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Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK's main satellite pay-TV company, BSkyB. 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 Xtra are available as a premium package on top of the basic Sky package.
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Encyclopedia
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK's main satellite pay-TV company, BSkyB. 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 Xtra 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 and also broadcasts on Freeview. Sky Sports is perhaps best known for its football coverage, due to this it suffers a loss of viewers in the summer when no football is played.
History
The early years (1990-1998)
Sky Sports originally began broadcasting of sports events as The Sports Channel in March 1990, as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting service on cable, becoming available on the Marcopolo satellite the following month. 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 would be merging. At first the Sports Channel gained a "British Sky Broadcasting" suffix on its logo, however from 6 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 1992/1993 football season, believed to have been assisted by the promise of higher TV payments, that Sky Sports became well known. By bidding £305m, 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.
In 1995, the channel launched Soccer AM, a slapstick morning chat show, talking mostly about football events around the world, along with many gags in the world of soccer and the media. This show has proved highly successful, and is still airing as of today. Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain were the original presenters; Lovejoy left before the 2007/2008 season, and his replacement Andy Goldstein left after one year, replaced by Max Rushden who currently presents the show with Chamberlain. It became a media phenomenon for a short period of time in the early 2000s when they lead a campaign to save a man from his non-football tolerating wife. The Save Chip! campaign was mentioned on non-Sky news channels, and even made its way into the title sequences of a number of football simulation computer games. It was also given notable fame for the word bouncebackability which was entered into the Collins Dictionary, and for the Easy Chant which has been used at football matches around the country and even the world.
Following the success of the show a spin-off show launched in 2002, Soccer AM's All-Sports Show. The show dealt with all sports, and was also presented by Andy Goldstein and Helen Chamberlain. However in 2007 when presenter Tim Lovejoy left Soccer AM to continue his career elsewhere this left the future of the All-Sports Show in doubt as Andy Goldstein took over the vacant Soccer AM position. It was then confirmed just before the start of the 2007-08 season that the All-Sports show would not be returning along with its sister brand as neither Andy Goldstien nor Helen Chamberlain agreed to present both shows each week.
More Sports Channels
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 had also acquired the rights to Scottish football and the Coca-Cola Cup.
Sky Digital (1998 - present)
October 1998 saw BSkyB launch Sky Digital. 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 utilised 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 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 would be 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. As with other of their exclusive deals this has caused some controversy, as the matches would no longer be available on terrestrial TV. Sky also signed an exclusive deal with the BCCI to televise the tour of India, worth around £352m.
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 is expanding its range of high profile live events, for example offering 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 remains the market leader by a wide margin.
Other Sky Sports Channels
Sky Sports Xtra
Sky Sports Xtra was the fourth Sports Channel launched by Sky Sports. 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 subscribed to both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2. The channel was originally launched as Sky Sports Extra but later rebranded to Sky Sports Xtra. The name Extra 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.
More recently the channel has stopped simulcasting, and the interactive services have moved to the main Sky Sports channels. Sky Sports Xtra now shows live and recorded sports events, and is in an effect a fourth main Sky Sports channel.
Sky Sports HD Channels
Sky Sports HD launched on February 13 2006, and currently airs live cricket, Premier League and Football League, and Guinness Premiership Rugby. The 2008 Ryder Cup was also screened in HD.
In July 2006 Sky Sports HD 2 launched on Sky Digital channel 409, at the same time Sky Sports HD 1 moved to channel 408, with Sky Sports News switching to channel 405. There was also an HD version of PremPlus, called Prem Plus HD, which broadcast on Sky channel 483 until the football session ended. It was briefly branded Sky Sports HD X and used to broadcast other Sky Sports content in HD, before it ceased broadcasting.
HD broadcasts of the rugby 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 will be shown in HD from 2008.
Sky Sports HD 3 launched on March 17, to coincide with World Wrestling Entertainment's first UK HD broadcast. The new channel will broadcast European Tour Golf in HD (along with any other golf Sky have the rights to).
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel operated by Sky Sports. Sky Sports News launched on the 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. The show famously broke the news that Kevin Keegan would resign as Newcastle United boss, with immediate effect.
