Sky Sports News

Sky Sports
Launched	25 March 1990
Owned by	British Sky Broadcasting
Picture format	576i (SDTV 16:9, 4:3), 1080i (HDTV)
Audience share	1.7% (1) 0.7% (2) 0.2% (3) 0.1% (4) 0.7% (News) (August 2011, BARB)
Formerly called	The Sports Channel (1990-1991)
Sister channel(s)	Challenge, Pick TV, Sky1, Sky2, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky Livingit, Sky Movies, Sky Movies Box Office, Sky News, Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports News
Website	skysports.com
Availability
Terrestrial
BT Vision	Channel 41 (1) Channel 42 (2)
Top Up TV	Channel 41 (1) Channel 42 (2)
Satellite
Sky	Channel 401 (1 SD/HD) Channel 402 (2 SD/HD) Channel 403 (3 SD/HD) Channel 404 (4 SD/HD) Channel 405 (News SD/HD) Channel 408 (F1 SD/HD) Channel 409 (1 SD) Channel 418 (2 SD) Channel 454 (3 SD) Channel 455 (4 SD) Channel 458 (News SD) Channel 459 (F1 SD) Channel 217 (Sky 3D) Sky Anytime
Cable
Virgin Media	Channel 511 (1) Channel 512 (2) Channel 513 (3) Channel 514 (4) Channel 515 (News) Channel 517 (1 HD) Channel 518 (2 HD) Channel 516 (F1) Sky Anytime
Smallworld Cable	Channel 401 (1/HD) Channel 402 (2/HD) Channel 403 (3) Channel 404 (4) Channel 405 (News) Channel 408 (F1)
UPC Ireland	Channel 402 (1) Channel 403 (2) Channel 404 (3) Channel 405 (4) Channel 408 (News)
IPTV
TalkTalk TV	Channel 550 (News) Channel 551 (1) Channel 552 (2) Channel 553 (3) Channel 554 (4)
Internet television
Sky Go	Watch live (UK & Ireland only)
Virgin Media Player	Watch on demand (UK only)

Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1990, sometimes playing a large role in inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992.

Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, and 4 are available as a premium package on top of the basic Sky package. These channels are also available as premium on nearly every satellite, cable and IPTV broadcasting system in the UK and Ireland. Unlike the other channels, Sky Sports News is provided as part of basic packages. Sky Sports is perhaps best known for its Premier League football coverage.

History[link]

The early years (1990-1998)[link]

Sky Sports originally began broadcasting of sports events as The Sports Channel on 25 March 1990, as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting service on cable, becoming available on the Marcopolo satellite (Marcopolo 1 11.93846) the following month.

The opening day's programming included live boxing from the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The first football match covered by the channel was England v Brazil from Wembley on 28 March 1990. The channel's flagship programme was The Main Event, featuring live or recorded coverage of a major fixture or event in peak viewing time, every evening at 8 pm. Other programmes were included on BSB's Sports Channel Sportsdesk, which provided sporting results and updates several times a day, Racing Today, a round-up of the day's horse racing, and Tennis commentator Gerry Williams fronted an interview series, GW Talks To, in which he met leading sports figures.

Sky Television did not originally launch with a sports channel of their own - though sports programmes were occasionally broadcast on Sky Channel - but instead chose to invest in Eurosport instead, which was marketed as one of Sky's four channels upon its launch on 5 February 1989.

On 2 November 1990, British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television announced that they were merging. At first the Sports Channel gained a "British Sky Broadcasting" suffix on its logo, however from 20 April 1991 - when the channel debuted on the SES Astra 1B satellite - it was rebranded as Sky Sports. Sky and Eurosport discontinued their partnership upon the launch of Sky Sports, even though Eurosport continued to be available on the Astra platform.

The channel was sold as one of the major draws of the Sky system and from 1 September 1992 Sky Sports was sold as a subscription channel and encrypted using the VideoCrypt system. It was the second Sky channel to be encrypted (following Sky Movies in 1990). It initially aired sports such as rugby and golf in 1990, before acquiring rights to German and Italian league football in 1990.

However, it was following the formation of the Premier League for the 1992/93 football season, believed to have been assisted by the promise of higher TV payments, that Sky Sports became well known. By bidding £302m, BSkyB beat the BBC and ITV to acquire the live and exclusive Premier League football broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland for a five-year period. In doing so, they had taken live top-flight English league football from terrestrial and free-to-air television for the first time in its history.

