Sky were the first broadcaster in the UK to offer high definition programming. The service was launched in the year two thousand and six. The name of BSkyB's service was originally Sky HD, but it has recently been changed to Sky+ HD.

As of 2010, Sky charge an additional fee of £10.15 (per month) to access their HD content. The amount of HD channels a user can access will depend upon the subscription package they have. Currently, the maximum number of HD channels on offer from Sky is fifty.

A selection of Sky's HD channels are listed below.

• Sky Sports News HD
• Sky Movies Premiere HD
• Sky Movies Classics HD
  
• Sky Movies Comedy HD
• Sky Movies Modern Greats
  
• Sky Sports HD1 HD
  
• Sky Sports HD2 HD
  
• Sky Sports HD3 HD
  
• Sky Sports HD4 HD
• Sky Arts 1 HD

Sky state that their 'Movies Showcase HD' channel shows all of it's programming in HD. Which indicates that not all of the programming on their other channels is HD.

Sky broadcast their HD content in 1080i, with the option of a 720p setting. Alongside the video settings, Sky offer Dolby Digital 5.1 on some of it's HD content.