Presenters on the channel include Ian Payne, Simon Thomas and Georgie Thompson.
On 5 August, 2007 the channel was "refreshed" in line with the Sky Sports new look.
At the Races
At The Races was originally founded by the Go Racing consortium, a partnership of Channel 4, British Sky Broadcasting, 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
PremPlus was a pay-per-view channel dedicated to airing live Premiership Football. PremPlus launched on 18 August 2001, showing 40 pay-per-view matches from the English Premier League. 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 Premiership rights for 2007-10. This left Sky with only 92 live matches, meaning a Pay-Per-View service was unsustainable.
Sky Sports programming
Sky own 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.
Football
Sky Sports signed an exclusive deal with Ford in 2001
Premier League
Live Premier League coverage has been a critical factor of the success of Sky Sports. The foundations of Sky Sports have been built on the coverage and allowed a dramatic growth in the number of subscribers in homes as well as pubs.
Sky has had rights to the Premier League since 1992 when the Division One clubs broke off from the Football League to form the Premier League. The first live Premier League game televised was Nottingham Forest's 1-0 win over Liverpool in August 1992. The millions and then billions of pounds which Sky has brought into the game has changed English football almost beyond recognition . 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.
BSkyB's relationship with the FA Premier League had caused a stir with the EU, which eventually intervened and ended Sky's 13-year monopoly of live broadcasting rights. BSkyB's current deal allowed the company to win four of the six tiered live rights packages and left the BBC with the two highlights packages. These events left the European Com 'unhappy' and representatives of the Commission expressed views that the league had a lot of 'serious questions' to answer.
The deal was reviewed by the Commission, who came to the conclusion that they would threaten to take legal action against the Premier League if it failed to agree new arrangements giving other broadcasters a share of live TV coverage of matches. The EU believed that it would give 'better choice and value' for viewers.
Following the agreement, rival bids were launched. NTL and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin, ITV and Channel 4 were some of the big names that launched their own bids. Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports also declared that it would make a bid, depending on the overall concepts in the 'bidding wars'.
Sky Sports won the rights to four out of the six available live rights packages for the 2007/08 season and beyond, with another Pay TV company, Setanta Sports winning the remaining two. Despite losing two of the packages, the broadcaster will show even more live matches from the 2007/08 season, making better use of the matches available to it. Sky Sports' flagship football show, Super Sunday is not affected by the loss of packages, but Sky Sports closed its PPV channel Prem Plus at the end of the 2006-07 season.
The four main commentators are Martin Tyler, Rob Hawthorne, Alan Parry and Ian Darke. These commentators will work along Andy Gray for Saturday and Sunday matches. If there are two matches on Sunday live Gray will do the 4pm with Alan Smith getting the earlier kick-off. One of the main shows where viewers get their say is You're on Sky Sports hosted by Jeff Shreeves and Chloe Everton.
Football League
Following the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002, the Football League reformed a connection with Sky to show live coverage of its divisions and the League Cup. The contract, worth around £250 million, ran until 2007. From 2007, ITV Sport have rights to show highlights from the Football League and the League Cup. Bill Leslie commentates mainly as does Ian Darke. The two main co-commentators are Garry Birtles and Don Goodman.
Conference National
Sky has also screened live matches from the Nationwide Conference, the top tier of Non League Football, in some seasons. From 2007/08 season however Setanta Sports has won comprehensive live broadcast rights for the Conference, now renamed the Blue Square Premier.
UEFA Champions League
In 2003, BSkyB won joint UK rights to coverage of the UEFA Champions League with ITV, who had previously held exclusive rights with all matches shown on their channels only. Irish rights are currently held jointly by RTÉ and Setanta Ireland, although matches broadcast on the Sky platform are available to Irish digital subscribers due to 'spill over'. Mark Pearman, a former Sky Sports Executive Producer and then Managing Director of Opta Index, returned to produce Sky's coverage. Richard Keys and Clare Tomlinson presented the first UEFA Champions League programme. ITV got first choice of 2 matches on Tuesdays, with Sky taking the remaining six (with coverage of any Scottish teams' games being shared with STV) and all eight matches on a Wednesday. Matches that are not shown on one of the Sky Sports channels are usually available through the interactive service. In 2005, Sky Sports and ITV renewed their Champions League contract up until 2009. Sky Sports recently extended their Champions League contract till 2012. From the beginning of the 2009-10 season, Sky's coverage of the competition will grow 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 will have first choice of Wednesday games, and shared coverage of the final..