More sports channels[link]

Sky launched its second sport-dedicated channel, Sky Sports 2 in August 1994, four years after the original channel launched on the Marcopolo satellite on BSB. Sky Sports Gold, a channel dedicated to classic sport, in a similar vein to ESPN Classic, launched on 1 November 1995 and ended as a separate channel by 1997 but only really petered out (as a filler slot on the other Sky Sports channels) by 2001. At the start of the 1996-97 season Sky Sports 3 was launched. The launch promotion involved many top sporting figures such as Dennis Bergkamp and Ryan Giggs to help the launch of the channel. Sky Sports also acquired the rights to Scottish football and the Coca-Cola Cup.

Sky Digital (1998 - present)[link]

Sky Sports share of viewing 2000-07

October 1998 saw BSkyB launch Sky Digital from a new satellite, Astra 2A at 28.2° east. The move to Sky Digital saw the launch of two new sports channels in quick succession. First Sky Sports News, a 24-hour rolling sports news channel launched. This was followed by Sky Sports Xtra, in March 1999. The channel was initially available exclusively on Sky Digital. However, by summer 2003, the channel had launched on Virgin Media.

On 22 August 1999, Sky utilized a feature of the, then new, Sky Digital system to allow an interactive football match to be shown. Viewers were given the ability to choose the things such as which camera they viewed during the Arsenal vs. Manchester United. The concept proved popular^[1] and soon Sky used the new interactive service, known as Sky Sports Active, for other sports.

Around 2001, a cross-branding deal ensured that a quiz under the name of the Championship Manager series was produced with the Sky Sports name on it. Kirsty Gallacher was the host of the PlayStation 2 quiz.

In 2004, Sky signed an exclusive deal to broadcast live English cricket matches for four seasons from 2006 to 2009 for a fee of £55 million a year.^[2] As with their other exclusive deals this caused some controversy, as the matches were no longer available on terrestrial TV.^{[citation needed]} Sky also signed an exclusive deal with the BCCI to televise the tour of India.^[when?]

Following its earlier collapse, Sky purchased the majority of Channel 4's stake in horse racing channel, At the Races (the remainder of the stake went to Arena Leisure, the other partner in the channel and owner of Ascot Racecourse). At The Races was insolvent, and despite being promoted as part of the Sky Sports line up, had failed to turn a profit. It remains a provider of live coverage to betting shops, however.

Prior to the start of the 2004-05 season, Football First, an interactive football programme was launched. The show typically airs at 8.25pm and replays full coverage of the day's featured Premier League match, followed through the night by highlights from every Premier League match played on the day, which gives the viewer a choice to see a match of their choice. Sky Sports won the rights to air 'near-live' coverage of the Barclays Premier League, permitting Football First to air for another three years.

Sky Sports also snapped up the rights for the A1 Grand Prix and has won the rights to Speedway, for the next five years. The channel also has the rights to American sports, including NFL and WWE.

In 2007, a rival pay television operator, the Irish network Setanta Sports, acquired a share in the British rights to live Premier League matches, breaking Sky's long-standing monopoly. Setanta bought up various other rights such as PGA Tour golf and some top boxing matches, giving Sky a significant rival in the pay television sports market for the first time, but Sky remained the market leader by a wide margin. On 22 June 2009, Setanta's British operations went into administration and ceased broadcasting, which saw ESPN enter the UK market.

Owing to an Ofcom review of premium services, Sky Sports 1 and 2 launched on digital terrestrial television through BT Vision on 1 August 2010 and Top Up TV the following day.^[3] This marked the first time Sky Sports premium channels have been shown via DTT since ITV Digital collapsed in May 2002.

On 28 April 2011, Sky Sports' interactive features were made available on Virgin Media,^[4] following Virgin's sale of Virgin Media Television to BSkyB.^[5]

Other Sky Sports channels[link]

Sky Sports 4[link]

Sky Sports family of logos for SD channels since 6 January 2010

Sky Sports 4 (originally launched as Sky Sports Xtra) is the fourth Sports channel launched by Sky. It airs repeats and live events of many Sky Sports programmes, such as La Liga. The channel launched in April 1999, and is a free bonus channel for those who subscribe to both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2. The name Xtra rather than Sky Sports 4 was chosen as the original intention of the channel was to simulcast sporting events showing on the main channels with the addition of interactive services.

The channel has stopped simulcasting, and the interactive services have moved to the main Sky Sports channels. Sky Sports 4 now shows live and recorded sports events, and is in effect a fourth main Sky Sports channel. In light of this, on 6 January 2010, Sky Sports Xtra was renamed Sky Sports 4.^[6]

In 2011, Sky Sports Xtra returned as a subscriber-only video channel on skysports.com.

Sky Sports HD channels[link]

Sky Sports 1 HD launched on 22 May 2006 as Sky Sports HD, and currently airs live Cricket, Premier League and Football League as well as Guinness Premiership and Super League Rugby. The 2008 Ryder Cup was also screened in HD.

