title: Max Stirner

text: The ideas of Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche have often been compared and many authors have discussed apparent similarities in their writings, sometimes raising the question of influence. During the early years of Nietzsche's emergence as a well-known figure in Germany, the only thinker discussed in connection with his ideas more often than Stirner was Arthur Schopenhauer. It is certain that Nietzsche read about "The Ego and Its Own", which was mentioned in Friedrich Albert Lange's "History of Materialism" and Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann's "Philosophy of the Unconscious", both of which Nietzsche knew well. However, there is no indication that he actually read it as no mention of Stirner is known to exist anywhere in Nietzsche's publications, papers or correspondence. In 2002, a biographical discovery revealed it is probable that Nietzsche had encountered Stirner's ideas before he read Hartmann and Lange in October 1865, when he met with Eduard Mushacke, an old friend of Stirner's during the 1840s.


title: Max Stirner

text: As soon as Nietzsche's work began to reach a wider audience, the question of whether he owed a debt of influence to Stirner was raised. As early as 1891 when Nietzsche was still alive, though incapacitated by mental illness, Hartmann went so far as to suggest that he had plagiarized Stirner. By the turn of the century, the belief that Nietzsche had been influenced by Stirner was so widespread that it became something of a commonplace at least in Germany, prompting one observer to note in 1907 that "Stirner's influence in modern Germany has assumed astonishing proportions, and moves in general parallel with that of Nietzsche. The two thinkers are regarded as exponents of essentially the same philosophy."


title: Max Stirner

text: From the beginning of what was characterized as "great debate" regarding Stirner's possible positive influence on Nietzsche, serious problems with the idea were nonetheless noted. By the middle of the 20th century, if Stirner was mentioned at all in works on Nietzsche, the idea of influence was often dismissed outright or abandoned as unanswerable. However, the idea that Nietzsche was influenced in some way by Stirner continues to attract a significant minority, perhaps because it seems necessary to explain the oft-noted (though arguably superficial) similarities in their writings. In any case, the most significant problems with the theory of possible Stirner influence on Nietzsche are not limited to the difficulty in establishing whether the one man knew of or read the other. They also consist in determining if Stirner in particular might have been a meaningful influence on a man as widely read as Nietzsche.


title: Max Stirner

text: The individualist anarchist orientation of Rudolf Steiner's early philosophy—before he turned to theosophy around 1900—has strong parallels to and was admittedly influenced by Stirner's conception of the ego, for which Steiner claimed to have provided a philosophical foundation.


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Ichabod Crane is a fictional character and the protagonist in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Crane is portrayed, in the original work, as well as in most adaptations, as a tall, lanky individual with a scarecrow effect. He is the local schoolmaster, and has a strong belief in all things supernatural, including the legend of the Headless Horseman. Crane eventually tries unsuccessfully to court the heiress Katrina Van Tassel, a decision that angers Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, a local man who also wishes to marry Katrina. After supposedly proposing to Katrina, Crane is headed home alone at night when the Headless Horseman appears and chases the schoolmaster, until the Horseman throws his pumpkin head at him, causing him to mysteriously disappear without a trace.


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Ichabod—meaning 'without glory' in Hebrew—comes from the biblical name of the grandson of Eli the High Priest and son of Phinehas. Irving might have borrowed the name from that of Ichabod Crane, a colonel in the US Army during the War of 1812 whom he had met in 1814 in Sackets Harbor, New York.According to a notation by Irving and a certification written in longhand by Martin Van Buren, the 'pattern' (Van Buren's words) for the character of Ichabod Crane was based on the original Kinderhook schoolmaster named Jesse Merwin—born in Connecticut—whom Irving befriended in Kinderhook, New York, in 1809. The two friends continued a pen-pal correspondence for thirty years.


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Kinderhook's original schoolhouse is now owned by the Columbia County Historical Society and called the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse. The area's modern-day school district, Ichabod Crane Central School District, is also named for the character.


title: Ichabod Crane

text: It is claimed by many in Tarrytown that Samuel Youngs is the original from whom Irving drew his character of Ichabod Crane. Author Gary Denis asserts that while the character of Ichabod Crane is loosely based on Merwin, it may include elements from Youngs' life.


title: Ichabod Crane

text: According to Irving, Ichabod's appearance is like that of a goofy, old scarecrow who escaped the cornfield. He is described by Irving in the story as "tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Ichabod Crane is a schoolteacher with strong beliefs in the supernatural. He is described as "a conscientious man and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.'" However, "Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were not spoiled. He administered justice with discrimination rather than severity; taking the burden off the backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: He made little money as a schoolmaster; his wages were "scarcely sufficient to furnish him with daily bread." He was able to sustain this work through the help of locals, who "according to country custom in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers whose children he instructed . . . with these he lived successively a week at a time, thus going the rounds of the neighbourhood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Ichabod was also known as "the singing-master of the neighbourhood" and often on Sundays would "take his station in front of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers; where, in his own, he completely carried away the psalm from the person." In addition to his work as a schoolmaster, he "instructed young folks in psalmody."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Caleb Stegall suggests that "the most distinctive characteristic Irving gives Ichabod is that of a psalm singer," and that Ichabod Crane is the "most celebrated Covenanter in all of the literature."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Ichabod was described as being well-read in the literature of the supernatural and superstition. In the story, he was "esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was regarded a master of Cotton Mather's "History of New England Witchcraft," in which, by the way, he most firmly and potently believed." In addition, he "took pleasure in reading old Mather's direful tales till dusk after school. Moreover, no supernatural story or superstition was hard for him to believe." He would often share his beliefs and readings with others. Indeed, in the story, he "would delight listeners equally by his anecdotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed in the earlier times of Connecticut; and would frighten them woefully with speculations upon comets and shooting stars, and with the fact that the world did absolutely turn round, and that they were half the time topsy-turvy!"


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Irving describes Ichabod as "a man of some importance in the female circle of a rural neighborhood; being considered a kind of idle, gentleman-like personage, of vastly superior taste and accomplishments to the rough country swains, and, indeed, inferior in learning only to the parson." Ichabod spent ample time in the company of the locals telling tales of the supernatural and discussing local gossip. He is described as "like a travelling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house to house so that his appearance was always greeted with satisfaction." It is also said that "another of his sources of fearful pleasure was to pass long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along with the hearth, and listen to their marvelous tales of ghosts and goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they sometimes called him."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Ichabod is said to have a "soft and foolish heart towards the [opposite] sex." In the story, Irving writes regarding Ichabod: "he would have passed a pleasant life of it, despite the Devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and that was—a woman."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: A turning point in the story occurs when Ichabod becomes enamoured of one Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and only child of a wealthy farmer named Baltus Van Tassel, who pays little attention to his daughter other than to be proud of her merits when they are praised. On account of her father's wealth (which Ichabod is eager to inherit), he begins to court Katrina, who seems to respond in kind. This attracts the attention of the town's rowdy, Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, who also wants to marry Katrina and is challenged in this only by Ichabod. Despite Brom's efforts to humiliate or punish the schoolmaster, Ichabod remains steadfast, and neither contestant seems able to gain any advantage throughout this rivalry.


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Later, both men are invited to a harvest festival party at Van Tassel's where Ichabod's social skills far outshine Brom's. After the party breaks up, Ichabod remains behind for "a tête-à-tête with the heiress", where it is supposed that he makes a proposal of marriage to Katrina but, according to the narrator, "Something, however ... must have gone wrong, for he certainly sallied forth, after no very great interval, with an air quite desolate and chapfallen", meaning that his proposal is refused, allegedly because her sole purpose in courting him was either to test or to increase Brom's desire for her. Therefore, Ichabod leaves the house "with the air of one who had been sacking a enroots, rather than a fair lady's heart."


title: Ichabod Crane

text: During his journey home, Ichabod encounters another traveller, who is eventually revealed to be the legendary Headless Horseman; the ghost of a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball during the American Revolutionary War. Ichabod flees with the Headless Horseman pursuing him, eventually crossing a bridge near the Dutch burial ground. Because the ghost is incapable of crossing this bridge, Ichabod assumes that he is safe. However, before Ichabod can react, the Headless Horseman throws his severed head at him, knocking him from the back of his own horse and sending him "tumbling headlong into the dust." The next morning, Ichabod's hat is found abandoned near the church bell bridge, and close beside it is a shattered pumpkin. Ichabod is never seen in Sleepy Hollow again and is therefore presumed to have been spirited away by the Headless Horseman.


title: Ichabod Crane

text: Later, "an old farmer, who had been down to New York on a visit several years after, and from whom this account of the ghostly adventure was received" suggests that Ichabod had been frightened by both the Horseman and the anticipated anger of his current landlord into leaving the town forever, later to become "a justice of the ten-pound court" in "ten-pound part of the country." Katrina marries Brom, who is said to look "exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related, and always laughed heartily at the mention of the pumpkin." These events "led some to suspect that he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell." Therefore, it can be assumed that Brom himself was the Horseman, whose legend he took advantage of to rid himself of his rival.


title: Pump and dump

text: Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operators of the scheme "dump" (sell) their overvalued shares, the price falls and investors lose their money. This is most common with small-cap cryptocurrencies and very small corporations/companies, i.e. "microcaps".


title: Pump and dump

text: While fraudsters in the past relied on cold calls, the Internet now offers a cheaper and easier way of reaching large numbers of potential investors through spam email, investment research websites, social media, and misinformation.


title: Pump and dump

text: Pump-and-dump schemes may take place on the Internet using an email spam campaign, through media channels via a fake press release, or through telemarketing from "boiler room" brokerage houses (such as that dramatized in the 2000 film "Boiler Room"). Often the stock promoter will claim to have "inside" information about impending news. Newsletters may purport to offer unbiased recommendations, then tout a company as a "hot" stock, for their own benefit. Promoters may also post messages in online chat groups or internet forums, urging readers to buy the stock quickly.