FA Cup
In a joint deal with the BBC, Sky Sports secured the rights to the FA Cup in June 2000. Under the three-year deal, Sky won live and interactive coverage to the competition, which previously was occupied by ITV. The channel on the other hand, did not have the choice of first pick of games. ITV and Setanta Sports took over coverage in the 2008-9 season.
Internationals
Currently, Sky Sports holds the rights to every home Live Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales International, whilst sharing coverage of away ties with the respective BBC Nations. Controversially, the Football Association of Ireland sold the rights to Republic of Ireland home competitive matches to Sky, a foreign broadcaster not available terrestrially in the state. EU legislation subsequently forced Sky and the FAI to allow the live broadcast of competitive games on a domestic terrestrial channel, currently RTÉ. Sky Sports have also shown some of England's home and away Internationals live in the past; Setanta Sport and ITV now hold those rights.
Spanish La Liga
Sky Sports also show live matches from the Spanish La Liga on Saturday and Sunday nights. They also show a review show called Revista de La Liga on Tuesdays. The Spanish Football is fronted by Mark Bolton, along with Guillem Balague.
Rugby league
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 the Super League. These changes caused great controversy when they were introduced in 1996, 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 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 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 regularly. Sky has sold rights to a highlights package of the Super League to BBC Sport.
Sky also hold the rights to show the Rugby League Tri-Nations live, whilst highlights are shown on BBC Sport. Sky also announced in 2007 that they had bought the rights to televise National League matches midweek. Australia and NZ's National Rugby League (NRL) competition was shown until 2005-06 season when Setanta Sports outbid Sky for the rights, despite the NRL being half owned by News Corp.
Sky Sports showed the 2008 World Cup exclusively live.
Sky Sports' shows a weekly rugby league magazine show, Boots 'N' All, during the season.
Rugby union
Sky began its live coverage of what is now known as the Guinness Premiership on the 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.
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 6 matches each pool weekend as well as all knockout matches. For the first time in 2006, Sky Sports will hold exclusive rights to live Heineken Cup rugby in the UK and ROI, with RTÉ only able to show tape-delayed coverage and S4C able to show only highlights. Sky Sports will start to broadcast games from the European Challenge Cup from the season 2007/08, with one game every week.
Sky Sports has also had exclusive UK rights for live coverage of the last three British and Irish Lions tours. This is partly because of Sky's links with News Corporation television channels in the southern hemisphere. Sky's links with News Corporation, also allows them to show live matches from the Super 14 competition.
Sky Sports rugby coverage is presented by Simon Lazenby and Dewi Morris, with commentary for internationals and Guinness Premiership from Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes. Sky will often take the host broadcasters commentary for Super 14 and Tri-Nations, with commentators including Hugh Bladen, Murray Mexted and Tony Johnson (Sky in NZ). The feed from Fox Sports in Australia usually involves Phil Kearns, Greg Martin and Greg Clark.
Darts
Since the creation of the World Darts Council in 1992, since renamed the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), formed when many of the leading players, including Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Dennis Priestley, broke away from the British Darts Organisation (BDO), the games then sole ruling body, Sky Sports has broadcast the new organisations main darts tournaments live, which currently includes the following:
BDO tournaments, including the Lakeside World Championship, continue to be covered by the BBC.
Cricket
Sky was the first broadcaster to show live coverage of an overseas tour involving the England cricket team on the tour to the West Indies in 1990. It has maintained this coverage with commentators and statisticians such as David Lloyd, Ian Botham, Nasser Hussain, David Gower and Michael Atherton. With this line-up Sky has acquired most of the cricket rights which are available, both in England and abroad. Sky has the live rights to all English domestic cricket and, following the controversial agreement made in December 2004 with the England and Wales Cricket Board, it has the rights to live coverage of all England internationals.