In July 2006 Sky Sports HD2 launched on Sky Digital channel 409, at the same time Sky Sports HD1 moved to channel 408, with Sky Sports News switching to channel 405. There was also an HD version of PremPlus, called PremPlus HD, which broadcast on Sky channel 483 until the football session ended. It was briefly branded Sky Sports HDX and used to broadcast other Sky Sports content in HD, before it ceased broadcasting.

HD broadcasts of rugby league's Super League began from the start of the 2008 season in February 2008. Super Bowl XLI marked the first NFL broadcast in HD in the UK; additional NFL games in HD have since been phased in. Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, Thanksgiving Classic and the NFL Playoffs were shown in HD from 2008.^[7]

Sky Sports HD3 launched on 17 March 2008, to coincide with WWE's first UK HD broadcast. The channel broadcasts a large quantity of WWE and golf.

Sky Sports HD4 launched on 29 April 2010.^[8]

Due to an Ofcom review of premium services, Sky Sports HD1 and HD2 launched on the Virgin Media platform on 2 August 2010.^[9] This marked the first time that Sky's HD programming was shown via a rival service. Smallworld Cable added Sky Sports HD1 and HD2 in the first quarter of 2012.

On 1 March 2012, the HD channels were given a minor rebrand, with the 'HD' moving to the end of the channel names, for example Sky Sports 1 HD instead of Sky Sports HD1. Sky Sports F1 HD launched on 9 March 2012.^[10]

Sky Sports News[link]

Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel operated by Sky Sports. Sky Sports News launched on 1 October 1998, with Sky Digital becoming BSkyB's first digital only channel. On 10 April 2000, Sky Sports News relaunched as Sky Sports.com TV, a move to bring it tie in to the launch of the skysports.com website. However, the name was soon reverted back to Sky Sports News.

The channel replaced Sky Sports Centre, a news show at 6pm, devoted to the key events in the sporting world.

Presenters on the channel include Natalie Sawyer, Simon Thomas, and Millie Clode.

On 5 August 2007 the channel was "refreshed" in line with the Sky Sports new look. The channel was again given a 'new look' on 23 August 2010 of its own accord, gaining a significant graphics overhaul and broadcast in widescreen and HD for the first time. The overhaul also coincided with the channel's upgrade to a 'Pay' channel, including its removal from Freeview.

At The Races[link]

At The Races was originally founded by the Go Racing consortium, a partnership of Channel 4, BSkyB, and Arena Leisure plc (owner of Ascot Racecourse, and acting on behalf of a further 27 out of the 59 UK racecourses) in July 2004. Following its high profile collapse (and Channel 4 removing itself from the consortium) the station - now purely a joint venture between BSkyB and Arena Leisure - focuses on horse racing from the UK, Ireland, North America and Germany, showing many live races and related shows. The station is "affiliated" with various betting companies, since gamblers are generally the sports main audience, and its pictures, provided by satellite link provider SIS, are also commercially distributed to betting shops across the country.

PremPlus[link]

PremPlus was a pay-per-view channel dedicated to airing live Premier League Football. PremPlus launched on 18 August 2001, showing 40 pay-per-view Premier League matches. The main presenter on PremPlus was Marcus Buckland with former Arsenal manager George Graham providing punditry.

The channel was called Premiership Plus from 2001 to 2004, before being shortened to the later PremPlus for the beginning of the 2004-05 season.

PremPlus closed down after the last match of the 2006-07 season after Setanta Sports obtained a third of the Premier League rights for 2007-10. This left Sky with only 92 live matches, meaning a Pay-Per-View service was unsustainable.

Sky Sports F1[link]

Sky Sports F1 launched on 9 March 2012, providing Formula One coverage from March through to November.^[10] Every practice and qualifying session for each Grand Prix is shown live and every race is shown live without commercial interruption.

Programming[link]

Sky owns exclusive UK and Ireland, or UK-only exclusivity rights to a number of sports, most notably the ones listed below. They also transmit a large range of other sports. Some of the BSB's Sport Channel programming were the Football League, the US Open, and the American football from the NFL.

Many of the BSB Sport Channel's rights packages, such as those for the FA Cup, Wimbledon and Test cricket, were acquired in tandem with the BBC.

Football[link]

Televised football rights are the cornerstone of Sky Sports and BSkyB's business model. The vast amounts of money Sky invested in football television rights have changed English football almost beyond recognition.^[11]

Sky Sports have introduced many new features into coverage of the game since 1992 including the initially-controversial permanent digital on-screen graphic scoreboard, an idea that was subsequently copied by American sports (now known as a score bug) and by other British sport producers.^[12]

Premier League[link]

Sky has shown live Premier League football since the League was formed in 1992. The first live Premier League game televised was Nottingham Forest's 1-0 win over Liverpool in August 1992. Sky had exclusive live UK rights to the Premier League until the 2007/08 season when an EU Competition ruling forced the Premier League to share live TV matches among more than one broadcaster.