title: Pump and dump

text: If a promoter's campaign to "pump" a stock is successful, it will entice unwitting investors to purchase shares of the target company. The increased demand, price, and trading volume of the stock may convince more people to believe the hype, and to buy shares as well. When the promoters behind the scheme sell (dump) their shares and stop promoting the stock, the price plummets, and other investors are left holding a stock that is worth significantly less than what they paid for it.


title: Pump and dump

text: Fraudsters frequently use this ploy with small, thinly traded companies—known as "penny stocks", generally traded over-the-counter (in the United States, this would mean markets such as the OTC Bulletin Board or the Pink Sheets), rather than markets such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or NASDAQ—because it is easier to manipulate a stock when there is little or no independent information available about the company. The same principle applies in the United Kingdom, where target companies are typically small companies on the AIM or OFEX.


title: Pump and dump

text: A more modern spin on this attack is known as hack, pump and dump. In this form, a person purchases penny stocks and then uses compromised brokerage accounts to purchase large quantities of that stock. The net result is a price increase, which is often pushed further by day traders seeing a quick advance in a stock. The original stockholder then cashes out at a premium. Pump-and-dump schemes also permeate the crypto-market, targeting especially low market-cap, illiquid coins on cryptocurrency exchanges.


title: Pump and dump

text: In the early 1990s the penny-stock brokerage Stratton Oakmont artificially inflated the price of owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Firm co-founder Jordan Belfort was criminally convicted for his role in the scheme. He later turned his story into a memoir, "The Wolf of Wall Street", which was later adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name.


title: Pump and dump

text: During the dot-com bubble, when stock-market fever was at its height and many people spent significant amounts of time on stock Internet message boards, a 15-year-old named Jonathan Lebed allegedly used the Internet to run a successful pump and dump. Lebed bought penny stocks and then promoted them on message boards, pointing at the price increase. Allegedly, when other investors bought the stock, Lebed sold his for a profit, leaving the other investors holding the bag. He came to the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which filed a civil suit against him alleging security manipulation. Lebed settled the charges by paying a fraction of his total gains. He neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, but promised not to manipulate securities in the future.


title: Pump and dump

text: As late as April 2001, before the Enron collapse, executives at the large energy company Enron participated in an elaborate scheme of pump and dump, in addition to other illegal practices that fooled even the most experienced analysts on Wall Street. Studies of the anonymous messages posted on the Yahoo board dedicated to Enron revealed predictive messages that the company was akin to a house of cards, and that investors should bail out while the stock was good. After Enron falsely reported profits which inflated the stock price, they covered the real numbers by using questionable accounting practices. Twenty-nine Enron executives sold overvalued stock for more than a billion dollars before the company went bankrupt.


title: Pump and dump

text: Park Financial Group, Spear & Jackson, and International Media Solutions, LLC were involved in a pump-and-dump scheme where the price per share increased by $14.00 and over 100,000 shares were traded each day, netting Spear & Jackson around $3 million in profits. In 2005, Spear & Jackson and International Media Solutions were fined over $8 million, including its two executive officers, Kermit J. Silva and Yolanda Velazquez, each paying an additional $420,000 out of their personal accounts. On December 5, 2007, Park and the company's president were ordered to pay over $113,000 in fines and penalties.


title: Pump and dump

text: Started as Crown Corporation, Langbar International was the biggest pump-and-dump fraud on the Alternative Investment Market, part of the London Stock Exchange. The company was at one point valued greater than $1 billion, based on supposed bank deposits in Brazil which did not exist. None of the chief conspirators were convicted, although their whereabouts are known. A who made a negligent false statement about the assets was convicted and banned from being a director. The investors who lost as much as £100 million sued one of the fraudsters and recovered £30 million.


title: Pump and dump

text: In April 2018, Morrie Tobin and others, using offshore accounts, gained over $165 million from a pump-and-dump scheme. When questioned by federal agents, Tobin told the agents that he was involved in another scheme implicating a soccer coach from Yale University, which in turn led to the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. In February 2019, Tobin pled guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud. On June 7, 2019, a federal judge hit Tobin with a $4 million forfeiture.


title: Pump and dump

text: Being an unregulated market, and due to the concentration of a large amount of cryptocurrency in a small number of hands, the price of many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is very sensitive to pump-and-dump schemes. There are organised pump-and-dump schemes run through social media platforms including Telegram and Discord.


title: Pump and dump

text: Pump-and-dump stock scams are prevalent in spam, accounting for about 15% of spam e-mail messages. A survey of 75,000 unsolicited emails sent between January 2004 and July 2005 concluded that spammers could make an average return of 4.29% by using this method, while recipients who act on the spam message typically lose close to 5.5% of their investment within two days. A study by Böhme and Holz shows a similar effect. Stocks targeted by spam are almost always penny stocks, selling for less than $5 per share, not traded on major exchanges, thinly traded, and difficult or impossible to sell short. Spammers acquire stock before sending the messages, and sell the day the message is sent.


title: Pump and dump

text: A pump-and-dump scam is a type of economic bubble, with the main difference between this scheme and most other types of bubbles being that the pump-and-dump bubble is deliberately perpetrated by unlawful activity. A pump-and-dump scheme is similar in many ways to a Ponzi scheme (in that both types of scam use misrepresentations in an effort to enrich the promoters and/or initial investors with money from later investors), however, there are a number of differences between the schemes:


title: Pump and dump

text: Pump-and-dump scams differs from many other forms of spam (such as advance fee fraud emails and lottery scam messages) in that it does not require the recipient to contact the spammer to collect supposed "winnings", or to transfer money from supposed bank accounts. This makes tracking the source of pump-and-dump spam difficult, and has also given rise to "minimalist" spam consisting of a small untraceable image file containing a picture of a stock symbol.


title: Pump and dump

text: One variation of the pump-and-dump scam is known as "scalping." In a scalping scheme, a stock promoter takes a position in a stock and then touts the stock without disclosing his or her intent to sell the stock. By recommending the stock (often, but not always, by providing inflated price targets or more generic promises of substantial returns), the promoter convinces others to purchase the stock, providing a temporary rise in share price and volume which allows the "scalper" to then sell his shares on unsuspecting investors and obtain a profit. Scalping scams are frequently effectuated through social media (e.g., Twitter), and may lead to both criminal and civil liability in the United States. Like other pump-and-dump schemes, scalping scams frequently target microcap stocks because their low volume allows relatively small purchase volumes to cause significant spikes in the share price. Given the rise of social media, scalping scams have become a significant focus of regulators in the United States in recent years.


title: Pump and dump

text: Another variant of the pump-and-dump scam, the "short and distort" works in the opposite manner. Instead of first buying the stock, and then artificially raising its price before selling, in a "short and distort" the scammer first short-sells the stock, and then artificially "lowers" the price, using the same techniques as the pump and dump but using criticism or negative predictions regarding the stock. The scammer then covers their short position when they buy back the stock at a lower price.


title: Pump and dump

text: One method of regulating and restricting pump-and-dump manipulators is to target the category of stocks most often associated with this scheme. To that end, penny stocks have been the target of heightened enforcement efforts. In the United States, regulators have defined a penny stock as a security that must meet a number of specific standards. The criteria include price, market capitalization, and minimum shareholder equity. Securities traded on a national stock exchange, regardless of price, are exempt from regulatory designation as a penny stock, since it is thought that exchange traded securities are less vulnerable to manipulation. Therefore, Citigroup (NYSE:C) and other NYSE listed securities which traded below $1.00 during the market downturn of 2008–2009, while properly regarded as "low priced" securities, were not technically "penny stocks". Although penny stock trading in the United States is now primarily controlled through rules and regulations enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the genesis of this control is found in state securities law. The State of Georgia was the first state to codify a comprehensive penny stock securities law. Secretary of State Max Cleland, whose office enforced state securities laws, was a principal proponent of the legislation. Representative Chesley V. Morton, the only stockbroker in the Georgia General Assembly at the time, was a principal sponsor of the bill in the Georgia House of Representatives. Georgia's penny stock law was subsequently challenged in court. However, the law was eventually upheld in U.S. District Court, and the statute became the template for laws enacted in other states. Shortly thereafter, both FINRA and the SEC enacted comprehensive revisions of their penny stock regulations. These regulations proved effective in either shuttering or greatly restricting broker/dealers, such as Blinder, Robinson & Company, which specialized in the penny stocks sector. Meyer Blinder was jailed for securities fraud in 1992, after the collapse of his firm. However, sanctions under these specific regulations lack an effective means to address pump-and-dump schemes perpetrated by unregistered groups and individuals.


title: Frank Beard (musician)

text: Frank Lee Beard (born June 11, 1949) is an American drummer best known as a member of the rock band ZZ Top.


title: Frank Beard (musician)

text: Before joining ZZ Top, Beard was a member of a fake version of the British band the Zombies, which toured in the US without authorization from the original band members, and also was part of the Outlaws with later ZZ Top member Dusty Hill. Other bands Beard and Hill played with early in their careers included the Cellar Dwellers, the Hustlers, the Warlocks, and American Blues.


title: Frank Beard (musician)

text: In May 1969, Beard joined The Moving Sidewalks, a band that would become ZZ Top in July 1969. Beard also introduced Gibbons to Hill. After honing their trademark "Texas boogie-blues-rock" style, they released "ZZ Top's First Album" on London Records in January 1971. Beard is credited under the nickname "Rube Beard" on the "ZZ Top's First Album" and on "Tres Hombres", the band's third album, but is credited under his actual name on "Rio Grande Mud", their second album. He is also credited under his actual name on every ZZ Top album since 1975's "Fandango!"