Currently, Sky have a team of Ian Botham, David Gower, David Lloyd, Paul Allott, Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton, Michael Holding, Bob Willis and Nick Knight covering live England internationals at home and abroad. Bob Willis is the only one of the team to have been there since the start in 1990 with live coverage from the West Indies - along with presenter Charles Colville who presents live matches. Willis has his critics, but many believe he is Sky's greatest asset for cricket coverage, his outspoken commentaries going down well with viewers. Mark Nicholas, former Channel Four presenter, Nine Network anchorman and Cricket on Five commentator started his TV career with Sky Sports in 1996.
Sky also has contracts with the cricket boards of South Africa, Australia, West Indies and India showing Tests and ODIs in these countries, often exclusively live. Often, these live feeds are taken from broadcasters such as Channel Nine in Australia, and Supersport in South Africa, meaning the likes of Richie Benaud, Mark Nicholas, Ian Chappell, Tony Greig, Robin Jackman, Bill Lawry, Ian Healy, Simon O'Donnel, Mark Taylor and Michael Slater are heard every winter on Sky.
Every World Cup since 1992 has been shown live by Sky - held in Australia/NZ in 1992, India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka in 1996, England in 1999, South Africa in 2003 and the West Indies in 2007. The 2011 tournament in the sub-continent is also live on Sky.
Sky also signed an exclusive deal with the BCCI to televise the tour of India, worth around £352m.
Sky have followed England live on every overseas England Test tour since 1990 - here is the full list of England tours shown on Sky:
West Indies - 1990
Australia - 1990/91
New Zealand - 1991/92
India and Sri Lanka - 1992/93
West Indies - 1994
Australia - 1994/95
South Africa - 1995/96 (first England tour to SA post-apartheid)
Zimbabwe and New Zealand - 1996/7
West Indies - 1998
Australia - 1998/99
South Africa - 1999/2000
Pakistan and Sri Lanka - 2000/01
India and New Zealand - 2001/02
Australia - 2002/03
Sri Lanka and West Indies - 2003/04
South Africa - 2004/05
Pakistan and India - 2005/06
Australia - 2006/07
Sri Lanka and New Zealand - 2007/08
Stanford Superseries (West Indies)-2008/09
- Domestic Cricket in England
- International Cricket in Australia
- International Cricket in England
- International Cricket in India
- International Cricket in New Zealand
- International Cricket in South Africa
- International Cricket in West Indies
Boxing
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 including Ricky Hatton. 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 Dave Clark, Wayne McCullough and Johnny Nelson.
WWE
In 1989, Sky Sports acquired the rights to WWF Wrestling (now World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE), from America. Sky Sports 3 is considered the home of WWE programming on Sky, as the majority of the programs are shown on it.
Part of the current deal with Sky states that major PPV's such as WrestleMania would be part of the Sky Box Office pay-per-view service, and that SmackDown!'s first broadcast would move 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 broadcasts WWE's third brand, Extreme Championship Wrestling. 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.
Numerous people dub WWE on Sky Sports as the "uncensored" version of the sport, as many wardrobe malfunctions and mistakes are left uncensored.
The first WWE event to be shown in wide-screen (16:9) format on Sky Sports was No Way Out 2008 on Monday 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 Wide-screen 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.
Motor Racing
Sky Sports also broadcasts major motorsport events. This includes:
National Football League
Sky Sports also broadcasts a variety of live NFL games and NFL Network programming. For the 2007 and 2008 seasons this comprises live coverage of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game and five other Preseason games, 125 Regular Season games, including Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football and NFL Network's Run to the Playoffs. The package also includes the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl, plus the Pro Bowl. Sky shares coverage of the Sunday and Monday night games, as well as the playoffs, with terrestrial broadcasters Five and the BBC.
The complementary coverage from NFL Network includes:
The main studio presenters for Sky's live NFL coverage are Kevin Cadle and Nick Halling. Regular in-studio pundits include former Chicago Bears safety Shaun Gayle, former New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals tackle Ian Allen and NFL UK journalist Neil Reynolds.
Booth commentary is taken from the original U.S. feed.
External links
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- encourages and educates British pubs in how to show Sky Sports in true widescreen.
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