From the 2010/11 season, Sky Sports will show 115 games live a season, with the remaining 23 live games on ESPN. Their rights entitle them to show games kicking off on Saturday lunchtime, Sunday, Monday night and in midweek or on bank holidays.^[13] There are limits to the number of times any team may be picked for live television coverage per season. They also broadcast delayed extended coverage of the remaining non-televised games in Football First and show highlights of all the action in the Sunday morning programme Goals on Sunday.

Following the departures of Richard Keys and Andy Gray, who had fronted the coverage since the channel's debut in 1992, David Jones and Ed Chamberlin have shared presentation duties whilst Alan Smith has become the main co-commentator. Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville are the regular pundits in the studio. Martin Tyler is the lead commentator, Rob Hawthorne and Alan Parry are the other main match commentators. It was later announced that Ed Chamberlin would front coverage for the 2011/12 season.

Football League[link]

Sky Sports broadcast extensive coverage of the Football League and Carling Cup in a joint £264 million contract with the BBC. Sky are entitled to show 65 games per season, including the play-offs, and two matches per round in the League Cup, including the Final.^[14]

David Jones and Simon Thomas regularly present the match coverage. Bill Leslie and Don Goodman or Garry Birtles tend to commentate, although other commentators such as Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe have been used.

Scottish Premier League[link]

Sky share rights to the Scottish Premier League with ESPN. Both broadcasters will show 30 games per season, with Sky having first pick of matches.^[15]

David Tanner is Sky's lead SPL presenter, having replaced Ali Douglas in 2010, although Sky Sports News presenter Jim White is sometimes brought in to present Old Firm matches. Ian Crocker, Andy Walker and David Provan are Sky's main commentators.

Sky also show up to 9 live Scottish Cup matches per season, normally starting with the fourth round when SPL teams are introduced. Sky share the rights with BBC Scotland, who show 5-8 matches per season. The Scottish Cup final is simulcast on both Sky Sports and BBC One Scotland.

UEFA Champions League[link]

In 2003, BSkyB won joint UK rights to coverage of the UEFA Champions League with ITV, who had previously held exclusive rights.

From the beginning of the 2009-10 season, their coverage of the competition grew dramatically, including automatic rights to qualifying games (previously these were sold on an individual basis in auctions). They will show all games on a Tuesday, plus all bar one game on Wednesdays until the Final. ITV have first choice of Wednesday games, and shared coverage of the final.^[16]

Richard Keys was the main presenter until resigning from Sky following Andy Gray's departure, since when Jeff Stelling and Ben Shephard have fronted Champions League coverage.

Sky tend to assign their main commentators to an individual British team in group stage matches. In 2011/2012 Martin Tyler covered Manchester City's group matches, Rob Hawthorne covered Chelsea, Alan Parry covered Manchester United and Bill Leslie covered Arsenal.

FA Cup[link]

Sky screened one game per round from the FA Cup from 2000 to 2008, with three other games on the BBC, before ITV and the now defunct Setanta Sports won the rights from the 2008/09 season. When Setanta collapsed, Sky did not win back the rights, with ESPN winning Setanta's former share of matches. Sky, however did broadcast the 2011 & 2012 FA Cup finals on Sky 3D with the coverage courtesy of ESPN.

Spanish football[link]

Sky Sports also show live matches from La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football, on Saturday and Sunday nights. They also show a review show called Revista de La Liga on Tuesdays. The Spanish Football is fronted by Scott Minto, along with Guillem Balague and others including Michel Salgado, Rafael Benítez, Michael Laudrup, Pako Ayestarán and Ossie Ardiles. The main commentators are Rob Palmer and Kevin Keatings along with main co-commentators Gerry Armstrong and Terry Gibson.

They have signed a new deal for exclusive live coverage of La Liga for the next three seasons. The new deal for Spain's top league covers the 2009-10, 2010–11 and 2011-12 seasons and they will broadcast at least two live matches from each weekend of the season.^[17]

Internationals[link]

Currently, Sky Sports holds the rights to every home Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Wales Internationals^{[citation needed]} as well as various other International games, particularly from South America. Sky Sports won back rights to show England's away qualifiers for Euro 2012.^{[citation needed]}

The Republic of Ireland deal was controversial as the Football Association of Ireland sold the rights for home competitive matches to Sky, a foreign broadcaster not available terrestrially in the state.^{[citation needed]} EU legislation subsequently forced Sky and the FAI to allow the live broadcast of competitive games on a domestic terrestrial channel, currently RTÉ.^{[citation needed]}

Other football[link]

Sky Sports also show other football on occasion, such as the Charity Shield, Women's FA Cup Final, youth internationals, The A-League competition from Australia and New Zealand, the Irish Premier League and the Football Conference have all featured in recent times.