title: Frank Beard (musician)

text: After achieving success with ZZ Top in the late 1970s, Beard began spending a lot of money on drugs, including LSD, cocaine and heroin. He later regretted spending the money, and said it damaged his relationships. He joined a rehabilitation program. He recalled: "I just wanted to get sober. I wanted to be like people I admired that could sit home and watch TV and go to bed, and that was okay [for them]." ZZ Top went on hiatus for three years while Beard dealt with his addiction.


title: Frank Beard (musician)

text: Beard married long-time girlfriend Catherine Alexander in April 1978 and divorced July 1981. He married Debbie Meredith in November 1982. They remain married and have three children. Beard resides in Richmond, Texas, where he owns and operates the Top 40 Ranch. He golfs, and is known locally for participation in tournaments and community events. Beard was long known as the only member of ZZ Top not to have a beard, but he grew a short one in 2013.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Sky Group and from 2018 onwards, part of Comcast. It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster with 12.7 million customers as of the end of 2019 for its digital satellite TV platform. Sky's flagship products are Sky Q and the internet-based Sky Glass, and its flagship channels are Sky Showcase, Sky Sports and Sky Atlantic.


title: Sky UK

text: Formed as British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in November 1990 through the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, it grew into a major media company by the end of the decade, notably owning all the television broadcasting rights for the Premier League and almost all the domestic rights of Hollywood films. Following BSkyB's acquisition of Sky Italia and a majority interest in Sky Deutschland in 2014, its holding company British Sky Broadcasting Group plc changed its name to Sky plc (now Sky Group Limited). The UK subsidiary's name was changed from British Sky Broadcasting Limited to Sky UK Limited, and continuing to trade as "Sky".


title: Sky UK

text: Sky UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast-owned Sky Group, with its current company directors (including that of Sky Ireland) being Executive Vice-President Stephen van Rooyen and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Lyssa McGowen. Its corporate headquarters are at the Sky Studios in Isleworth.


title: Sky UK

text: The present service can trace its heritage back to 1990, when BSkyB's predecessors Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting encrypted their respective film channels – Sky Movies and The Movie Channel which required viewers to get decoding equipment and a subscription to watch the channels. After the two companies merged, subscribers could get access to both channels, and two years later, the sports channel Sky Sports also became encrypted.


title: Sky UK

text: In the autumn of 1991, talks were held for the broadcast rights for Premier League for five years, from the 1992 season. ITV were the current rights holders and fought hard to retain the new rights. ITV had increased its offer from £18m to £34m per year to keep control of the rights. BSkyB joined forces with the BBC to make a counter bid. The BBC was given the highlights of most of the matches, while BSkyB paying £304m for the Premier League rights, would give them a monopoly of all live matches, up to 60 per year from the 1992 season. Murdoch described sport as a "battering ram" for pay television, providing a strong customer base. A few weeks after the deal, ITV went to the High Court to get an injunction as it believed their bid details had been leaked before the decision was taken. ITV also asked the Office of Fair Trading to investigate since it believed Rupert Murdoch's media empire via its newspapers had influenced the deal. A few days later neither action took effect, ITV believed BSkyB was telephoned and informed of its £262m bid, and Premier League advised BSkyB to increase its counter bid.


title: Sky UK

text: BSkyB retained the rights paying £670m 1997–2001 deal, but was challenged by ONdigital for the rights from 2001 to 2004, thus were forced to £1.1 billion which gave them 66 live games a year.


title: Sky UK

text: Following a lengthy legal battle with the European Commission, which deemed the exclusivity of the rights to be against the interests of competition and the consumer, BSkyB's monopoly came to an end from the 2007–08 season. In May 2006, the Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports was awarded two of the six Premier League packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters. Sky picked up the remaining four for £1.3bn.


title: Sky UK

text: In February 2015, Sky bid £4.2bn for a package of 120 premier league games across the three seasons from 2016. This represented an increase of 70% on the previous contract and was said to be £1bn more than the company had expected to pay. The move has been followed by staff cuts, increased subscription prices (including 9% in Sky's family package) and the dropping of the 3D channel.


title: Sky UK

text: In September 1993, BSkyB launched Sky Multichannels which was the present digital platform's analogue predecessor. Sky Multichannels was a subscription package that gave access not only to Sky's channels but also to those of third-party broadcasters.


title: Sky UK

text: The service started on 1 September 1993. It was based on an idea by then CEO Sam Chisholm and chairman Rupert Murdoch of converting the company's business strategy to an entirely fee-based concept. The new package included four channels formerly available free-to-air, broadcasting on Astra's satellites, as well as introducing new channels. The service continued until the closure of BSkyB's analogue service on 27 September 2001, due to the expansion of the Sky Digital platform after its launch three years before. Some of the channels did broadcast either in the clear or soft encrypted (whereby a Videocrypt decoder was required to decode, without a subscription card) before their addition to the Sky Multichannels package. Within two months of the launch, BSkyB gained 400,000 new subscribers, with the majority taking at least one premium channel as well, which helped BSkyB reach 3.5 million households by mid-1994. Michael Grade criticised the operations in front of the Select Committee on National Heritage, mainly for the lack of original programming on many of the new channels.


title: Sky UK

text: BSkyB's digital service was officially launched on 1 October 1998 under the name Sky Digital, although small-scale tests were carried out before then. At this time the use of the Sky Digital brand made an important distinction between the new service and Sky's analogue services. Key selling points were the improvement in picture and sound quality, increased number of channels and an interactive service branded Open..., later called Sky Active. BSkyB competed with the ONdigital (later "ITV Digital") terrestrial offering and cable services. Within 30 days, over 100,000 digiboxes had been sold, which helped bolster BSkyB's decision to give away free digiboxes and mini dishes from May 1999.


title: Sky UK

text: In addition to most channels from the Sky Multichannels package, many of which broadcast additional hours on Sky Digital, Sky Digital launched several new channels that were exclusive to the digital offer.


title: Sky UK

text: The switchover from analogue to digital proceeded relatively quickly. In 1998, there were 6 million 'multichannel' TV homes in the UK (i.e. homes that watch television other than the traditional analogue terrestrial), and over half of these homes watched television using BSkyB's analogue service. BSkyB's digital service surpassed the analogue service in terms of subscribers in late 1999.


title: Sky UK

text: By June 2000 the service had 3.6 million subscribers, which gave BSkyB 8.988 million subscribers across all platforms. This substantial growth reflected BSkyB's 34% share of viewers in multi-channel homes (up from 13.4% in 1999).


title: Sky UK

text: BSkyB's analogue service ended in October 2001, and the digital service would eventually be marketed as just 'Sky'.


title: Sky UK

text: By June 2005, the number of digital subscribers increase to 7.8m, while it produced 38,375 hours of sport in 2005.


title: Sky UK

text: In November 2005, in partnership with Vodafone, Sky Mobile TV was launched which was the UK's first commercially available mobile TV service. Vodafone live! customers with 3G enabled handsets would receive the service.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky's direct-to-home satellite service became available in 10 million homes in 2010, Europe's first pay-TV platform to achieve that milestone. Confirming it had reached its target, the broadcaster said its reach into 36% of households in the UK represented an audience of more than 25m people. The target was first announced in August 2004, and since then an additional 2.4m customers had subscribed to Sky's direct-to-home service. Media commentators had debated whether the figure could be reached as the growth in subscriber numbers elsewhere in Europe flattened.


title: Sky UK

text: In December, the UK's parliament heard a claim that a subscription to Sky was 'often damaging' to welfare recipients, along with alcohol, tobacco and gambling. Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke was proposing the payments of benefits and tax credits on a "Welfare Cash Card", in the style of the American Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, that could be used to buy only "essentials".


title: Sky UK

text: On 1 March 2018, it was reported that Sky UK had concluded successful negotiations with Netflix to offer Sky subscribers access to its international streaming service.


title: Sky UK

text: Comcast, the largest cable TV provider in the United States, outbid 21st Century Fox, on 22 September 2018 in an auction for control of Sky UK. On 4 October 2018, Fox sold their stake to Comcast, giving the latter a 76.8% controlling stake. On 12 October 2018, Comcast announced it will compulsorily acquire the rest of Sky after its bid gained acceptance from 95.3% of the broadcaster's shareholders with the company being delisted by early 2019. Sky was delisted on 7 November 2018 after Comcast acquired all remaining shares.


title: Sky UK

text: On 17 September 2020, Sky Arts became the first premium Sky channel to become available on the free to air terrestrial Freeview service, joining Sky News and a couple of channels which trace their linage back to Flextech (Pick and Challenge).


title: Sky UK

text: On 28 July 2021, Sky announced that its flagship channel Sky One would shut down on 1 September, to be replaced by two channels; Sky Showcase, showing a mixture of content from other Sky Channels, and Sky Max, showing Sky's original programming and entertainment previously shown on Sky One.


title: Sky UK

text: On 7 October 2021, Sky announced a new all-in-one TV set called Sky Glass. It is designed to support streaming of Sky TV and streaming service shows over WiFi, eliminating the need for a satellite dish or box. It launched on 18 October 2021, with three sizes available: 43-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch.


title: Sky UK

text: In October 2022 Comcast announced that it had written off 8.6 billion of its valuation of Sky, with its third-quarter sales dropping 14.7 percent to $4.3bn


title: Sky UK

text: Sky initially faced competition from the ONdigital digital terrestrial television service (later renamed ITV Digital). ITV Digital failed for numerous reasons, including, but not limited to numerous administrative and technical failures, nervous investors after a large downturn in the advertising market and the dot com crash, and Sky's aggressive marketing and domination of premium sporting rights.


title: Sky UK

text: While Sky had been excluded from being a part of the ONdigital consortium, thereby making them a competitor by default, Sky was able to join ITV Digital's free-to-air replacement, Freeview, in which it holds an equal stake with the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Arqiva. Prior to October 2005, three Sky channels were available on this platform: Sky News, Sky Three, and Sky Sports News. Initially, Sky provided Sky Travel to the service. However, this was replaced by Sky Three on 31 October 2005, which was itself later re-branded as 'Pick TV' in 2011.


