue. At this time multiple showings of selected movies, shown in advance of their broadcast on Sky's existing subscription movie channels, were added. Initial movies included The Long Kiss Goodnight and Courage Under Fire. However, at least one hour pre-ordering was required, and for most movies one purchase at £2.99 only bought one viewing.
With the move to Sky Digital in 1998, where the Sky Digibox provided a data return path, events and movies - the latter now copy protected - could be bought minutes before or even during the event either by telephone or through an on-screen menu and pin-number system.
[edit] Content
Although at launch it showed mainly sporting events, since the launch of Sky Digital, movies along with concerts have become the predominant content. However, Box Office's limited movie choices and relatively high prices have increasingly left it suffering in comparison to Internet DVD rental systems. Films are currently first shown on Sky Box Office between two and three months after release on DVD. It is likely that this 'window' will come down further, in line with US models[citation needed].
Since 1997, the channel has also shown World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (formerly World Wrestling Federation) events. From 1997 to 2003 it showed UK only WWF PPV events. However, when the deal with Channel 4 to show 4 WWE events (Royal Rumble, Backlash, July's PPV, and Armageddeon) broke down in 2002, Sky picked up the 4 events and showed them on Sky Box Office, with a charge of £14.95. This angered many fans as previously these events had been shown on Sky Sports. Others, however, were glad the events were back on Sky, despite the cost, because they believed Sky's coverage was superior to Channel 4. Sky showed the events live and uncut, whereas Channel 4 showed the 2000 Royal Rumble live with adverts inserted, consequently losing footage. Other events were shown on a 50 minute delay in order to insert adverts without losing footage. Backlash 2000 was edited, despite the fact it broadcast at 1.50am. After viewer complaints about this editing, Channel 4 showed the remaining events unedited. However, they were still shown on a delay. As of 2006, eight WWE events are shown on the channel. The other eight WWE PPV's are shown on Sky Sports. The price is still £14.95 even for Wrestlemania, despite the fact that in the USA the WWE charges $49.95, which is the equivalent of just under £26.
