Sky Sports
Encyclopedia
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.
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.
. 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
.
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 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. As with their other exclusive deals this caused some controversy, as the matches were no longer available on terrestrial TV. Sky also signed an exclusive deal with the BCCI
to televise the tour of India.
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. 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, following Virgin's sale of Virgin Media Television to BSkyB.
. 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.
In 2011, Sky Sports Xtra returned as a subscriber-only video channel on skysports.com.
1 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.
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.
Due to an Ofcom review of premium services, Sky Sports HD1 and HD2 launched on the Virgin Media platform on 2 August 2010. This marked the first time that Sky's HD programming was shown via a rival service.
Sky Sports F1 will launch in March 2012.
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
, Georgie Thompson
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 the 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 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 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.
coverage from March to November. Every practice and qualifying session for each Grand Prix will be shown live, while every race will be shown live without commercial interruption.
, 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
.
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.
'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. 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.
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.
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.
with ESPN. Both broadcasters will show 30 games per season, with Sky having first pick of matches.
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.
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.
Richard Keys
was the main presenter until his departure from Sky, 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.
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 FA Cup final on Sky 3D with the coverage courtesy of ESPN.
, 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 was fronted by Mark Bolton, along with Guillem Balague
.
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.
, Northern Ireland
, Republic of Ireland
and Wales
Internationals 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
.
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. EU legislation subsequently forced Sky and the FAI to allow the live broadcast of competitive games on a domestic terrestrial channel, currently RTÉ.
and the Football Conference
have all featured in recent times.
, 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.
making comments perceived as sexist. On January 25 Gray was sacked over the comments, 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.
, 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 David Gower
. Gower is also part of an illustrious commentary team which includes 3 other former England captains in Nasser Hussain
, Michael Atherton and Sir Ian Botham, along with the popular former England batsman and coach and first-class umpire David Lloyd
, ex 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 Ramiz 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 IanWard 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 IanWard 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 IanWard, 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
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
, Azhar Mahmood
and Marvan Atapattu
who have flown in from the sub-continent specifically for the tournament.
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, 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, 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. 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, despite the NRL being half owned by News Corp.
Sky Sports showed the 2008 World Cup
exclusively live.
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.
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.
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. 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. Sky Sports started to broadcast games from the European Challenge Cup from the season 2007/08, with one game every week.
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.
They have 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 15 competition.
Sky Sports' rugby coverage is presented by Simon Lazenby and 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/Analisers: Stuart Barnes
, Ieuan Evans
, Dewi Morris
, Tyrone Howe
*, Dean Ryan
, Will Greenwood
, Sean Fitzpatrick
*, Michael Lynagh
*, Paul Wallace
*, Frankie Sheahan
* and Scott Quinnell
, Scott Hastings
*. Employees marked with an asterisk (*) are not used for Premiership.
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
, 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.
, the U.S. Open
until 2014 and the U.S PGA Championship
until 2016. From 2011 Sky will broadcast all four days of The Masters in High Definition and 3D, as well as the Par 3 Tournament. BBC Sport will broadcast the final two rounds simultaneously with Sky. Sky also broadcasts major championships from the women's tour
and senior tour
, including the Kraft Nabisco Championship
, U.S. Women's Open, Senior PGA Championship
, Senior British Open Championship
and U.S. Senior Open.
exclusively live, with the exception of the 2001 WGC-American Express Championship, which was broadcast on the BBC. They usually present the broadcast on site, as they do for major championships and the Ryder Cup, reflecting their importance in the game as the next most important series of events after the majors.
(until 2017) including The Players Championship
and PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup
. 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
.
. 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.
. 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. The event was broadcast in High Definition for the first time in 2006 at the K Club in Republic of Ireland. Since 1999 it has also offered interactive coverage with options including the American coverage, Highlights and course guides. Sky holds the rights until 2012, with BBC broadcasting evening highlights. In 2010, Sky broadcast the Ryder Cup in 3D, making it the first live event on Sky 3D, Europe's first residential 3D channel.
They also broadcast all of the other major professional team events in the sport such as the Presidents Cup
, Seve Trophy
, Royal Trophy
, Omega Mission Hills World Cup and Solheim Cup
.
In 2010, Sky Sports will broadcast in excess of 150 tournaments from the men's and women's tours.
(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 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
.
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.. 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.
'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 Dave Clark
, Wayne McCullough
and Johnny Nelson
.
. 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.
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. The deal means This Week in WWE
and WWE Superstars
will make their UK television debut.
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 per event.
in the United Kingdom from until 2018, including all practice and qualifying sessions in addition to the races. The broadcast will be shared with the BBC
, who will televise ten of the races live and extended highlights of the remaining ten on a delayed broadcast. The announcement was controversial, with early promises that the races would be uninterrupted by commercials doing little to quell the highly negative reactions from fans and observers.
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. 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
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
broadcasting system in the UK and Ireland. Unlike the other channels, Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4....
is provided as part of basic packages. Sky Sports is perhaps best known for its Premier League football coverage.
The early years (1990-1998)
Broadcasting of sports events
The broadcasting of sports events is the coverage of sports as a television program, on radio and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one or more sports commentators describing the events as they happen.-United States:...
as The Sports Channel on 25 March 1990, as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom...
service on cable, becoming available on the Marcopolo satellite (Marcopolo 1 11.93846) the following month.