title: Sky UK

text: On 8 February 2007, Sky announced its intention to replace its three free-to-air digital terrestrial channels with four subscription channels. It was proposed that these channels would offer a range of content from the Sky portfolio including sports (including English Premier League Football), films, entertainment and news. The announcement came a day after Setanta Sports confirmed that it would launch in March as a subscription service on the digital terrestrial platform, and on the same day that NTL's services re-branded as Virgin Media. However, industry sources believe Sky will be forced to shelve plans to withdraw its channels from Freeview and replace them with subscription channels, due to possible lost advertising revenue.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky initially faced increased competition from telecommunications providers to deliver pay television services over existing telephone lines using ADSL. Such providers are able to offer "triple-play" or "quad-play" packages combining landline telephone, broadband Internet, mobile telephone and pay television services.


title: Sky UK

text: To compete with these providers, in October 2005, Sky bought the broadband Internet service provider Easynet for £211 million. This acquisition allowed Sky to start offering a Sky-branded broadband service as well as a "triple play" package combining satellite television, land-line telephone and Broadband service. Sky also offers some streaming live TV channels to a computer using Microsoft's Silverlight.


title: Sky UK

text: In early 2012, Sky released an update to its Sky Anytime service. This update offers customers the chance to buy and rent films from the Sky Store.


title: Sky UK

text: On 26 September 2012, Sky relaunched its "Anytime+" on-demand-via-broadband service as "On Demand" as the BBC's iPlayer joined the line-up of channels offering catch-up TV on the company's Sky+ HD box – linked to a router, the signal from which was recorded before viewing. The BBC was making the preceding week's programmes available alongside ITV, Channel 4's All 4, Channel 5 and the partly BBC Worldwide-owned UKTV, as well as Sky's own channels.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky Go is provided free of charge for Sky (satellite TV) subscribers and allows them to watch channels live and on-demand through an internet connection on a computer or mobile device.


title: Sky UK

text: On 29 May 2009, it was confirmed that Sky Go would be made available on the Xbox 360. In November 2011 Sony Computer Entertainment struck a deal with Sky to bring some of its shows to the PlayStation Store Video Store. Users are able buy individual TV episodes in SD or HD. On 3 December 2014, Sky Go became available on the PlayStation 4 under the name "TV from Sky", followed by the PlayStation 3 on 29 January 2015.


title: Sky UK

text: On 1 March 2013, it was announced that Sky would buy O2's and Be's broadband services from Telefónica for £180 million upfront plus another £20 million once customers have been transferred. Telefónica said the deal would allow it to concentrate on providing better mobile services, including rolling out 4G.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky offers superfast broadband, Sky Fibre, using ADSL2+ technology and fibre-optic, which are provided by Openreach.


title: Sky UK

text: On 21 October 2016, it was announced that public pre-registration for Sky's new mobile network, Sky Mobile, would take place from 31 October 2016. The network will operate as a Full MVNO, utilising the O2 radio access network infrastructure, and O2's full network speeds and 4G+.


title: Sky UK

text: On 5 January 2017 Sky Mobile went live to the public across the UK. Coining itself as the Smarter Network, with tariffs mainly focused on data rather than traditional calls & text, effectively saving consumers money in wasted unused minutes and texts. 1GB data costs £10.00 per month while 5GB costs £15.00 per month with 10GB data costing £20.00 per month. With all those data tariffs, the customer can choose from two different call & text packages with the 'Pay as you use' costing 10p per minute of calls and 10p per text message sent or £10.00 per month for Unlimited Calls & Texts. The Unlimited Calls & Texts package is free for new or existing Sky TV customers using the Sky Mobile network. Since it was launched Sky has reduced the cost of its tariffs with, as of March 2021, 2GB now starting for £6.00 per month, 8GB for £10.00 per month, 10GB for £12.00 per month, 25GB for £15.00 per month, 30GB for £20 per month and 60GB for £30 has and they have also expanded the Sky VIP offering to mobile plans. They have also expanded the "piggybank" facility to allow customers to "cash-in" piggybank data to bring the monthly cost of a phone down.


title: Sky UK

text: As of 30 March 2017, Sky Mobile is offering handset deals. Products are available from manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, LG and Apple.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky Store has a library of films from Sky Cinema that can be rented or bought, either via an app or physical DVD/Blu-ray copies by post. Sky Store is available on Sky Q boxes as well as through apps on devices such as computers and mobile devices. It is available to anyone with a compatible device and does not require a Sky TV subscription.


title: Sky UK

text: An over-the-top contract-free television service from Sky. The service is provided on a NOW device or through an app on selected computers, mobile devices, set-top boxes and smart TVs. NOW is separate from the core Sky TV service.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky launched with a set-top box known as the Sky Digibox, using the Slogans ""What do you want to watch?", "Entertainment your way"" and the current slogan ""Believe in Better"". This was followed by Sky+, a digital video recorder with an internal hard drive which allows viewers to 'pause live television' (by switching from a live feed to a paused real-time recording that can be restarted at any point) and schedule programs to record in the future.


title: Sky UK

text: In later years the Sky+ box and then the Sky+ HD box replaced the original Digibox. The first photos of a prototype Sky HD box began appearing in magazines in August 2005. Sky launched HDTV services in May 2006. All Sky+ HD boxes incorporate a version of Sky+ using a 300GB, 500GB, or 1TB hard drive (of which 160GB, 250GB or 500GB are available to the user) to accommodate the necessary extra data.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky initially charged an additional subscription fee for using a Sky+ PVR with their service; waiving the charge for subscribers whose package included two or more premium channels. This changed as of 1 July 2007, and now customers that subscribe to any Sky package have Sky+ included at no extra charge. Customers that do not subscribe to Sky's channels can still pay a monthly fee to enable Sky+ functions. In September 2007, Sky launched a new TV advertising campaign targeting Sky+ at women. As of 31 March 2008, Sky had 3,393,000 Sky+ users.


title: Sky UK

text: In January 2010 Sky discontinued the Sky+ Box, limited the standard Sky Box to Multiroom upgrade only and started to issue the Sky+ HD Box as standard, thus giving all new subscribers the functions of Sky+. In February 2011 Sky discontinued the non-HD variant of its Multiroom box, offering a smaller version of the SkyHD box without Sky+ functionality.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky launched its HDTV service, Sky+ HD, on 22 May 2006. Prior to its launch, Sky claimed that 40,000 people had registered to receive the HD service. In the week before the launch, rumours started to surface that Sky was having supply issues with its set-top box (STB) from the manufacturer Thomson. On Thursday 18 May 2006, and continuing through the weekend before launch, people were reporting that Sky had either cancelled or rescheduled its installation. Finally, the BBC reported that 17,000 customers had yet to receive the service due to failed deliveries. On 31 March 2012, Sky announced the total number of homes with Sky+ HD was 4,222,000.


title: Sky UK

text: In early 2012, Sky released an update to its Sky Anytime service. This update offers customers the chance to buy and rent films from the Sky Store. In June 2012, Sky launched a new EPG for Sky+ HD boxes. The update included a new modernised look and improved functionality. As of 1 October 2012, Sky Anytime was rebranded as Sky On Demand which included ITV Player and Demand 5. BBC iPlayer followed in late autumn with 4oD which changed to All 4 on 30 March 2015, and launched in early 2013.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky began to broadcast programmes in 3D in April 2010. This included new 3D channels, including a "Sky Sports 3D" and "Sky Movies 3D". Sky previously experimented with 3D broadcasting by broadcasting an Arsenal vs Manchester Unitedfootball game live in 3D in nine pubs situated throughout the United Kingdom.


title: Sky UK

text: On 18 November 2015, Sky announced Sky Q, a range of products and services to be available in 2016. The Sky Q range consists of three set-top boxes (Sky Q 1TB, Sky Q 2TB and Sky Q Mini), a broadband router (Sky Q Hub) and mobile applications.


title: Sky UK

text: The Sky Q set-top boxes introduce a new user interface, Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, Power-line and Bluetooth connectivity and a new touch-sensitive remote control. The Sky Q Mini set-top boxes connect to the Sky Q set-top boxes with a Wi-Fi or Power-line connection rather than receive their own satellite feeds. This allows all set-top boxes in a household to share recordings and other media. Sky Q Mini boxes are not capable of UHD playback due to hardware limitations.


title: Sky UK

text: Unlike Sky, Sky+, and Sky+ HD boxes, Sky Q boxes remain the property of Sky and must be returned when the contract ends. Charges of up to £140 per item apply for unreturned items – Sky claims this charge does not buy the equipment, which must still be given back.


title: Sky UK

text: The Sky Q 2TB set-top box is capable of receiving and displaying 4K UHD broadcasts. HDR was added on 27 May 2020, alongside the launch of Sky Nature and Sky Documentary channels. The HLG format is to be included in a select number of UHD VoD downloads, starting with Sky Nature before being added to other channel content. UHD broadcasts started on 13 August 2016, with the first live Premier League football match of the 2016/17 season, Hull vs Leicester City. UHD broadcasts are available free of charge to Sky Q 2TB multiscreen customers with any other relevant subscriptions.


title: Sky UK

text: On 7 October 2021, Sky announced an in-house Smart TV range known as Sky Glass. Features include a 4K quantum dot display, integrated Dolby Atmos surround sound speakers and voice controls. Also announced was a 4K camera with motion controls, gesture support and a TV sharing feature developed in partnership with Microsoft. The TV set is designed to stream video over an internet connection; a satellite dish is therefore not required. It also includes a backup Freeview tuner in case a broadband connection is not available. Sky Glass was released on 18 October 2021 in the UK, and 25 August 2022 in Ireland.


