Sky Group

Sky Group Limited

Sky Campus in Isleworth
Trade name	Sky
Company type	Division
Traded as	LSE: SKY
Industry	Telecommunications Mass media
Predecessor	Sky Television British Satellite Broadcasting
Founded	2 November 1990; 33 years ago (2 November 1990)
Headquarters	Sky Campus, Isleworth, Greater London , England
Area served	Europe
Key people	Jeremy Darroch (executive chairman) Dana Strong (CEO)
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	The Cloud Diagonal View
Subsidiaries	Sky UK Sky Deutschland Sky Italia Sky Studios Now
Website	skygroup.sky
Footnotes / references [1][2][3]

Evolution of Comcast NBCUniversal

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
v t e

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]