The opening day's programming included live boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
from the Grosvenor House Hotel
Grosvenor House Hotel
Grosvenor House is a large and luxurious hotel. The iconic Mayfair, London hotel is owned by the Sahara Group. The name has also been licensed to a property in Dubai....
in London. The first football match covered by the channel was England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
v Brazil
Brazil national football team
The Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international men's football and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation , the governing body for football in Brazil. They are a member of the International Federation of Association Football since 1923 and also a member of the...
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
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
, and Tennis commentator Gerry Williams fronted an interview series, GW Talks To, in which he met leading sports figures.
Sky Television
Sky Television plc
Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated its four-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989...
did not originally launch with a sports channel
Sports channel
Sports channels are television specialty channels broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming....
of their own - though sports programmes were occasionally broadcast on Sky Channel - but instead chose to invest in Eurosport
Eurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...
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
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
, however from 20 April 1991 - when the channel debuted on the SES Astra
SES Astra
Astra is the name for the geostationary communication satellites, both individually and as a group, which are owned and operated by SES S.A., a global satellite operator based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg. The name is sometimes also used to describe the channels broadcasting from these...
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
VideoCrypt
VideoCrypt is a cryptographic, smartcard-based conditional access television encryption system that scrambles analogue pay-TV signals. It was introduced in 1989 by News Datacom and was used initially by Sky TV and subsequently by several other broadcasters on the SES Astra satellites at 19.2°...
system. It was the second Sky channel to be encrypted (following Sky Movies
Sky Movies
Sky Movies is the collective name for the premium subscription television movie channels operated by Sky Television, and later British Sky Broadcasting. It has around 5 million subscribers, via satellite, cable and IPTV in the UK and Ireland...
in 1990). It initially aired sports such as rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
and golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
in 1990, before acquiring rights to German
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
and Italian league
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
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
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
to acquire the live and exclusive Premier League football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
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
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 BSBBritish Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom...
. Sky Sports Gold, a channel dedicated to classic sport, in a similar vein to ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic (UK)
The British version of ESPN Classic launched on 13 March 2006 on Sky channel 442, the first channel in the UK under the ESPN branding. On 3 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on Virgin Media channel 533 as a part of the XL pack, and in early 2011 video on demand content started to appear on the...
, 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
1996-97 in English football
The 1996–1997 season was the 117th season of competitive football in England.Arrival into the league and exit out of the league returns in the fourth tier for the first time after its 3 season absence with only 1 relegation spot.- Premier League :...
season Sky Sports 3 was launched. The launch promotion involved many top sporting figures such as Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Nicolaas Bergkamp , is a former Dutch professional footballer who is currently the assistant manager to Frank de Boer at Ajax. At club level he played for Ajax, Internazionale, and Arsenal, and also represented the Netherlands at international level...
and Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...
to help the launch of the channel. Sky Sports also acquired the rights to Scottish football and the Coca-Cola Cup
Football League Cup
The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
.
Sky Digital (1998 - present)
Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)
Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...
from a new satellite, Astra 2A
Astra 2A
Astra 2A is a communications satellite owned by SES Astra. Launched in 1998, half its expected end-of-life capacity of 28 transponders were pre-booked by BSkyB, who utilised it to launch their new Sky Digital service...
at 28.2° east
Astra 28.2°E
Astra 28.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 28.2° East position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg...
. The move to Sky Digital saw the launch of two new sports channels in quick succession. First Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4....
, 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
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
.
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
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
vs. Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
. The concept proved popular and soon Sky used the new interactive service, known as Sky Sports Active
Sky Sports Active
Sky Sports Active is a term used by British TV channel, Sky Sports, to describe its interactive sports service. It was launched in April 1999, on Sky Sports 1. Presented by Richard Keys, the first football game that was interactive was Arsenal vs. Manchester United, and it was exclusive to Sky...
, for other sports.
Around 2001, a cross-branding deal ensured that a quiz under the name of the Championship Manager series
Championship Manager series
The Championship Manager series is a series of British football-management simulation computer games, the first of which was released in 1992.The Championship Manager brand and game was conceived by two brothers: Paul and Oliver Collyer...
was produced with the Sky Sports name on it. Kirsty Gallacher
Kirsty Gallacher
Kirsty Jane Gallacher , is a Scottish television presenter.-Biography:The daughter of the former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher, Gallacher was born in Edinburgh. When her father got the job of professional at Wentworth Golf Club, they moved south when she was 18 months old...
was the host of the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
quiz.
In 2004, Sky signed an exclusive deal to broadcast live English cricket
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
matches for four seasons from 2006 to 2009 for a fee of £55 million a year. As with their other exclusive deals this caused some controversy, as the matches were no longer available on terrestrial TV. Sky also signed an exclusive deal with the BCCI
Board of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
to televise the tour of India.
Following its earlier collapse, Sky purchased the majority of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's stake in horse racing channel, At the Races
At the Races
At The Races is a British television channel, originally co-founded with Channel 4, but now owned by a partnership between British Sky Broadcasting, Arena Leisure Plc and 30 UK racecourses....
