You are in --> ICDG --> -News Centre --> 6th May 2000

But channels director Elizabeth Murdoch to quit.

Sky One, the general entertainment service of Sky Television, is set for another relaunch this autumn, Broadcast has reported. The channel, provided as part of the Basic Service of every cable company in the Republic (and is also available via Sky, NTL, and ONdigital in the North), will become a mass-market service with more mainstream home-produced programming. Sky clearly wants to take on ITV, and more particularly Channel 5 (which is not carried by most cable companies in the Republic yet). Sky One programmes have been known to carry bigger audiences then C5 on occassion, and this relaunch will no doubt extend this.

The relaunch comes only eighteen months after Sky One's last relaunch, where it moved from being a "best-of-American" channel to include (some) home produced programming. Most of this has been very trashy, of the Uncovered variety (Ibiza Uncovered carries the dubious "honour" of being the first Sky programme sold to terrestrial TV - C4). Although there has also been some more mainstream programming, such as The Strangerers and Tenth Kingdom. Sky is apparently asking Carlton, Granada, and United (ie. ITV) to produce new programmes.

Meanwhile Sky Networks (the television side of BSkyB) managing director Elizabeth Murdoch has quit to set up her own television and new media company. Murdoch, hand-picked for the role by father Rupert Murdoch, was responsible for the increase in commissioning at Sky. Rupert Murdoch, through his company News International plc, owns 40% of Sky.

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