Despite official announcements that BSkyB will not shutdown its analogue service until 2001 it is now clear that Sky is well underway in a gradual switch-off. The latest announcement is the closure of analogue transponder 44, shared between Sky Cinema and Sky Travel, which will cease transmissions on August 31. It has also been announced that the transmission of Sky Box Office events in the analogue format will end on the same day. The Racing Channel has already confirmed that its analogue transmissions will end August 28.

Sky Cinema already transmits a two channel service, 24 hours a day, on the Sky Digital platform. The largely unwatched Sky Travel simply simulcasts its service between 11:00 and 16:00 each day. Indeed it is surprising that Sky has not used this opportunity to send Sky Travel off on a very long holiday. Movie subscribers were among the first to upgrade to the Sky Digital service as was witnessed by the removal of the four Sky Box Office movie channels from the analogue service earlier this year.

There is no shortage of takers for analogue capacity at 19 degrees East. Music channel Viva has already announced plans to take up transponder 44 (see separate story).

Using the Barb audience research data as a barometer it might be expected that low audience Animal Planet, Fox Kids and The History Channel might be the next candidates for analogue closure. However, all share their transponders with other third party channels, not that this have been no precedents in the past for Sky leaseholders to find their transponders are to be moved.