title: Sky UK

text: On 27 September 2022, Sky announced a new streaming box called Sky Stream, which launched on 18 October 2022.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky, and its sister companies, operate a number of channels in the UK and Ireland with some being joint ventures with other companies:


title: Sky UK

text: Sky (formerly marketed as Sky Digital) is the brand name for Sky plc's United Kingdom digital satellite television and telecommunications services. Slogans that have been used for marketing include ""What do you want to watch?", "Entertainment your way"" and the current slogan ""Believe in Better"". Sky has also aired several advertisements featuring characters from Toy Story for "Toy Story of Terror!" and "Toy Story That Time Forgot", "Minions", "Inside Out", "Kung Fu Panda 3", "The Secret Life of Pets", "The Lego Batman Movie", "Despicable Me 3" and "Monster Family".


title: Sky UK

text: When Sky Digital was launched in 1998 the new service used the Astra 2A satellite which was located at the 28.2°E orbital position, unlike the analogue service which was broadcast from 19.2°E. This was subsequently followed by more Astra satellites as well as Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 (now Eutelsat 33C) at 28.5°E), enabled the company to launch a new all-digital service, Sky, with the potential to carry hundreds of television and radio channels. The old position was shared with broadcasters from several European countries, while the new position at 28.5°E came to be used almost exclusively for channels that broadcast to the United Kingdom.


title: Sky UK

text: New Astra satellites joined the position in 2000 and 2001, and the number of channels available to customers increased accordingly. This trend continued with the launch of Eurobird 1 (now Eutelsat 33C) in 2001. Additionally, some channels occasionally received new numbering – However, in early 2006, the majority of channels received new numbering, with some receiving single-digit changes, whilst others received new numbers entirely.


title: Sky UK

text: It was the country's most popular digital TV service until it was overtaken by Freeview in April 2007.


title: Sky UK

text: Prior to the migration to Astra 2E, 2F and 2G, Sky was transmitted from the Astra satellites located at 28.2° east (2A/2C/2E/2F) and Eutelsat's Eutelsat 33C satellite at 28.5°E.


title: Sky UK

text: As of 2019, Astra 2E, 2F and 2G are the sole satellites used by Sky UK; a number of services are served via narrow UK-only spot beams, the other services downlinked with a Europe-wide footprint. UK-only spot beams are intentionally tightly focused over mainland UK, however they are still receivable dependent on location and access to a sufficiently large dish and sensitive LNB.


title: Sky UK

text: Eutelsat 33C was subsequently moved to 33° East, then moved again to 133° West and renamed as 'Eutelsat 133 West A' to serve transponders offering European and African language services.


title: Sky UK

text: Provided is a universal Ku band LNB (9.75/10.600 GHz) which is fitted at the end of the dish and pointed at the correct satellite constellation; most digital receivers will receive the free to air channels. Some broadcasts are free-to-air and unencrypted, some are encrypted but do not require a monthly subscription (known as free-to-view), some are encrypted and require a monthly subscription, and some are pay-per-view services. To view the encrypted content a VideoGuard UK-equipped receiver (all of which are dedicated to the Sky service, and cannot be used to decrypt other services) needs to be used. Unofficial CAMs are now available to view the service, although the use of


title: Sky UK

text: Sky's standard definition broadcasts are in DVB-compliant MPEG-2, with the Sky Cinema and Sky Box Office channels including optional Dolby Digital soundtracks for recent films, although these are only accessible with a Sky+ box. Sky+ HD material is broadcast using MPEG-4 and most of the HD material uses the DVB-S2 standard. Interactive services and 7-day EPG use the proprietary OpenTV system, with set-top boxes including modems for a return path. Sky News, amongst other channels, provides a pseudo-video on demand interactive service by broadcasting looping video streams.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky utilises the VideoGuard pay-TV scrambling system owned by NDS, a Cisco Systems company. There are tight controls over the use of VideoGuard decoders; they are not available as stand-alone DVB CAMs (conditional-access modules). Sky has design authority over all digital satellite receivers capable of receiving their service. The receivers, though designed and built by different manufacturers, must conform to the same user interface look and feel as all the others. This extends to the Personal video recorder (PVR) offering (branded Sky+).


title: Sky UK

text: Sky maintains an electronic programme guide (EPG) which provides information about upcoming programmes and a list of channels. TV channels available on Sky are assigned a three-digit logical channel number which can be entered on the remote control to access the channel and determines in what order channels are listed. Radio channels similarly receive a four-digit EPG number (0 prefix + three digits).


title: Sky UK

text: The EPG differs depending on the viewer's location due to the limited regional availability of certain channels or conditions relating to their must-carry status. For example, this ensures that viewers get access to the correct BBC or ITV region or that S4C gets a prominent listing in Wales.


title: Sky UK

text: All channels are grouped into categories depending on their content. What section of the EPG a channel gets allocated is determined by rules set up by Sky.


title: Sky UK

text: Sky has no veto over the presence of channels on their EPG, with open access being enforced as part of their operating licence from Ofcom. Any channel which can get carriage on a suitable beam of a satellite at 28° East is entitled to access to Sky's EPG for a fee, ranging from £15–100,000. Third-party channels which opt for encryption receive discounts ranging from reduced price to free EPG entries, free carriage on a Sky leased transponder or actual payment for being carried. However, even in this case, Sky does not carry any control over the channel's content or carriage issues such as picture quality.


title: Sky UK

text: In October 2007, Sky announced that they would not accept new applications to launch the channel on their EPG, citing "very significant memory constraints" on many of its older digiboxes.


title: Sky UK

text: In June 2012, Sky launched a new EPG dubbed "Darwin" for their Sky+HD receivers, offering a more modern, refreshed interface and some improved functionality. Newer SkyQ UHD receivers utilise different hardware, so run a different software stack.


title: Sky UK

text: The EPG numbering is altered frequently when new channels launch or receive new numbers. A few times, the EPG has been substantially altered. For example:


title: Sky UK

text: On 12 July 2011, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed that Sky's largest shareholder – News Corporation – attempted to affect government policy with regards to the BBC in pursuit of its own commercial interests. He went further, in a speech in Parliament on 13 July 2011, stating:


title: Sky UK

text: "Mr James Murdoch, which included his cold assertion that profit, not standards were what mattered in the media, underpinned an ever more aggressive News International and Sky agenda under his and Mrs Brooks' leadership that was brutal in its simplicity. Their aim was to cut the BBC licence fee, to force BBC online to charge for its content, for the BBC to sell off its commercial activities, to open up more national sporting events to bids from Sky and move them away from the BBC, to open up the cable and satellite infrastructure market, and to reduce the power of their regulator, Ofcom. I rejected those policies."


title: Sky UK

text: On 13 July 2011, MP Chris Bryant stated to the House of Commons, in the Parliamentary Debate on the Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation Bid for Sky that the company was anti-competitive:


title: Sky UK

text: "The company has lots of technological innovation that only a robust entrepreneur could bring to British society, but it has also often been profoundly anti-competitive. I believe that the bundling of channels so as to increase profit and make it impossible for others to participate in the market is anti-competitive. I believe that the way in which the application programming interface—the operating system—has been used has been anti-competitive and that Sky has deliberately set about selling set-top boxes elsewhere, outside areas where they have proper rights. If one visits a flat in Spain where a British person lives, one finds that they mysteriously manage to have a Sky box there even though it is registered to a house in the United Kingdom."


title: Sky UK

text: Virgin Media (re-branded in 2007 from "NTL:Telewest") started to offer a high-definition television (HDTV) capable set top box, although from 30 November 2006 until 30 July 2009 it only carried one linear HD channel, BBC HD, after the conclusion of the ITV HD trial. Virgin Media has claimed that other HD channels were "locked up" or otherwise withheld from their platform, although Virgin Media did in fact have an option to carry Channel 4 HD in the future. Nonetheless, the linear channels were not offered, Virgin Media instead concentrating on its Video on Demand service to carry a modest selection of HD content. Virgin Media has nevertheless made a number of statements over the years, suggesting that more linear HD channels are on the way.


title: Sky UK

text: In 2007, Sky and Virgin Media became involved in a dispute over the carriage of Sky channels on cable TV. The failure to renew the existing carriage agreements negotiated with NTL and Telewest resulted in Virgin Media removing the basic channels from the network on 1 March 2007. Virgin Media claimed that Sky had substantially increased the asking price for the channels, a claim which Sky denied, on the basis that their new deal offered "substantially more value" by including HD channels and Video On Demand content which was not previously carried by cable.


title: Sky UK

text: In response, Sky ran a number of TV, radio and print advertisements claiming that Virgin Media "doubted the value" of the channels concerned, at first urging Virgin Media customers to call their cable operator to show their support for Sky, and later urging Virgin Media customers to migrate to Sky to continue receiving the channels. The broadcasting regulator Ofcom subsequently found these adverts in breach of their code.


title: Sky UK

text: The availability (at an extra charge) of Sky's premium sports and movie services was not affected by the dispute, and Sky Sports 3 was offered as a replacement for Sky One on many Virgin Media packages. This impasse continued for twenty-one months, with both companies initiating High Court proceedings. Amongst Virgin Media's claims to the court (denied by Sky) were that Sky had unfairly reduced the amount which it paid to VMTV for the carriage of Virgin Media's own channels on satellite.


title: Sky UK

text: Eventually, on 4 November 2008 it was announced that an agreement had been struck for Sky's basic channels – including Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 to return to Virgin Media from 13 November 2008 until 12 June 2011. In exchange, Sky would be provided continued carriage of Virgin Media Television's channels – Living, Livingit, Bravo, Bravo +1, Trouble, Challenge and Virgin1 for the same period.


