The channel launched on 1 October 1991, soon after the merger of
Sky Television plc and
British Satellite Broadcasting. The merged company called
British Sky Broadcasting, brought together comedy programming from its existing libraries – Sky having an archive of
American imports (including ''
Three's Company, I Love Lucy, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and Seinfeld) and BSB having obtained rights to a number of BBC sitcoms such as 'Allo 'Allo!, Steptoe and Son, Are You Being Served?, Porridge, Dad's Army and The Goodies''. The Comedy Channel existed in the days before the basic
Sky Multichannels subscription package, so was made available as a premium service to subscribers of either
Sky Movies or
The Movie Channel. Listings for the channel were carried in
Radio Times and other listings magazines. The network lost its broadcasting rights following the expiry of the contract between the BBC and former BSB. Eventually the channel closed on 30 September 1992 to be replaced by
Sky Movies Gold, a service dedicated to "classic movies". Following the end of the contract with Sky, the BBC's archive programming was subsequently used to launch
UK Gold on satellite and
cable from 1 November 1992. Sky would not relaunch a comedy-based channel until the arrival of
Sky Comedy on 27 January 2020, it retains a minority interest in the domestic version of
ViacomCBS's
Comedy Central. ==Programming==