(the remainder of the stake went to Arena Leisure
Arena Leisure
Arena Leisure plc is a public limited company based in London, England, that is the operator of seven of the UK's horse racing courses and other leisure industry interests. The company was founded in 1997. The company operates golf courses, hotels and joint ventures with a 47.85% stake in "At The...
, the other partner in the channel and owner of Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse is a famous English racecourse, located in the small town of Ascot, Berkshire, used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 9 of the UK's 32 annual Group 1 races...
). 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
2004-05 in English football
The 2004–05 season was the 125th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:*2004–05 was the first season to feature the rebranded Football League. The First Division, Second Division and Third Division were renamed the Football League Championship, Football League One and Football League...
season, Football First
Football First
Football First is an interactive television programme on Sky Sports and since the 2010/11 season on Sky Sports HD and shows extended highlights of every Premier League match played on the day. It regularly airs on Saturdays at 8.25pm, and is currently presented by Sarah-Jane Mee...
, 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
A1 Grand Prix
A1 Grand Prix was a 'single make' open-wheel auto racing series. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most formula racing series. As such, it was often promoted as the "World Cup of Motorsport"...
and has won the rights to Speedway
Motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
, for the next five years. The channel also has the rights to American sports, including NFL and WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
.
In 2007, a rival pay television operator, the Irish network Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...
, 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
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
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
ESPN (UK)
ESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009...
enter the UK market.
Owing to an Ofcom review of premium services, Sky Sports 1 and 2 launched on digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom
Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom encompasses over 100 television, radio and interactive services broadcast via the UK's terrestrial television network and receivable with a standard television aerial...
through BT Vision
BT Vision
BT Vision is a hybrid IPTV-digital terrestrial television service provided by BT Group in the United Kingdom which was launched in December 2006...
on 1 August 2010 and Top Up TV
Top Up TV
Top Up TV is a pay television service in the UK launched in March 2004, operating on the digital terrestrial platform. The aim of the service is to "Top Up" Freeview customers by providing additional channels and services....
the following day. This marked the first time Sky Sports premium channels have been shown via DTT since ITV Digital
ITV Digital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster, which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network as ONdigital in 1998 and briefly re-branded as ITV Digital in July 2001, before the service ceased in May 2002. Its main shareholders...
collapsed in May 2002.
On 28 April 2011, Sky Sports' interactive features were made available on Virgin Media, following Virgin's sale of Virgin Media Television to BSkyB.
Sky Sports 4
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 LigaLa Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...
. 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
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
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.
In 2011, Sky Sports Xtra returned as a subscriber-only video channel on skysports.com.
Sky Sports HD channels
Sky Sports HDHigh-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
1 launched on 22 May 2006 as Sky Sports HD, and currently airs live Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, Premier League and Football League as well as Guinness Premiership
Guinness Premiership
The English Premiership, also currently known as the Aviva Premiership because of the league's sponsorship by Aviva, is a professional league competition for rugby union football clubs in the top division of the English rugby system. There are twelve clubs in the Premiership...
and Super League
Super League
Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...
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
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4....
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
Super League
Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...
began from the start of the 2008 season in February 2008. Super Bowl XLI
Super Bowl XLI
Super Bowl XLI was an American football game that featured the American Football Conference champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference champion Chicago Bears to decide the National Football League champion for the 2006 season...
marked the first NFL broadcast in HD in the UK; additional NFL games in HD have since been phased in. Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
, Thursday Night Football, Thanksgiving Classic
Thanksgiving Classic
The National Football League's Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It has been a regular occurrence since the league's inception in 1920. Since 2006, three games are played every Thanksgiving...
and the NFL Playoffs were shown in HD from 2008.
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.
Due to an Ofcom review of premium services, Sky Sports HD1 and HD2 launched on the Virgin Media platform on 2 August 2010. This marked the first time that Sky's HD programming was shown via a rival service.
Sky Sports F1 will launch in March 2012.
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.
Presenters on the channel include Natalie Sawyer
Natalie Sawyer
Natalie Sawyer is a presenter on Sky Sports News.-Early life:Sawyer was born to an English father, and a mother of Bulgarian descent. She graduated from Leeds Trinity University College with a degree in History and Media. This also included a work placement at Sky Sports, during which time she...
, Simon Thomas
Simon Thomas (television presenter)
Simon Thomas is a British television presenter, who worked on Blue Peter for six years.-Early life:Simon Thomas was born in Norwich, Norfolk to Andrew and Gill Thomas. He has two sisters called Hannah and Rebecca...
, Georgie Thompson
Georgie Thompson
Georgina Jane 'Georgie' Thompson is an English broadcast journalist and television presenter for Sky Sports and Sky Sports News.-Education:...
and Millie Clode
Millie Clode
Millie Clode is an English television presenter. Since January 2006 she has worked for Sky Sports News, while also providing statistical analysis on ITV's The Colour of Money. In 2009, Clode was named Top TV Sports Babe by The Sun and shortlisted for FHM’s Sexiest Women of the Year prize. In July...
.
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 the 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
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, BSkyB, and Arena Leisure plc (owner of Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse is a famous English racecourse, located in the small town of Ascot, Berkshire, used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 9 of the UK's 32 annual Group 1 races...