title: Sky UK

text: The agreements include fixed annual carriage fees of £30m for the channels with both channel suppliers able to secure additional capped payments if their channels meet certain performance-related targets. Currently, there is no indication as to whether the new deal includes the additional Video On Demand and High Definition content which had previously been offered by Sky. As part of the agreements, both Sky and Virgin Media agreed to terminate all High Court proceedings against each other relating to the carriage of their respective basic channels.


title: Sky UK

text: On 25 January 2017, Discovery Networks announced that they were in a dispute with Sky UK over the costs of payment fees to the broadcaster.


title: Sky UK

text: The broadcaster threatened to blackout their channels on the Sky platform, which includes Eurosport, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, DMAX, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Shed, Discovery Science, Discovery History and Home & Health, unless Sky accepted their request for fair pricing. Sky indicated that they will not bow down, and the channels would likely become unavailable from 1 February 2017.


title: Sky UK

text: The same day, Discovery sent out a press release on the dispute and also blocked access to its own website with the news. Discovery stated "enough is enough" and claimed that Sky is paying less for its channels than it was ten years ago. At that time, Discovery had stated that its viewing share has grown by more than 20%. Managing Director Susanna Dinnage stated in the press release:"We believe Sky is using what we consider to be its dominant market position to further its own commercial interest over those of viewers and independent broadcasters. The vitality of independent broadcasters like Discovery and plurality in TV is under threat."


title: Sky UK

text: In response, Sky stated that they had been "overpaying Discovery for years." It comes after Sky had paid £4.2 billion on Premier League rights for the following three seasons.


title: Sky UK

text: The channel 'blackout' would have also affected the Sky-owned NOW TV with the removal of Discovery Channel from both the live stream and On Demand service.


title: Sky UK

text: On 31 January 2017 at around 21:00, Sky UK revealed that they would continue to broadcast the Discovery Networks Channels by releasing the following statement:


title: Sky UK

text: "Great news, we can confirm that Sky will continue to carry the Discovery and Eurosport channels. This means you can still watch channels including: Animal Planet, Discovery HD, Discovery History, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Science, Discovery Shed, Discovery Turbo, DMAX, Eurosport1, Eurosport2, Investigation Discovery, TLC, and Quest."


title: Sky UK

text: At the time of the statement release, it had not been revealed how much Sky UK had paid Discovery Networks.


title: Sky UK

text: In July 2013, the English High Court of Justice found that Microsoft's use of the term "SkyDrive" infringed on Sky's right to the "Sky" trademark. On 31 July 2013, Sky and Microsoft announced their settlement, in which Microsoft will not appeal the ruling, and will rename its SkyDrive cloud storage service after an unspecified "reasonable period of time to allow for an orderly transition to a new brand," plus "financial and other terms, the details of which are confidential". On 27 January 2014, Microsoft announced "that SkyDrive will soon become OneDrive" and "SkyDrive Pro" becomes "OneDrive for Business".


title: Sky UK

text: Hello Games was in legal negotiations with Sky over the trademark on the word "Sky" used for the title of their video game "No Man's Sky" for three years. The issue was ultimately settled in June 2016, allowing Hello Games to continue to use the name.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: , is a Japanese fantasy novel series written by Takumi Yanai and illustrated by Daisuke Izuka and Kurojishi. Originally, it was serialized from 2006 to 2009 on the user-generated novel publishing website Arcadia until it was acquired by publisher AlphaPolis in 2010. A manga adaptation illustrated by Satoru Sao began in July 2011, and three spin-off manga began in 2015. The first half of an anime television series adaptation aired from July to September 2015, and the second half aired from January to March 2016. The series has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America. A sequel novel series, "Gate Season 2: Jieitai Kano Umi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri", began publication in 2017.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: In modern-day Ginza, Tokyo, a portal from another world suddenly appears and a legion of Roman-styled medieval soldiers and monsters emerge to attack the city. Using modern weaponry and tactics, the Japan Self-Defense Forces easily repels the enemy and passes through the Gate to establish a forward operating base and initiate peace negotiations with the Empire of the other world. However, Japan's exclusive access to the Gate is envied by the other nations of the world, who wish to exploit the for their own purposes. Also, the JSDF's activities are closely monitored by their government, which hesitates to involve itself any further into the Special Region's affairs out of fear of public disapproval.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: Yōji Itami is a reserve JSDF officer sent to investigate the other world, where magic, dragons and elves are real, using his knowledge of fantasy stories to make his way in this new environment. While exploring the Special Region, he ends up selflessly aiding its people—including Imperial Princess Piña Co Lada—against an ancient dragon and a band of marauders, thus paving the way for negotiations and saddling himself with a group of local girls who have developed feelings for him. However, when he humiliates Imperial Crown Prince Zorzal in order to rescue a Japanese prisoner from his clutches, the latter decides to make Japan pay in blood, seizing power as a dictator and preparing for an all-out war. Thus the JSDF is eventually forced to engage in aggressive combat action to maintain the status quo and bring negotiations with Zorzal's father, Molt Sol Augustus, to a peaceful conclusion.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: Following the JSDF's liberation of Princess Piña, the Emperor and the anti-war senators from the Imperial capital, Zorzal go into hiding and engages in a guerilla war, having his men, wearing imitation camouflage uniforms, and monsters commit terror acts against the civilian population in order to discredit the Japanese and draw them out; but the JSDF's allies and sympathizers rally to their side to defeat the rogue prince. However, as the goddess Hardy relates to Itami, the Gate itself poses another serious problem. Initially opened by Hardy, but enlarged and stabilized by the Empire's magicians, it begins to cause a series of cataclysmic disruptions as the Special Region and Earth begin to drift away from this mutual anchor point. Thus, the Japanese must struggle to both end the civil war and close the Gate in time before both worlds rip each other to pieces.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: Takumi Yanai, a former member of the JSDF, initially published the work on the user-generated content site "Arcadia" from April 2006 until June 2009 under the pseudonym . In 2010, AlphaPolis made an arrangement with him to publish his work in print. The first two web novel volumes were slightly altered to make them less nationalistic whereas the third, and final, web novel volume was rewritten and expanded into three volumes. These five volumes were published from April 12, 2010, to January 5, 2012, with cover illustrations by Daisuke Izuka. The original web novels were later removed from "Arcadia". The series has continued with five volumes of side stories as of October 10, 2012. On January 6, 2013, AlphaPolis began a reprint of the series as a light novel, where each novel volume was split into two small-sized light novel volumes in bunkobon format, as well as new cover and inside illustrations by Kurojishi.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: A supplementary prequel novel titled "Gate: Zero" (ゲート 0), which details the events surrounding the Ginza Incident, was published on December 31, 2021.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: A sequel novel series, , centers on a new set of characters from the Maritime Self-Defense Force. In season two, the JMSDF's Goro Etajima and his subordinate Koji Tokushima's travel around designated countries with research and exploration duties. With the reopening of the gate, the Japanese government continues to maintain control of the "gate" monopoly in the international community. This requires the government to focus on both domestic politics as well as terrain investigations in the new world as modest relationships are formed with local residents.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: Daisuke Izuka returns as the illustrator for the novels. Five volumes have been published with the first volume released on August 8, 2017, and the fifth volume released on November 30, 2020.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: There are five manga series based on "Gate", all published by AlphaPolis. The first manga, drawn by Satoru Sao, began publishing on July 30, 2011. This manga is licensed in English by Sekai Publishing, but only the first two volumes have been translated, with Sekai stating quality problems with the volume 2 copies in 2018. Following the release of volume 2 in 2020, Sekai Project canceled subsequent volumes.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: The second manga, titled "Gate! Yonkoma", is a yonkoma comic strip comedy drawn by Kuinji 51-gou, began on January 15, 2015, and ended on July 23, 2015. The third manga, drawn by Yukie Shiren and titled "Gate: Teikoku no Bara Kishidan - Piña Co Lada 14-sai", which is a prequel story with Piña as the main protagonist, began on March 19, 2015, and ended on April 7, 2016, has 2 volumes. A fourth manga, drawn by Chako Abeno and titled "Gate: featuring The Starry Heavens", which depicts the three main female characters becoming music idols, began on March 19, 2015, and ended on April 28, 2016, has 2 volumes. A fifth spin-off manga, drawn by Tomo and titled "Mei☆Company", is based on the in-universe manga in the "Gate" series, began on March 19, 2015, and ended on October 22, 2015, has 1 volume.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: An anime television series adaptation was produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Takahiko Kyōgoku. The series' character designs are based on the light novel illustrations. The first 12 episodes aired in Japan between July 4 and September 18, 2015. The second half aired on Tokyo MX from January 9 to March 26, 2016. It was streamed online by Crunchyroll and is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America. From episode 1 to 12, the opening theme song is by Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets and the ending theme song is by Hisako Kanemoto, Nao Tōyama, and Risa Taneda. Sentai Filmworks released a complete collection of the series on Blu-ray and DVD on July 11, 2017. For the second half, the opening theme is by Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets, and the ending theme is by Kanemoto, Tōyama, and Taneda.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: In 2017, scholar Takayoshi Yamamura noted that anime was produced in the collaboration with the JSDF Tokyo Provincial Cooperation Office. He further pointed out that the original author formerly was a JSDF officer and said he proposed the cooperation with the office in the first place. Yamamura also noted in 2015 the JSDF entered their vehicles into a contest in Ōmiya-ku, Saitama, painting them with anime characters.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: In June 2017, it was reported that the novels for season one have sold over 4.2 million copies in Japan.


title: Gate (novel series)

text: Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network reviewed the first twelve episodes of "Gate" where she praised the anime's unique premise of a modern military fighting against fantasy races in another world, having its main protagonist being an older man rather than a teenager and its unique cast of characters, but also criticized the anime for being too political and glorifying the Japanese military. Theron Martin of Anime News Network also praises the anime for a being the opposite of "Outbreak Company", another anime with a similar premise about modern Japan discovering a fantasy world. While he found the story and some of the characters entertaining and praised some of the English voice actors, he also criticized how some character stories were much weaker than others, the English script was changed from the original Japanese, and found "Gate" political views in the anime were "graceless and heavy-handed".