Scores service[link]

Sky Sports broadcasts the studio-based rolling score update shows, Gillette Soccer Saturday presented every Saturday afternoon by Jeff Stelling, and Gillette Soccer Special, broadcast on midweek evenings with significant numbers of matches taking place, usually presented by Julian Warren. Both shows feature the host alongside a team of studio pundits and outside reporters each covering one match. The shows are broadcast on Sky Sports News with midweek shows sometimes also on Sky Sports 1 or Sky Sports 2 simultaneously.

Andy Gray and Richard Keys dismissals[link]

Sky Sports' football coverage was at the centre of controversy in January 2011 when footage emerged of presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys making comments perceived as sexist. On January 25 Gray was sacked over the comments and now has a contract with Talk Sport,^[18] Sky Sports reporter Andy Burton was subsequently suspended coinciding with Gray's original suspension due to similar comments made by Gray that were perceived as sexist. Presenter Richard Keys also resigned the following day. Andy Gray is now threatening to sue BSkyB for unfair dismissal.

Cricket[link]

Sky was the first broadcaster to show live coverage of a complete overseas tour involving the England cricket team when England toured the West Indies in 1990. Since then Sky has acquired the rights to show home international series involving England, Australia, West Indies, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh at various times as well as showing almost every England overseas tour, ICC tournaments such as the Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and ICC World Twenty20 as well as the Stanford Super Series in 2008. Sky also shows extensive coverage of county cricket, with over 60 live games each season involving every county in all competitions.

Sky Sports' flagship live coverage of England's home test series began in 2006, when the ECB awarded Sky exclusive coverage of all of England's home tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 Internationals including the 2009 Ashes. The ECB have since renewed Sky Sports's deal until 2013, meaning that the 2013 Ashes will also be shown exclusively on Sky Sports. Coverage is presented by former England captain David Gower and an illustrious commentary team including former captains Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton and Sir Ian Botham, popular former England batsman and coach and first-class umpire David Lloyd, former West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding and Australian legend Shane Warne, who joined the team during the 2009 Ashes. The team is completed by Nick Knight, or commentators from the touring side such as former internationals Rameez Raja (Pakistan), Ravi Shastri (India) and Shaun Pollock (South Africa). Highlights are broadcast in a prime time slot each evening, presented by Charles Colvile, alongside Bob Willis and another guest.

Coverage of county cricket is presented and commentated on by former Surrey and England batsman Ian Ward and Charles Colvile. In addition to the presenters and those commentators involved in the international coverage, Bob Willis, Paul Allott, Mark Butcher and Jeremy Coney commentate on county cricket along with special guests such as Glamorgan's former England offspinner Robert Croft, Kent batsman Robert Key, veteran seamer Dominic Cork and former Australia and Gloucestershire all-rounder Ian Harvey.

Overseas series involving England are presented either from the ground by David Gower or from a London studio by Ian Ward or Charles Colvile. The commentary team is largely unchanged from that from that used for England home series. England's tour of the West Indies in 2009 was presented by IanWard (1st and 2nd Tests, ODIs) and Charles Colvile (3rd and 4th Tests, T20 International) alongside studio guests such as Bob Willis, Nick Knight, David Lloyd, Robert Croft, Alec Stewart, Angus Fraser and Graham Thorpe. The commentary team in the West Indies was David Gower, Sir Ian Botham, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Michael Holding, Tony Cozier and Ian Bishop for the tests with David Lloyd replacing Michael Atherton and Fazeer Mohammed replacing Michael Holding for the ODIs.

For England's 2009/10 tour of South Africa David Gower presented the coverage, and was joined on the commentary team for the test series by Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Sir Ian Botham, David Lloyd and Shaun Pollock. Nick Knight and Allan Donald were part of the team for the one-day internationals that preceded the tests.A similar team is being used during the 2010/11 Ashes although Michael Holding and Shane Warne are part of the coverage.

Other international cricket is presented by Ian Ward, Charles Colvile, Matt Floyd, Paul Allott and Nick Knight in the Sky Sports studio alongside pundits such as Ian Harvey, Jeremy Coney, Colin Croft, Robert Croft, Robert Key, Mark Butcher and Vikram Solanki.

Match coverage is taken from host broadcasters around the world such as Channel Nine in Australia, Sky TV in New Zealand, Supersport in South Africa and Nimbus^{[disambiguation needed ]} in India. This ensures the voices of the likes of Tony Greig, Richie Benaud, Mark Nicholas, Ian Chappell, Simon Doull, Ian Smith, Robin Jackman, Pommie Mbangwa, Ramiz Raja, Wasim Akram, Mohammad Akram, Kepler Wessels, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar are heard each winter on Sky.