, 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
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
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
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
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
Marcus Buckland
Marcus Buckland has been one of Sky Sports main presenters for a decade. He fronted PremPlus for six years and covered Champions League and international football as well. He is also a regular frontman for their overseas test matches involving the West Indies, India and Pakistan. In March 2007...
with former Arsenal manager George Graham
George Graham (footballer)
George Graham is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager from 1986 until 1995.-Early life:...
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
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...
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
Sky Sports F1 will launch in March 2012, providing Formula OneFormula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
coverage from March to November. Every practice and qualifying session for each Grand Prix will be shown live, while every race will be shown live without commercial interruption.
Programming
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 OpenU.S. Open (tennis)
The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...
, 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
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Football
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.Sky Sports have introduced many new features into coverage of the game since 1992 including the initially-controversial permanent digital on-screen graphic
Digital on-screen graphic
A digital on-screen graphic is a watermark-like station logo that many television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen-area of their programs to identify the channel...
scoreboard, an idea that was subsequently copied by American sports (now known as a score bug) and by other British sport producers.
Premier League
Sky has shown live Premier League football since the League was formed in 1992. The first live Premier League game televised was Nottingham ForestNottingham Forest F.C.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...
's 1-0 win over Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
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
ESPN (UK)
ESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009...
. Their rights entitle them to show games kicking off on Saturday lunchtime, Sunday, Monday night and in midweek or on bank holidays. 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
Football First
Football First is an interactive television programme on Sky Sports and since the 2010/11 season on Sky Sports HD and shows extended highlights of every Premier League match played on the day. It regularly airs on Saturdays at 8.25pm, and is currently presented by Sarah-Jane Mee...
and show highlights of all the action in the Sunday morning programme Goals on Sunday
Goals On Sunday
Goals on Sunday is a British TV Show on Sky Sports 1 that shows highlights and analysis of Premier League and Football League matches. Shown on a Sunday morning, the programme is fronted by Chris Kamara and Ben Shephard...
.
Following the departures of Richard Keys
Richard Keys
Richard Keys is an English radio presenter best known for his time with British sports channel Sky Sports from 1991 until 2011. In February 2011, Keys along with fellow Sky presenter, Andy Gray signed with talkSPORT....
and Andy Gray, who had fronted the coverage since the channel's debut in 1992, David Jones and Ed Chamberlin
Ed Chamberlin
Edward Chamberlin is an English sports broadcaster currently working for Sky Sports.-Presenting career:He joined Sky Sports in August 2000 and is considered one of their elite presenters. Ed regularly presents in the summer when Gillette Soccer Saturday is replaced with Sports Saturday...
have shared presentation duties whilst Alan Smith has become the main co-commentator. Jamie Redknapp
Jamie Redknapp
Jamie Frank Redknapp is a retired English footballer who was active from 1989 until 2005. He is now a football pundit with Sky Sports, and an editorial columnist with the Daily Mail....
and Gary Neville
Gary Neville
Gary Alexander Neville is a former English footballer. He is England's most capped right-back and was Manchester United's club captain for five years....
are the regular pundits in the studio. Martin Tyler
Martin Tyler
Martin Tyler is an English football commentator who was voted as the FA Premier League Commentator of The Decade...
is the lead commentator, Rob Hawthorne
Rob Hawthorne
Rob Hawthorne is a football commentator currently working for Sky Sports. He is most notable for his commentating alongside Andy Gray in the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul.He was born in Dudley, Worcestershire now West Midlands...
and Alan Parry
Alan Parry
Alan Parry is a British sports commentator, born and raised in Garston, Liverpool, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all three main broadcasters of football in the UK - the BBC, ITV and Sky TV, as well as for both BBC and commercial radio.Starting his career at BBC...
are the other main match commentators. It was later announced that Ed Chamberlin would front coverage for the 2011/12 season.
Football League
Sky Sports broadcast extensive coverage of the Football League and Carling CupFootball League Cup
The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
in a joint £264 million contract with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. 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.
David Jones and Simon Thomas
Simon Thomas (television presenter)
Simon Thomas is a British television presenter, who worked on Blue Peter for six years.-Early life:Simon Thomas was born in Norwich, Norfolk to Andrew and Gill Thomas. He has two sisters called Hannah and Rebecca...
regularly present the match coverage. Bill Leslie
Bill Leslie (commentator)
- Biography :Leslie's first broadcasting experience was with London radio station Capital Gold, working initially as a football reporter and secondary commentator before taking the lead role on Jonathan Pearce's departure to the BBC in 2002...
and Don Goodman
Don Goodman
Don Goodman is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.-Career:Born in Leeds, Goodman played for Bradford City, West Bromwich Albion, Sunderland, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Barnsley, Motherwell, Walsall, Exeter City, Doncaster Rovers and Stafford...
or Garry Birtles
Garry Birtles
Garry Birtles is a retired English footballer, who played as a forward in The Football League between the 1970s and 1990s. He is best known for his time at Nottingham Forest, during which he won the 1979 and 1980 European Cup Finals...
tend to commentate, although other commentators such as Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe
Andy Hinchcliffe
Andrew George "Andy" Hinchcliffe is a former English footballer. Formerly of Manchester City, Everton and Sheffield Wednesday, he played as a left sided defender or wing back....
have been used.