title: Gate (novel series)

text: The general positive response to "Gate" prompted the Japanese military to start a recruitment campaign using the main characters as mascots. A pachislot game based on the anime was released in February 2018.


title: Amuse-bouche

text: An amuse-bouche (; ) or amuse-gueule (, ; ) is a single, bite-sized" hors d'œuvre". Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons but are served free and according to the chef's selection alone. These are served both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse of the chef's style.


title: Amuse-bouche

text: The term is French and literally means "mouth amuser". The plural form may be "amuse-bouche" or "amuse-bouches".


title: Amuse-bouche

text: In France, is traditionally used in conversation and literary writing, while "amuse-bouche" is not even listed in most dictionaries, being a euphemistic hypercorrection that appeared in the 1980s on restaurant menus and used almost only there. (In French, "bouche" refers to the human mouth, while "gueule" may mean the mouth or snout of an animal, though commonly used for "mouth" and derogatory only in certain expressions.)


title: Amuse-bouche

text: The amuse-bouche emerged as an identifiable course during the nouvelle cuisine movement, which emphasized smaller, more intensely flavoured courses. It differs from other "hors d'œuvres" in that it is small, usually just one or two bites, and preselected by the chef and offered free of charge to all present at the table.


title: Amuse-bouche

text: The function of the amuse-bouche could be played by rather simple offerings, such as a plate of olives or a crock of tapenade. It often becomes a showcase, however, of the artistry and showmanship of the chef, intensified by the competition among restaurants. According to Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a popular New York celebrity chef with restaurants around the world, "The amuse-bouche is the best way for a great chef to express his or her big ideas in small bites".


title: Amuse-bouche

text: At some point, the amuse-bouche transformed from an unexpected bonus to a "de rigueur" offering at Michelin Guide-starred restaurants and those aspiring to that category (as recently as 1999, "The New York Times" provided a parenthetical explanation of the course). This in turn created a set of logistical challenges for restaurants: amuse-bouche must be prepared in sufficient quantities to serve all guests, usually just after the order is taken or between main courses. This often requires a separate cooking station devoted solely to producing the course quickly as well as a large and varied collection of specialized china for serving the amuse. Interesting plates, demitasse cups, and large Asian-style soup spoons are popular choices. In addition, the kitchen must try to accommodate guests who have an aversion or allergy to ingredients in the "amuse".


title: Violator (album)

text: Violator is the seventh studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was first released on 19 March 1990 by Mute Records internationally, and by Sire and Reprise Records in the United States.


title: Violator (album)

text: Preceded by the singles "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" (a top-10 entry in both the United Kingdom and the United States), the album propelled the band into international stardom, and also yielded the singles "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes". "Violator" reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, and was the band's first album to chart inside the top 10 of the "Billboard" 200, peaking at number seven. The album was supported by the World Violation Tour.


title: Violator (album)

text: Compared to previous efforts, the band decided to try a new approach to recording. Alan Wilder said, "Usually we begin the making of a record by having extensive pre-production meetings where we decide what the record will actually sound like, then go into a programming studio. This time we decided to keep all pre-production work to a minimum. We were beginning to have a problem with boredom in that we felt we'd reached a certain level of achievement in doing things a certain way." Martin Gore elaborated, "Over the last five years I think we'd perfected a formula; my demos, a month in a programming studio, etc. etc. We decided that our first record of the '90s ought to be different."


title: Violator (album)

text: With co-producer Flood, Wilder began a complementary working relationship, with Flood able to provide the technical know-how and Wilder working on the arrangements and song textures. "That's how we made the group work at that time", clarified Wilder, "by accepting that we all had different roles and not actually all trying to do the same thing. So we ended up with this unwritten agreement in the band, where we'd all throw together a few ideas at the beginning of a track. Then Fletch and Mart would go away, and they'd come back after we'd worked on it for a while to give an opinion."


title: Violator (album)

text: There was also a notable change in Gore's demos. After the rigid, limiting effects of almost-finished demos for "Music for the Masses", Gore, agreeing to Wilder's request, kept them less complete this time around. Several of the basic recordings consisted of vocals over a simple guitar or organ part, with the odd percussion loop, but less sequenced material. The sparse demos allowed the band to take creative liberties with the songs. For instance, "Enjoy the Silence" started out as a slow ballad, but at Wilder's suggestion became a pulsating, up-tempo track.


title: Violator (album)

text: The band convened to work on the record with Flood at Mute's WorldWide programming room in London for three weeks after which they flew to Milan for the new sessions at Logic studios. According to Flood, they did not do a substantial amount of work in Milan, except for the song "Personal Jesus", which was crucial in setting the tone and spirit of the album. "Everybody was feeling each other out, because they wanted to try working in a different way. The idea was to work hard and party hard and we all enjoyed ourselves to the full." After Milan the band relocated to Puk studios in northern Denmark, where most of the album was recorded.


title: Violator (album)

text: Musically, "Violator" has been described as synth-pop, alternative rock, dance, and gothic rock. Gore called the track "World in My Eyes" a very positive song: "It's saying that love and sex and pleasure are positive things." The song "Blue Dress", which Gore called "pervy", is simply about "watching a girl dress and realising that this is 'what makes the world turn.'" With "Halo", Gore said, "I'm saying 'let's give in to this' but there's also a real feeling of wrongfulness [...] I suppose my songs do seem to advocate immorality but if you listen there's always a sense of guilt." The closing track, "Clean", was inspired by Pink Floyd's song "One of These Days", from their 1971 album "Meddle". Said Wilder, "they [Pink Floyd] were doing something very different to anyone else at that time – you can hear electronics in there, and the influence of classical music. It's got a very repetitive, synthesised sound, and the bass riffs with the echo have a very hypnotic groove that underpins it. We basically nicked that idea [for 'Clean']".


title: Violator (album)

text: Regarding the album's title, Gore said, "We called it "Violator" as a joke. We wanted to come up with the most extreme, ridiculously Heavy Metal title that we could. I'll be surprised if people will get the joke."


title: Violator (album)

text: In a contemporary review for "Melody Maker", music critic Paul Lester called "Violator" "Depeche Mode's most arresting work to date." Tim Nicholson of "Record Mirror" was enthused by the stripped-down quality of the songs and called the album a "compromise between pop music and something a little more sinister", adding: "There are no noises out of place in this perfectly formed void." Ian Cranna of "Q" magazine found the music subtly clever and deemed "Violator" "a fine record which may not set the world on fire but deserves to singe it a bit." "NME" writer Helen Mead felt that the album "seems almost a step back, in that it's cleaner, sparser, more clinical" than "Music for the Masses", but concluded that "there is security in the knowledge that everything is very clear cut in Depeche Mode's blue and white world." In a less enthusiastic review, Robert Christgau said that Depeche Mode conceded to fickle teenage demographics on "Violator". "Rolling Stone" magazine's Chuck Eddy said that, despite the album's "ambient charm", Gahan sounds "slimy and self-involved", and in their attempt to make listeners dance, Depeche Mode "revert to morose pop psychology and then never tell you how come they're so sad." "Entertainment Weekly"s Greg Sandow found that the music is over-reliant on "distinctive and curious", but ultimately trivial, sound effects.


title: Violator (album)

text: "Violator" was ranked number 342 on "Rolling Stone"s 2003 and 2012 lists of the 500 greatest albums of all time and number 57 on the magazine's 2010 list of the 100 best albums of the 1990s. It was ranked number 167 on "Rolling Stone"s 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. "Violator" has also featured on lists of the greatest albums of all time made by publications such as "Q" and "Spin". In a retrospective review, "The Austin Chronicle"s Christopher Gray cited "Violator" as Depeche Mode's "career peak", while "The Guardian"s Dorian Lynskey called it the band's best album, "encasing Martin Gore's favourite tropes – guilt, salvation, obsession and the virtues of keeping your mouth shut – in production as black and shiny as a beetle's shell." Barry Walters of "Rolling Stone" complimented its "heavier hooks, cinematic arrangements and sleek sonic detail." Sal Cinquemani of "Slant Magazine" called the album "a quintessential benchmark of pop, rock and electronic music." It is included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: Violator (album)

text: As a sign of their rising popularity when "Violator" was released, a signing party for fans at a Wherehouse record store in Los Angeles that was expected to draw only a few thousand fans ended up drawing around 17,000. The band were forced to withdraw from the event due to security concerns, and their early exit nearly caused a riot. "Violator" reached number 17 on the "Billboard" 200-year-end chart of 1990, and was the first Depeche Mode album to sell a million copies in the United States.


title: Violator (album)

text: The success of "Violator" introduced the band to a wider audience, and this increased exposure led to their 1993 follow-up album "Songs of Faith and Devotion" debuting at the top of the charts in both the United States and United Kingdom. "Before this, we'd been going along quite nicely," recalled Andy Fletcher. "Then when it came to "Violator" we inexplicably went huge. It was just incredible, and in many ways we never really recovered from that. After that, we just felt like we wanted to muck it up a bit."


title: Violator (album)

text: As part of Mute's 2006 reissue schedule, "Violator" was re-released as a hybrid Super Audio CD + DVD-Video package on 3 April 2006 that included two-channel and 5.1 surround mixes of the album. The six B-sides to the "Violator" singles—"Dangerous", "Memphisto", "Sibeling", "Kaleid", "Happiest Girl", and "Sea of Sin"—also appear, albeit without the surround sound treatment. The reissue did not reach the US until 6 June 2006. The US version lacked the hybrid SACD and instead included a separate CD and DVD. The DVD was identical to the European DVD but in NTSC format instead of PAL. The lack of SACD is due to the titles being distributed in North America by Warner, who do not support the SACD format.