Coverage of the 2011 Cricket World Cup is being presented from London by David Gower and Matt Floyd along with a team of pundits which includes the regular guests as well as Ajit Agarkar and Marvan Atapattu who have flown in from the sub-continent specifically for the tournament.

Rugby League[link]

The power of television over sport can perhaps be best portrayed by the change of rugby league from a winter sport to one played during the summer months under the banner of Super League. These changes caused great controversy when they were introduced in 1996,^{[citation needed]} yet they have been seen by many as positive and as having an impact even greater than the broadcaster has had with football. The sport is now seen as being in a healthy state with two or three live matches from the Super League every week fronted by 'Eddie and Stevo' - Eddie Hemmings and former Great Britain World Cup winner Mike Stephenson - who are a rare example^{[citation needed]} of a dual studio-presentation and commentary-box partnership in sports broadcasting. They are joined by Phil Clarke in both the studio and on commentary, Bill Arthur, the pitch-side reporter, and a guest (generally a coach or a former player). Barrie McDermott, Terry O'Connor, Brian Carney or Shaun McRae often occupy the guest position. Live Super League broadcasts routinely rank amongst the top 10 most watched programmes in a week on Sky Sports.^{[citation needed]} Sky has sold rights to a highlights package of the Super League to BBC Sport.

Sky also holds the rights to show five matches from the Rugby League Four Nations live, with the other two games being shown live on BBC Sport. They also announced in 2007 that it had bought the rights to televise National League (now Championship) matches midweek, and they have screened one lower division match each week since that year. This coverage is presented by Bill Arthur alongside a combination of Clarke, McDermott, O'Connor and McRae, with Ben Proe providing pitch-side updates. Australia and New Zealand's National Rugby League (NRL) competition was shown until the 2005-06 season when Setanta Sports outbid Sky for the rights,^{[citation needed]} despite the NRL being half owned by News Corp.^{[citation needed]}

Sky Sports showed the 2008 World Cup exclusively live.^[19]

They also broadcast a weekly midweek rugby league magazine show, Boots 'N' All, during the season, along with a half hour summary of the weekend's Super League matches on Sky Sports News on a Sunday night. This is presented by Martin Offiah.

Coverage of the Australian National Rugby League Grand Final as well as the State of Origin series and the Anzac Test between Australia & New Zealand in May, returned to Sky Sports in 2010 on a two year contract.

Rugby Union[link]

Sky began its live coverage of Premiership rugby on 10 September 1994 with the match between Bath Rugby and Bristol Rugby and continues to do so by showing one live match, usually on a Saturday, every week. Sky Sports currently shows 33 live games a season, and will do so until the end of the 2009/10 season. A deal with Premier Rugby means that from 2010, they will share live TV rights with ESPN and will show 26 live games a season (including one Premiership Semi-Final) until the end of the 2012/13 season.^[20]

In 2003, it began its coverage of the Heineken Cup, outbidding previous rights holder BBC Sport with its offer of £20 million for 3 years, showing usually 10 matches each pool weekend as well as all knockout matches and up to three matches per round in the Amlin Challenge Cup.^[21] For the first time in 2006, Sky Sports held exclusive rights to live Heineken Cup rugby in the UK and Ireland, with RTÉ only able to show tape-delayed coverage and S4C able to show only highlights.^{[citation needed]} Sky Sports started to broadcast games from the European Challenge Cup from the season 2007/08, with one game every week.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Sky Sports extended their already long-term deal with the RFU to continue showing England Internationals (outside of the Six Nations) exclusively live up until the end of the 2014-15 season, including their autumn test matches at Twickenham and their summer internationals overseas. The new deal begins in 2010, and they will have the rights to show live coverage of the Anglo-Welsh Cup as well as new proposed competitions from the RFU.^[22]

They have also had exclusive UK rights for live coverage of the last three British and Irish Lions tours.^{[citation needed]} This is partly because of Sky's links with News Corporation television channels in the southern hemisphere.^{[citation needed]} Sky's links with News Corporation, also allows them to show live matches from the Super Rugby competition.^{[citation needed]}