Scottish Premier League
Sky share rights to the Scottish Premier LeagueScottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League , also known as the SPL , is a professional league competition for association football clubs in Scotland...
with ESPN. Both broadcasters will show 30 games per season, with Sky having first pick of matches.
David Tanner
David Tanner
David Tanner is a professional Australian road cyclist, currently riding for Saxo Bank-SunGard.-Palmarès:20052007...
is Sky's lead SPL presenter, having replaced Ali Douglas
Ali Douglas
Ali Douglas is a Scottish television presenter, who appears on ITV News, Sky Sports and MUTV.-Broadcasting career:Douglas embarked on her television career in 1994 with STV's children's department on Skoosh! At STV she also presented current affairs programme Seven Days, live debate show Trial By...
in 2010, although Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4....
presenter Jim White
Jim White (journalist)
Jim White is a British journalist and presenter who has fronted STV's coverage of the UEFA Champions League for the 2006/07 season by accident. He attended Manchester Grammar School and went on to read English at Bristol University.-Writing:White has covered major sporting events for the Daily...
is sometimes brought in to present Old Firm
Old Firm
The Old Firm is a common collective name for the association football clubs Celtic and Rangers, both based in Glasgow, Scotland.The origin of the term is unclear. One theory has it that the expression derives from Celtic's first game in 1888, which was played against Rangers. However, author,...
matches. Ian Crocker
Ian Crocker (commentator)
Ian Crocker is a football commentator who works for Sky Sports.Crocker originally joined BSkyB in 1997. Prior to his television career, Crocker commentated for Capital Gold in London, alongside Jonathan Pearce and Steve Wilson...
, Andy Walker and David Provan
David Provan (footballer born 1956)
David "Davie" Alexander Provan is a former Scottish footballer.-Club career:During his career he played for Kilmarnock and Celtic. While playing for Celtic Provan won four Scottish Premier League medals, two Scottish Cup and one League Cup...
are Sky's main commentators.
Sky also show up to 9 live Scottish Cup
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...
matches per season, normally starting with the fourth round when SPL teams are introduced. Sky share the rights with BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
, who show 5-8 matches per season. The Scottish Cup final is simulcast on both Sky Sports and BBC One Scotland.
UEFA Champions League
In 2003, BSkyB won joint UK rights to coverage of the UEFA Champions LeagueUEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
with ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, 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
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
have first choice of Wednesday games, and shared coverage of the final.
Richard Keys
Richard Keys
Richard Keys is an English radio presenter best known for his time with British sports channel Sky Sports from 1991 until 2011. In February 2011, Keys along with fellow Sky presenter, Andy Gray signed with talkSPORT....
was the main presenter until his departure from Sky, since when Jeff Stelling
Jeff Stelling
Robert Jeffrey "Jeff" Stelling is an English sports journalist and sport television presenter, of Gillette Soccer Saturday for Sky Sports and other programming for the satellite broadcaster. In January 2009 he took over as host of the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown...
and Ben Shephard
Ben Shephard
Benjamin Peter "Ben" Shephard, also known as "Sheps" is an English television presenter who currently works for Sky Sports, as well as ITV.-Personal life:...
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
Sky screened one game per round from the FA CupFA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
from 2000 to 2008, with three other games on the BBC, before ITV and the now defunct Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...
won the rights from the 2008/09 season. When Setanta collapsed, Sky did not win back the rights, with ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
winning Setanta's former share of matches.
Sky, however did broadcast the 2011 FA Cup final on Sky 3D with the coverage courtesy of ESPN.
Spanish football
Sky Sports also show live matches from La LigaLa Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...
, 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 was fronted by Mark Bolton, along with Guillem Balague
Guillem Balague
Guillem Balague is a Sky Sports Spanish football expert. He is a regular pundit on Sky Sports' show Revista de la Liga and has also written for some of Britain's newspapers as well as several popular Spanish newspapers....
.
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.
Internationals
Currently, Sky Sports holds the rights to every home ScotlandScotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland national football team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. Before 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association...
, Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland national football team
The Republic of Ireland national football team represents Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010....
and Wales
Wales national football team
The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...
Internationals 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
UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying
The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 is a series of parallel association football competitions held over 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012, to be held in Poland and Ukraine...
.
The Republic of Ireland deal was controversial as the Football Association of Ireland
Football Association of Ireland
The Football Association of Ireland is the governing body for the sport of association football in the Republic of Ireland. It should not to be confused with the Irish Football Association , which is the organising body for the sport in Northern Ireland.For the full history, statistics and records...
sold the rights for 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.
Other football
Sky Sports also show other football on occasion, such as the Charity Shield, Women's FA Cup Final, youth internationals, the Irish Premier LeagueIrish Premier League
The IFA Premiership – formerly the Irish Premier League, and before that the Irish Football League–and still known in popular parlance simply as the Irish League, is the national football league in Northern Ireland, and was historically the league for the whole of Ireland. Clubs in the league are...
and the Football Conference
Football Conference
The Football Conference is a football league in England which consists of three divisions called Conference National, Conference North, and Conference South. Some Football Conference clubs are fully professional, such as Luton Town, but most of them are semi-professional...
have all featured in recent times.
