At first, the station struggled financially due to disappointing ratings in the countries in which it was officially available, which in turn led to insufficient advertising revenue and increasing difficulty in covering the high transmission costs.

[6][7] With the successful launch of the Intelsat V satellite in October 1983[8] Rupert Murdoch was able to extend the broadcast hours and the number of countries able to receive the signal.

It began incorporating a large number of American imports in its schedules and also increased the quantity of home-grown productions, including a number of new music shows with Gary Davies, Tony Blackburn, Linda de Mol, Pat Sharp, David "Kid" Jensen, and Anthea Turner presenting programmes such as Euro Top 40, and UK Top 50 Chart.

The "New Sky Channel", as it was dubbed in on-air promotion prior to its 5 February 1989 launch, continued to broadcast its signature children's programmes (The DJ Kat Show and Fun Factory), and also expanded its daytime programming with six back-to-back soaps (The Sullivans, Another World, General Hospital, As the World Turns, Loving and The Young Doctors) while reducing music programming to only one or two hours per day.

[12][13] Special event programming included late night live telecasts of boxing matches and various music concerts (such as Bon Jovi and Bros in August 1989).

[14] A number of Australian dramas (Against the Wind, Boney, A Town Like Alice and Barrier Reef), as well as the soap operas (Return to Eden, Chances, E Street and Paradise Beach) were aired.

Following the merger with British Satellite Broadcasting's Galaxy on 2 November 1990, Sky One also picked up new sitcoms (Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Growing Pains, Murphy Brown, In Living Color, Wings and Designing Women), dramas (China Beach, Hill Street Blues and the soap operas, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful), reruns of classic sitcoms (Bewitched and The Addams Family), a new animated series Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles was added to children's programmes, and daily dating game show Love at First Sight was presented by Helen Brumby and Bruno Brookes.

Following the daily repeats of Star Trek and Lost in Space, Sky One picked up a number of science-fiction shows which became a crucial part of its evening line-up such as the UK premiere of Alien Nation, also added reruns of V (1983 miniseries, The Final Battle and the television series) and Battlestar Galactica in 1991.

A staple of Sky One prime time schedule in its early years were glossy American miniseries such as Roots, Shōgun, Masada, The Thorn Birds, North and South and Lonesome Dove, which aired mostly in two-hour installments each week Sundays to Tuesdays.

As the format was beginning to fade in the United States, the miniseries were reduced to two nights in late 1992 and then rescheduled to Tuesdays and Wednesdays in early 1994 under its new title called Midweek Drama, before being dropped altogether shortly after that and reappearing only as special event programming.

In 1993, Sky One finally replaced its long-running Sunday night drama 21 Jump Street with exclusive premiere of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Sunday night timeslot was ultimately given to new episodes of the hit teen soap Beverly Hills, 90210 which was later paired off with its spin-off Melrose Place.

[20] The channel was also struggling to acquire new American series, as FTA broadcasters had become familiar with Sky's tricks to buy the majority of US programming, with Channel 4 picking up the likes of The Sopranos and Without a Trace on an exclusive basis (although both programmes have since aired on Sky Atlantic) and Five picking up the likes of The Shield and the CSI franchise, which was at the peak of its popularity during this period.

Other competitors in the pay TV field also latched on to this, with LivingTV nabbing the likes of Will & Grace, Ally McBeal, Joan of Arcadia, Charmed, and later the likes of Boston Legal and Grey's Anatomy, and Hallmark Channel, which acquired Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (whilst Sky One held the rights to the original Law & Order).

Other new shows acquired by Sky One for 2004 included Las Vegas and as part of the WB deal, Tarzan and Jane, the unproduced Fearless and Skin.

The spin-off channel was not a success as it was closed on 31 August 1997, which was replaced by the UK's version of National Geographic from the following day, and Sky One reverts back to its original name.

Sky One had also re-commissioned a number of earlier game shows including Blockbusters, which brought the series back once again between 30 October 2000 and 23 March 2001 was produced by Grundy (now owns the format) and presented by Liza Tarbuck, but did not capture the same degree of popularity as the Holness incarnation.

On 30 January 2008, Sky One announced plans to bring back the British 1990s combat-based game show Gladiators, which was subsequently cancelled on 12 April 2009.

The channel became known for its first-run American imports such as: Seinfeld, Rescue 911, Unsolved Mysteries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and South Park, as well as some older programmes included Hill Street Blues, M*A*S*H, Quantum Leap and Lucille Ball's various comedy series.

It relies heavily on screenings for this network as they coming from Rupert Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting Company with other shows like The X-Files, In Living Color, Cops, Millennium, King of the Hill, Futurama, Family Guy and Malcolm in the Middle.

Sky One continued to air WWF/WWE shows on Friday night and Saturday/Sunday morning that were produced for syndicated television in the United States from the early 1990s until the late 2010s.

These were often shows edited for younger viewers to fit the timeslot (especially during the riskier content of the Attitude era) and had dubbed commentary especially for the UK audience.

On 2 September 1990, Sky One launched the hit American animated series The Simpsons which became a signature show and aired continuously on the channel for 31 years until it was ceased in 2021 (as well as the Sunday morning religious programme Hour of Power was another to remain the schedule during most of its run), it had a long association within the series from its early years and was used extensively in the channel's advertising campaigns.

Sky One was the exclusive British broadcaster of The Simpsons until it made its terrestrial debut on the BBC from 23 November 1996, where it continued until 7 May 2004, having lost the rights to Channel 4 on 18 February 2002.

On 17 March 2009, Sky One broadcast the 20th season episode "In the Name of the Grandfather" for the first time – five days before its original US airing – to be shown in the United Kingdom as gathered over one million viewers.

In November 2012, The Simpsons was not broadcast on the timeshift service because BSkyB is prohibited from doing so under the current terms of their licensing agreement with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution included an on-screen message appears redirecting viewers to Sky One.

Following the death of voice actress Marcia Wallace, Sky One broadcasts three of best episodes from 6:30 pm including "Bart the Lover", "The Ned-Liest Catch" and "Ned 'n' Edna's Blend Agenda" on 28 October 2013.

During its entire run of The Original Series, Sky One had chosen three episodes – "Plato's Stepchildren", "The Empath" and "Whom Gods Destroy" – as well as the unseen pilot were eventually shown on satellite television, but not screened by the BBC between 19 August 1992 and 19 January 1994 for similar reasons following audience complaints after broadcast.

Monday nights at 8:00 pm was the traditional time for the series, however at the start of the fourth season of Enterprise was moved to Tuesdays within the place also taken by The Simpsons, which lasted until the final episode was broadcast on 2 August 2005.