Sky Sports' rugby coverage is presented by Alex Payne, reporters Graham Simmons, Melissa Platt and Will Chignell and commentary for Internationals, Premiership, Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup includes-
Match commentators: Miles Harrison, Mark Robson, Martin Gillingham*, Johnnie Hammond*, Andrew Cotter*, Scott Hastings*, Will Chignell* and Bob Symonds*. Co-commentators/analysts: Stuart Barnes, Ieuan Evans, Dewi Morris, Tyrone Howe*, Dean Ryan, Will Greenwood, Sean Fitzpatrick*, Michael Lynagh*, Paul Wallace*, Frankie Sheahan*, Scott Quinnell, Scott Hastings* and Pat Sanderson*. Employees marked with an asterisk (*) are not used for Premiership. They may also use injured players or coaches on a one off basis.
They will often take the host broadcasters commentary for Super 15 and Tri-Nations, with commentators including Grant Nisbett, Grant Fox, Ian Smith, Murray Mexted, Justin Marshall and Tony Johnson (Sky in NZ). The feed from Fox Sports in Australia usually involves Phil Kearns, Greg Martin, Greg Clark, Tim Horan, Brendon Cannon and Rod Kafer

Golf[link]

Golf is one of the most broadcast sports across the Sky Sports channels, with at least one tournament shown live in 50 weeks of the year. Sky has one of the most respected and experienced golf broadcasting teams in the UK, with its major event coverage fronted by David Livingstone, expert analysis from Butch Harmon, on course commentary from Howard Clark, In-depth 18th hole interviews from tour coach and Golfing expert, Tim Barter and main commentary from Ewen Murray and Bruce Critchley. Other golfers such as Peter Oosterhuis, Tony Johnstone, Thomas Bjørn, David Howell, Richard Boxall, Jamie Spence, Mark Roe, Robert Lee, Ross McFarlane, Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Philip Parkin and Ken Brown contributing to their coverage over the years.^{[citation needed]}

Major championships[link]

Sky Sports has exclusive UK rights for live coverage of two of the four major championships, the U.S. Open until 2014^[23] and the U.S PGA Championship until 2016.^[23] From 2011 Sky will broadcast all four days of The Masters in High Definition and 3D, as well as the Par 3 Tournament.^[24] BBC Sport will broadcast the final two rounds simultaneously with Sky.^[25] Sky also broadcasts major championships from the women's tour and senior tour, including the Kraft Nabisco Championship,^{[citation needed]} U.S. Women's Open,^[23] Senior PGA Championship, Senior British Open Championship^{[citation needed]} and U.S. Senior Open.^[23]

World Golf Championships[link]

Since its inception in 1999, Sky Sports has broadcast the World Golf Championships exclusively live,^{[citation needed]} with the exception of the 2001 WGC-American Express Championship, which was broadcast on the BBC.^{[citation needed]} They usually present the broadcast on site, as they do for major championships and the Ryder Cup,^{[citation needed]} reflecting their importance in the game as the next most important series of events after the majors.

PGA Tour[link]

Sky also have exclusive live UK rights to broadcast the PGA Tour (until 2017) including The Players Championship and PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup.^{[citation needed]} Sky were the exclusive UK broadcasters of the PGA Tour from 1993 to 2006 until Setanta Sports bought the rights in 2007, the Irish subscription network went into administration mid way through the 2009 season and the rights for the remainder of the season were awarded to Eurosport.^{[citation needed]}

European Tour[link]

Sky show at least 32 events on the European Tour (until 2012) including the Dubai World Championship.^[23] Since 2009, Sky Sports and BBC Sport have shared live coverage of the BMW PGA Championship and Barclays Scottish Open, with Sky broadcasting live coverage of Thursday and Friday and the BBC screening the weekend action.^{[citation needed]}

Ryder Cup[link]

Sky Sports shows live coverage of the sport's premier event, the Ryder Cup. Since 1995, they have held the exclusive live UK rights to the biennial team event between USA and Europe, broadcasting the event in its entirety for the first time at Oak Hill in 1995.^{[citation needed]} The event was broadcast in High Definition for the first time in 2006 at the K Club in Republic of Ireland.^{[citation needed]} Since 1999 it has also offered interactive coverage with options including the American coverage, Highlights and course guides.^{[citation needed]} Sky holds the rights until 2012, with BBC broadcasting evening highlights.^{[citation needed]} In 2010, Sky broadcast the Ryder Cup in 3D, making it the first live event on Sky 3D, Europe's first residential 3D channel.^[26]

They also broadcast all of the other major professional team events in the sport such as the Presidents Cup,^{[citation needed]} Seve Trophy,^[23] Royal Trophy,^{[citation needed]} Omega Mission Hills World Cup^{[citation needed]} and Solheim Cup.^[23]

In 2010, Sky Sports will broadcast in excess of 150 tournaments from the men's and women's tours.^[27]

Darts[link]

Since the creation of the World Darts Council in 1992, since renamed the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), formed when many of the leading darts players, including Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Dennis Priestley, broke away from the British Darts Organisation (BDO), the game's then sole ruling body, Sky Sports has broadcast the new organisation's main darts tournaments live, which currently includes the following:

• PDC World Cup of Darts
• PDC World Darts Championship
• Premier League Darts
• UK Open
• World Matchplay
• World Grand Prix
• Grand Slam of Darts

• PDC Under-21 World Championship (final only)
• PDC Women's World Championship (final only)

BDO tournaments, including the Lakeside World Championship, continue to be covered by the BBC.