Scores service
Sky Sports broadcasts the studio-based rolling score update shows, Gillette Soccer Saturday presented every Saturday afternoon by Jeff StellingJeff Stelling
Robert Jeffrey "Jeff" Stelling is an English sports journalist and sport television presenter, of Gillette Soccer Saturday for Sky Sports and other programming for the satellite broadcaster. In January 2009 he took over as host of the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown...
, 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
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4....
with midweek shows sometimes also on Sky Sports 1 or Sky Sports 2 simultaneously.
Andy Gray and Richard Keys controversy
Sky Sports' football coverage was at the centre of controversy in January 2011 when footage emerged of presenters Andy Gray and Richard KeysRichard Keys
Richard Keys is an English radio presenter best known for his time with British sports channel Sky Sports from 1991 until 2011. In February 2011, Keys along with fellow Sky presenter, Andy Gray signed with talkSPORT....
making comments perceived as sexist. On January 25 Gray was sacked over the comments, 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
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 EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, West Indies, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
at various times as well as showing almost every England overseas tour, ICC tournaments such as the Cricket World Cup
Cricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...
, ICC Champions Trophy
ICC Champions Trophy
The ICC Champions Trophy is a One Day International cricket tournament, second in importance only to the Cricket World Cup. It was inaugurated as the ICC Knock Out tournament in 1998 and has been played every two years since, changing its name to the Champions Trophy in 2002...
and ICC World Twenty20
ICC World Twenty20
The ICC World Twenty20 or ICC World T20 also referred to as the T20 World Cup is the international championship of Twenty20 cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council...
as well as the Stanford Super Series
Stanford Super Series
The Stanford Super Series were a series of Twenty20 cricket matches, sponsored by Sir Allen Stanford. The main game of the Series matched the English national cricket team against an all-star team from the Caribbean, called the Stanford Superstars....
in 2008. Sky also shows extensive coverage of county cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
, 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
England and Wales Cricket Board
The England and Wales Cricket Board is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council...
awarded Sky exclusive coverage of all of England's home tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 Internationals including the 2009 Ashes. The ECB
England and Wales Cricket Board
The England and Wales Cricket Board is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council...
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 David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
. Gower is also part of an illustrious commentary team which includes 3 other former England captains in Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain OBE is a former Essex and England cricketer.Beginning his career in a strong Essex side in the late 1980s, he was an outstanding fielder and a stylish but inconsistent batsman. In first-class cricket from 1987 to 2004 Hussain scored 20,698 runs in 334 matches at an average of 42.06,...
, Michael Atherton and Sir Ian Botham, along with the popular former England batsman and coach and first-class umpire David Lloyd
David Lloyd (cricketer)
David Lloyd is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Lancashire and Test and One Day International cricket for England. He also played semi-professional football for Accrington Stanley...
, ex West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
and Australian legend Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
, who joined the team during the 2009 Ashes. The team is completed by Nick Knight
Nick Knight
Nicholas Verity Knight is a former England cricketer. Knight's middle name was in honour of the 1930s English Test bowler Hedley Verity who was killed in World War II and is a distant family relation...
, or commentators from the touring side such as Ramiz Raja (Pakistan), Ravi Shastri
Ravi Shastri
Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri is a former Indian cricketer and captain. He was an all–rounder who batted right-handed and bowled left arm spin. His international career started when he was 18 years old and lasted for 12 years...
(India)and Shaun Pollock
Shaun Pollock
Shaun Maclean Pollock is a retired South African cricketer who is considered a bowling all-rounder. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team, and also played for Africa XI, World XI, Dolphins and Warwickshire. He was also chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in...
(South Africa). Highlights are broadcast in a prime time slot each evening, presented by Charles Colvile, alongside Bob Willis
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis MBE , known as Bob Willis, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England...
and another guest.
Coverage of county cricket is presented and commentated on by former Surrey and England batsman IanWard and Charles Colvile. In addition to the presenters and those commentators involved in the international coverage, Bob Willis
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis MBE , known as Bob Willis, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England...
, Paul Allott
Paul Allott
Paul John Walter Allott is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Lancashire, Minor Counties cricket for Staffordshire and first-class cricket in New Zealand for Wellington, as well as thirteen Test match appearances and thirteen One Day International appearances for England.He...
, Mark Butcher
Mark Butcher
Mark Alan Butcher is a former English Test cricketer, who played county cricket for Surrey from 1992 until his retirement from the sport in 2009. He was a left-handed batsman, and occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler....
and Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Vernon Coney MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 52 Test matches and 88 ODIs for New Zealand, captaining them in 15 Tests and 25 ODIs. He was one of New Zealand's most successful batsmen, at least by average, and he made 16 fifties, but centuries often eluded him and he had to...
commentate on county cricket along with special guests such as Glamorgan's former England offspinner Robert Croft
Robert Croft
Robert Damien Bale Croft is a Welsh cricketer who has played international cricket for both England and Wales. He is an off-spin bowler who plays for Glamorgan and captained the county from 2003 to 2006...
, Kent batsman Robert Key
Robert Key (cricketer)
Robert William Trevor Key is an English cricketer. He is the captain of Kent County Cricket Club, and a former member of the England Test match and One Day International sides....