title: Violator (album)

text: A 32-minute short film, entitled "Depeche Mode 1989–90 (If You Wanna Use Guitars, Use Guitars)", featured interviews with the band, Daniel Miller, Flood, François Kevorkian (who mixed the album), Anton Corbijn (who directed the music videos and did the album's photography/cover), and others. It also includes news footage from the infamous "riot" in Los Angeles, which gave the band media publicity the day before "Violator" came out. The band were scheduled to do autographs in an LA music store, and the line became extremely long, stretching towards twenty-thousand people, and the event had to be cancelled shortly after it began due to problems keeping them in order. There is also footage from "Strange Too", notably clips from the music videos for "Halo" and "Clean".


title: Violator (album)

text: The remastered album was released on "deluxe" vinyl on 2 March 2007 in Germany and on 5 March 2007 internationally.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: A digestive biscuit, sometimes described as a sweet-meal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit that originated in Scotland. The digestive was first developed in 1839 by two Scottish doctors to aid digestion. The term "digestive" is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties due to the use of sodium bicarbonate when they were first developed. Historically, some producers used diastatic malt extract to "digest" some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: First manufactured by McVitie's in 1892 with a secret recipe developed by Sir Alexander Grant, their digestive is the best-selling biscuit in the UK. In 2009, the digestive was ranked the fourth most popular biscuit for "dunking" into tea among the British public, with the chocolate digestive (produced by McVitie's in 1925) coming in at number one. The chocolate variant from McVitie's is routinely ranked the UK's favourite snack.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: In 1839, digestives were developed in the United Kingdom by two Scottish doctors to aid digestion. In an 1851 issue of "The Lancet", London's advertising section offered "brown meal" digestive biscuits. At the time, it was asserted grain millers knew only of bran and endosperm. After 10% of the whole grain's coarser outer-bran coat was removed, and because the innermost 70% of pure endosperm was reserved for other uses, brown meal, representing only 20% of the whole grain, remained, consisting of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour. By 1912 it was more widely known that brown meal included the germ, which lent a characteristic sweetness.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: Digestives featured in advertisements for the Berkshire-based biscuit company Huntley & Palmers in 1876, with digestives sold by chemists alongside indigestion powder. Rival biscuit company, Edinburgh-based McVitie's, have Golden-baked their best-selling digestives to a secret recipe developed by Sir Alexander Grant since 1892. A recipe was given in Cassell's "New Universal Cookery Book" of 1894. In 1889, John Montgomerie of Scotland filed a U.S. patent application, which was granted in 1890. This patent asserted a prior patent existed in England dated 1886. The U.S. patent, titled "Making Malted Bread", included instructions for the manufacture of digestive biscuits. Montgomerie claimed this saccharification process would make "nourishing food for people of weak digestion". Despite rumours that it is illegal for them to be sold under their usual name in the US, they are, in fact, widely available in imported food sections of grocery stores and by mail order.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: The typical digestive biscuit contains coarse brown wheat flour (which gives it its distinctive texture and flavour), sugar, malt extract, vegetable oil, wholemeal, raising agents (usually sodium bicarbonate, tartaric acid and malic acid), and salt. Some varieties also contain dried whey, oatmeal, cultured skimmed milk, and emulsifiers such as DATEM.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: A digestive biscuit averages around 70 calories, although this sometimes varies according to the factors involved in its production.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: Digestive biscuits are frequently eaten with tea or coffee. Sometimes, the biscuit is dunked into the tea and eaten quickly due to the biscuit's tendency to disintegrate when wet. Digestive biscuits are one of the top 10 biscuits in the UK for dunking in tea. The digestive biscuit is also used as a cracker with cheeses, and is often included in "cracker selection" packets.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: In the UK, McVitie's digestive is the best selling biscuit, with 80 million packs sold annually, though there are many other popular brands (such as Cadbury’s) as well as supermarkets' own versions. Digestives are also popular in food preparation for making into bases for cheesecakes and similar desserts.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: Digestive biscuits with a chocolate coating on one side are also available. The coating can consist of dark, white, or milk chocolate, although white chocolate digestives are quite rare. This was originally produced by McVitie's in 1925, in the UK, as the Chocolate Homewheat Digestive. Other varieties include the basic biscuit with chocolate shavings throughout (chocolate "chips" in the biscuit mix) or a layer of caramel, mint chocolate, orange-flavoured chocolate, or plain chocolate. They are manufactured at McVitie's Harlesden factory in London. American travel writer Bill Bryson described the chocolate digestive as "a British masterpiece".


title: Digestive biscuit

text: In 2009, the McVitie's chocolate digestive was named as the most popular biscuit in the UK to dunk into tea. The chocolate variant from McVitie's is routinely ranked the UK's favourite snack. A YouGov poll saw Cadbury’s digestive ranked the second most popular biscuit in the UK after McVitie's.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: McVitie's digestive biscuits have become known among fans of the rock group The Beatles because they were the cause of an argument between George Harrison and John Lennon during a recording session for the group's 1969 album "Abbey Road". The incident was recounted by recording engineer Geoff Emerick in his book "Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles". According to Emerick, Lennon's wife Yoko Ono was in the recording studio and at one point helped herself to Harrison's box of McVitie's while the Beatles were in the control room listening to a playback of the song they had just recorded. Harrison became angry at Ono, and his subsequent outburst caused Lennon to lose his temper in response.


title: Digestive biscuit

text: Chocolate digestives were the technical challenge to the bakers in . They were also the technical challenge to the bakers in .


title: Ori and the Blind Forest

text: Ori and the Blind Forest is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was released for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows in March 2015, and for Nintendo Switch in September 2019. Players assume control of Ori, a small white spirit, and Sein, the "light and eyes" of the Forest's Spirit Tree. Players are tasked to move between platforms and solve puzzles. The game features a save system called "Soul Links", which allows players to save their progress at will with limited resources, and an upgrade system that gives players the ability to strengthen Ori's skills and abilities.


title: Ori and the Blind Forest

text: The game was developed by Moon Studios, a collective organization without a set location. The distribution rights to the game were acquired by Microsoft a year after the beginning of the game's development. The game story was inspired by "The Lion King" and "The Iron Giant", while some of the gameplay elements were inspired by the "Rayman" and "Metroid" franchises.


title: Ori and the Blind Forest

text: Upon release, the game received critical acclaim, with players praising the gameplay, art direction, story, action sequences, musical score, and environmental design. The game was also dubbed as one of the titles that represented art in video games. Moon Studios co-founder Gennadiy Korol said the game was profitable for the company within a few weeks after its initial launch. An expansion, called the "Definitive Edition", was released in March 2016. A direct sequel, "Ori and the Will of the Wisps", was announced during Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 and was released on March 11, 2020.


title: Ori and the Blind Forest

text: "Ori and the Blind Forest" is a 2D Metroidvania; a platform game with an emphasis on exploration, collecting items and upgrades, and backtracking to previously inaccessible areas. The player controls Ori, a white guardian spirit, and Sein, who is the light and eyes of the Spirit Tree. As Ori, players must jump, climb, and use various other abilities to navigate the game's world. Sein can shoot Spirit Flames to combat enemies or break obstacles. Ori is required to interact with the environment by jumping from platforms and solving puzzles, and is faced with various enemies. The player helps Ori collect health cells, energy cells, new abilities, and upgrades. The game world unfolds to the player in the fashion of a Metroidvania, with new abilities allowing the player to access previously inaccessible areas.


title: Ori and the Blind Forest

text: In addition to save points scattered in the game, players can create "soul links" at any time they choose to serve as checkpoints. However, soul links can only be created using energy cells collected during gameplay; the needed energy is not in abundant supply, forcing players to create them only when necessary. The player can obtain ability points to gain upgrades and benefits, such as increasing the damage of Sein's Spirit Flame. These upgrades can be achieved when the player has enough ability points to learn the skill they desire, anywhere a soul link has been created. An ability point is gained when Ori collects enough experience by killing enemies, destroying various plants, and finding spirit light containers or ability cells (which instantly awards Ori an ability point). Each skill must be learned in sequential order from one of three ability trees to allow the next skill to be accessible.


title: Ori and the Blind Forest

text: The voice of the Spirit Tree in the forest of Nibel narrates the story of when Ori, a guardian spirit, fell from it during a storm as a newborn and was adopted by a creature named Naru, who raised Ori as her own. A cataclysmic event soon makes all of the forest wither, and Naru dies of starvation. Newly orphaned, Ori is left to explore the forest on their own. After collapsing near the Spirit Tree and being revived by it, Ori later meets Sein, a small orb who guides Ori on a journey to restore the forest. Sein tasks Ori with recovering the light of three main elements supporting the balance of Nibel: Waters, Winds, and Warmth.


title: Ori and the Blind Forest

text: Ori and Sein come across two beings in their quest: Gumo, the last survivor of the spider-like Gumon clan, who were wiped out by the forest's cataclysm, and whose home supports the Wind element; and Kuro, a giant, shadowy owl who is hostile toward Ori. Gumo initially steals the key to the Water element, but he returns it after Ori saves him from a rockslide. After the Wind element is rekindled, Ori and Sein find Kuro's nest, empty except for a single egg, and they learn the source of her wrath and the forest's cataclysm: when Ori was lost, the Spirit Tree released a flash of light to look for them, which burned and killed all of Kuro's recently hatched offspring when she was away from her nest looking for food. Determined to prevent this from happening to her yet unborn child, Kuro took away the core on top of the Spirit Tree, which is actually Sein. Without its core, the Spirit Tree could not sustain the three elements, and Nibel lost its balance. Meanwhile, Gumo overhears Ori and Sein's intentions to restore Nibel and uses his clan treasure that stores the light from the Spirit Tree to revive Naru, taking her to where Ori is.