Ice Hockey[link]

From 2006, Sky Sports has showed a replay from a match in the Elite Ice Hockey League every week. Due to large audience numbers, even though it is normally on Sky Sports 4, they decided to show a live game for the first time in several years when they showed the playoff finals in 2010.^{[citation needed]}. A new deal was signed for the 2010/2011 in which Sky agreed to show 8 live games throughout the season and a weekly highlights show every week.

Boxing[link]

Following the departure of Frank Warren's Sports Network to ITV during 2005, many of the top British boxers no longer fight on Sky. However, many top American fights are still broadcast as well as the remainder of Britain's top fighters. Some of the channel's top fights are shown on the Pay-Per-View channel Sky Box Office instead of Sky Sports. Presenters and commentators for Sky Sports' coverage include Jim Watt, Dave Clark, Wayne McCullough and Johnny Nelson.

WWE[link]

In 1989, Sky Sports acquired the rights to WWE, from America. Sky Sports 3 is considered the home of WWE programming on Sky, as the majority of the programmes are shown on it.

Part of the current deal with Sky states that major PPV's such as WrestleMania, Survivor Series, the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam are part of the Sky Box Office pay-per-view service, and that SmackDown's first broadcast moved from Sky One to Sky Sports. As part of the deal, Raw is now shown live on Sky Sports 3 early Tuesday morning because of the time difference. SmackDown! is broadcast in Britain before it is aired in America on Friday nights. Sky Sports 1 shows 6 WWE PPV's live a year.

Sky also broadcast WWE's third brand, ECW on Sci Fi before it was cancelled. For a couple of months it replaced WWE Velocity on Sunday mornings. It is now shown two nights after the US broadcast after a viewer complained to Ofcom in August 2006 about an image in the opening credits, and Sky agreed to air the program after the watershed.

The deal of 14 Pay-Per-Views did not account for WWE's extra pay-per-views which have been added subsequently, and therefore WWE Cyber Sunday would not have been picked up by Sky. However, a last-minute deal was struck between Sky and WWE, that allowed the PPV to be shown live on Sky Sports 1.^[28]

The first WWE event to be shown in wide-screen (16:9) format on Sky Sports was No Way Out on 18 February 2008 at 1am on Sky Sports 1. Although after this, other WWE programming were still in standard (4:3) format however due to complaints all WWE programming will now be airing in widescreen from a down-scaled HD feed.

When WWE Heat ended in June 2008 it was replaced with WWE Vintage Collection, a programme which showcases classic archive matches from the extensive WWE Video Library.

On 30 November 2009, Sky Sports announced they had signed up to a new five year deal with the WWE.^[29] The deal means This Week in WWE and WWE Superstars will make their UK television debut.

WWE shows on Sky[link]

The following list excludes WWE pay-per-view events where a minority are broadcast on Sky Sports while the rest are broadcast on Sky Box Office at an additional cost of £14.95 (€21.95 in Ireland) per event.

Motorsport[link]

Sky Sports also broadcasts major motorsport events. This includes:

• A1 Grand Prix - In addition, Sky Sports had their logo branded on the A1 Team Great Britain and A1 Team Ireland cars during the 2005-06 season
• Indy Racing League (including the Indianapolis 500)
• British Superbikes (Highlights)
• Speedway
  • Elite League Speedway
  • Speedway World Cup
  • Speedway Grand Prix
• NASCAR Sprint Cup
• Race of Champions

Formula One[link]

In July 2011, Sky Sports acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast Formula One in the United Kingdom from 2012 until 2018,^[30] including all practice and qualifying sessions in addition to the races. The broadcast is shared with the BBC, who are televising ten of the races live and extended highlights of the remaining ten on a delayed broadcast.^[31] The announcement was controversial, with early promises that the races would be uninterrupted by commercials^[32] doing little to quell the highly negative reactions from fans and observers.^[33][34]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Sky Sports with Virgin Media
• Football rights hat-trick for Sky BBC News, 28 April 2006
• Sky Sports Boost for Speedway Sport Business, 9 March 2006
• Sky Sports snub sees three Brits get stripped of titles SecondsOut.com
• Sky Sports drafts in Flintoff for cricket coverage promotion Brand Republic, 15 February 2006
• EU tackles Premier League TV deals BBC News, 17 August 2005
• Sky unveils high-definition shows BBC News, 22 November 2005
• ITV and Sky rapped over World Cup BBC News, 12 August 2002

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