, veteran seamer Dominic Cork
Dominic Cork
Dominic Gerald Cork is a former English cricketer. Cork is a right-handed lower-order batsman who bowls right-arm fast-medium, and is renowned for his swing and seam control. Making his début in first-class cricket for Derbyshire in 1990, he was selected to play for England in 1992, aged 21. He...
and former Australia and Gloucestershire all-rounder Ian Harvey
Ian Harvey
Ian Joseph Harvey is an Australian cricketer. He is an all-rounder. He was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 2004.-Australian career:...
.
Overseas series involving England are presented either from the ground by David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
or from a London studio by IanWard 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
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis MBE , known as Bob Willis, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England...
, Nick Knight
Nick Knight
Nicholas Verity Knight is a former England cricketer. Knight's middle name was in honour of the 1930s English Test bowler Hedley Verity who was killed in World War II and is a distant family relation...
, David Lloyd
David Lloyd (cricketer)
David Lloyd is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Lancashire and Test and One Day International cricket for England. He also played semi-professional football for Accrington Stanley...
, Robert Croft
Robert Croft
Robert Damien Bale Croft is a Welsh cricketer who has played international cricket for both England and Wales. He is an off-spin bowler who plays for Glamorgan and captained the county from 2003 to 2006...
, Alec Stewart
Alec Stewart
Alec James Stewart OBE is a retired English cricketer, a right-handed batsman-wicketkeeper and former captain of the England cricket team...
, Angus Fraser
Angus Fraser
Angus Robert Charles Fraser is the current Managing Director of Cricket of Middlesex County Cricket Club, and a former English cricketer and journalist....
and Graham Thorpe
Graham Thorpe
Graham Paul Thorpe MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey and England. A left-handed middle-order batsman and slip fielder, he appeared in exactly 100 Test matches.-Early life:...
. The commentary team in the West Indies was David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
, Sir Ian Botham, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain OBE is a former Essex and England cricketer.Beginning his career in a strong Essex side in the late 1980s, he was an outstanding fielder and a stylish but inconsistent batsman. In first-class cricket from 1987 to 2004 Hussain scored 20,698 runs in 334 matches at an average of 42.06,...
, Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
, Tony Cozier
Tony Cozier
Anthony "Tony" Cozier has been a cricket writer and commentator for West Indian cricket since 1958.Cozier is the son of Barbados journalist, Jimmy Cozier and he studied journalism at Carleton University, Ottawa...
and Ian Bishop for the tests with David Lloyd
David Lloyd (cricketer)
David Lloyd is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Lancashire and Test and One Day International cricket for England. He also played semi-professional football for Accrington Stanley...
replacing Michael Atherton and Fazeer Mohammed replacing Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
for the ODIs.
For England's 2009/10 tour of South Africa David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
presented the coverage, and was joined on the commentary team for the test series by Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain OBE is a former Essex and England cricketer.Beginning his career in a strong Essex side in the late 1980s, he was an outstanding fielder and a stylish but inconsistent batsman. In first-class cricket from 1987 to 2004 Hussain scored 20,698 runs in 334 matches at an average of 42.06,...
, Sir Ian Botham, David Lloyd
David Lloyd (cricketer)
David Lloyd is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Lancashire and Test and One Day International cricket for England. He also played semi-professional football for Accrington Stanley...
and Shaun Pollock
Shaun Pollock
Shaun Maclean Pollock is a retired South African cricketer who is considered a bowling all-rounder. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team, and also played for Africa XI, World XI, Dolphins and Warwickshire. He was also chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in...
. Nick Knight
Nick Knight
Nicholas Verity Knight is a former England cricketer. Knight's middle name was in honour of the 1930s English Test bowler Hedley Verity who was killed in World War II and is a distant family relation...
and Allan Donald
Allan Donald
Allan Anthony Donald is a former South African cricketer and one of their most successful pace bowlers.In his prime, he was one of the best fast bowlers ever seen in Test cricket, reaching the top of the ICC Test rankings in 1998 and peaked with a top ICC ranking of 895 points the next year, the...
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
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...
and Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
are part of the coverage.
Other international cricket is presented by IanWard, Charles Colvile,Matt Floyd, Paul Allott
Paul Allott
Paul John Walter Allott is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Lancashire, Minor Counties cricket for Staffordshire and first-class cricket in New Zealand for Wellington, as well as thirteen Test match appearances and thirteen One Day International appearances for England.He...
and Nick Knight
Nick Knight
Nicholas Verity Knight is a former England cricketer. Knight's middle name was in honour of the 1930s English Test bowler Hedley Verity who was killed in World War II and is a distant family relation...
in the Sky Sports studio alongside pundits such as Ian Harvey
Ian Harvey
Ian Joseph Harvey is an Australian cricketer. He is an all-rounder. He was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 2004.-Australian career:...
, Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Vernon Coney MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 52 Test matches and 88 ODIs for New Zealand, captaining them in 15 Tests and 25 ODIs. He was one of New Zealand's most successful batsmen, at least by average, and he made 16 fifties, but centuries often eluded him and he had to...
, Colin Croft
Colin Croft
Colin Everton Hunte Croft is a former West Indian cricketer. He provides expert analysis on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Test Match Special.-Cricket career:...
