British Sky Broadcasting Group Share Price (BSY) - Buy BSY Shares

British Sky Broadcasting plc (often referred to as BskyB) is the biggest subscription television provider in the United Kingdom and is a member of the FTSE 100 share price index. The origins of the company come from a Europe-wide channel owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation launched in the early 1980s and called the Sky Channel. This was later developed into a network of channels to anticipate British Satellite Broadcasting being launched in 1990 to compete in the pay TV market. Due to high operating costs in the industry, the two companies merged shortly after the launch of British Satellite Broadcasting and branding reverted to Sky as did most of the technical supply. The company continued to add to its initially small range of channels becoming a true multichannel provider by the time of the launch of Sky Digital in 1998.

The company has made a number of significant acquisitions in the last decade. A 17.9% shareholding in terrestrial broadcaster ITV was acquired in 2006. In 2007 the company acquired electronics company Amstrad which had become the largest supplier of set top boxes to Sky. Sky's popularity has been maintained through its exclusive ownership of Premier League football rights in the UK and through new services such as Sky+ (launched in 2001). The company has not suffered significant competition in the pay TV market for most of its existence although in recent years it has faced high profile competition from cable provider Virgin Media (itself the result of a merger between NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile). In 2007 Sky employed over 13,000 staff and had revenues of over £4.5 billion.