
On This Day...
5th February
Channels
1989
Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV began broadcasting four channels via the Astra satellite system: Sky Channel (later renamed Sky One); Eurosport, a joint-venture between the European Broadcasting Union and News International; Sky Movies; and Sky News, a 24-hour news channel. Start-up costs were believed to be £122m. Losses for its first year of operations were £95m.
Programmes
1968
The first colour edition of Newsroom airs on BBC Two.
1970
The final episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII airs on BBC One.
1973
The first episode of The Wombles airs on BBC One.
1978
The final episode of US series Soap airs on ITV.
1985
The first episode of Maelstrom airs on BBC One.
1987
The 200th edition of A Question of Sport airs on BBC One. HRH Princess Anne was on Emlyn Hughes’ team.
1988
The first edition of Comic Relief airs on BBC One.
1990
The first edition of Business Breakfast airs on BBC One.
1992
The first episode of The Camomile Lawn airs on Channel 4.
1995
The first episode of The Buccaneers airs on BBC One.
1996
The first edition of Breakfast News Extra airs on BBC One. Presented by Juliet Morris
1996
The first edition of Breakfast News Extra airs on BBC One. Presented by Juliet Morris.
2011
The final episode of Primeval airs on ITV.
2014
The first episode of Inside No 9 airs on BBC Two. Black comedy anthology. Written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.
2017
The first episode of The Good Karma Hospital airs on ITV.
2023
The final episode of Happy Valley airs on BBC One. With an official audience rating of 7.5m – the fourth-most-watched TV programme of the year.
2023
The final episode of His Dark Materials airs on BBC One.
Test Card/Teletext In-Vision Music
1964
BBC TV/BBC One tape Blow the Man Down airs for the first time.
1986
BBC One tape
Sound of the South airs for the first time.
This tape started out on BBC Two on 29th January 1986 but lasted just under a month there.
EXTERNAL LINK: a BBC One interlude with Sound of the South playing (8th February 1987).

On This Day...
5th February
Deaths
1989
Former actor and TV presenter, Emrys James.
Events
1989
Penny Smith and Alastair Yates present the first Sky News bulletin.
Research for On This Day in TV History is by Paul R. Jackson.
Details about test card/teletext in-vision music and BBC trade test films are available as a result of decades of research and logging by members of the Test Card Circle.