, Robert Croft
Robert Croft
Robert Damien Bale Croft is a Welsh cricketer who has played international cricket for both England and Wales. He is an off-spin bowler who plays for Glamorgan and captained the county from 2003 to 2006...
, Robert Key
Robert Key (cricketer)
Robert William Trevor Key is an English cricketer. He is the captain of Kent County Cricket Club, and a former member of the England Test match and One Day International sides....
, Mark Butcher
Mark Butcher
Mark Alan Butcher is a former English Test cricketer, who played county cricket for Surrey from 1992 until his retirement from the sport in 2009. He was a left-handed batsman, and occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler....
and Vikram Solanki
Vikram Solanki
Vikram Singh Solanki is an Indian-born English cricketer, who plays county cricket for Worcestershire. In 2007, he became the 24th Worcestershire batsman to pass 10,000 career runs for the county. He also captained Worcestershire from 2005 to 2010, before resigning mid-season...
.
Match coverage is taken from host broadcasters around the world such as Channel Nine
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
in Australia, Sky TV
SKY Network Television
Sky Network Television Limited , , is a New Zealand pay television service. On 30 June 2011, Sky had 829,421 subscribers, which comprises:*808,617 digital subscribers*20,840 other subscribers...
in New Zealand, Supersport in South Africa and Nimbus
Nimbus
-General meanings:* Nimbus cloud, a cloud that produces precipitation* Halo , light or mist from an object* Halo , the disk or ring around the head of a sacred figure-Specific meanings:* Nimbus , A video game...
in India. This ensures the voices of the likes of Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...
, Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
, Mark Nicholas
Mark Nicholas
Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas is a cricket commentator and former player. He played for Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement....
, Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell
Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation...
, Simon Doull
Simon Doull
Simon Blair Doull is a New Zealand radio personality, commentator and former international cricketer. He was a right arm medium pace swing bowler, and played in 32 Test matches and 42 One Day Internationals for the New Zealand national cricket team...
, Ian Smith, Robin Jackman
Robin Jackman
Robin Jackman is a former English cricketer, who played in four Tests and fifteen ODIs for England from 1974 to 1983. He was a seam bowler and useful tail-end batsman. During a first-class career lasting from 1966 to 1982, he took 1,402 wickets...
, Pommie Mbangwa, Ramiz Raja, Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram is a former Pakistani left arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman in cricketer and model. who represented the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International matches....
, Mohammad Akram
Mohammad Akram
Mohammad Akram is a Pakistani right arm fast-medium bowler in cricket, he plays for Surrey County Cricket Club. He played in 9 Test matches and 23 One Day International matches for Pakistan between 1995–1996 and 2000-2001.He is 6'2 tall and Akram is nicknamed Haji...
, Kepler Wessels
Kepler Wessels
Kepler Christoffel Wessels is a former South African cricketer who captained South Africa after playing 24 Tests for Australia. He was the first man to have played One Day International cricket for two countries....
, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan , popularly known as Siva and LS, is a former Indian cricketer. He was a right arm leg-spinner. He is now a commentator.-Early days:...
, Ravi Shastri
Ravi Shastri
Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri is a former Indian cricketer and captain. He was an all–rounder who batted right-handed and bowled left arm spin. His international career started when he was 18 years old and lasted for 12 years...
and Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any...
are heard each winter on Sky.
Coverage of the 2011 Cricket World Cup
2011 Cricket World Cup
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. It was Bangladesh's first time co-hosting a World Cup...
is being presented from London by David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
and Matt Floyd along with a team of pundits which includes the regular guests as well as Ajit Agarkar
Ajit Agarkar
Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar is an Indian international cricketer, who has been on the fringes of the Indian side in both tests and one day matches since his debut in 1998...
, Azhar Mahmood
Azhar Mahmood
Azhar Mahmood Sagar is a Pakistani cricketer, . Originally his father objected to his interest in cricket, but later started to appreciate it seeing his accomplishments. As a teenager, Azhar was mentored by Irfan Bhatti who played a One Day International for Pakistan in the early 90’s...
and Marvan Atapattu
Marvan Atapattu
Marvan Samson Atapattu is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former Sri Lankan captain. Towards the end of his career he joined the Indian Cricket League and captained the Delhi Giants...
who have flown in from the sub-continent specifically for the tournament.
Rugby League
The power of television over sport can perhaps be best portrayed by the change of rugby leagueRugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
from a winter sport to one played during the summer months under the banner of Super League
Super League
Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...
. 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
Eddie Hemmings (rugby league)
Eddie Leslie Bruce Hemmings presents Sky Sports rugby league coverage, and is also the channel's main commentator for the sport. Hailing from Warrington, Cheshire, England, Hemmings is usually partnered by the idiosyncratic co-commentator Mike Stephenson....
and former Great Britain
Great Britain national rugby league team
The Great Britain national rugby league team represents the United Kingdom in rugby league football. Administered by the Rugby Football League , the team is nicknamed "The Lions" or "Great Britain Lions"....
World Cup
Rugby League World Cup
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation . It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954...
winner Mike Stephenson
Mike Stephenson
Michael "Mike" Stephenson, also commonly known as Stevo, is an English Rugby League World Cup winning Rugby League, and presenter/commentator on British satellite television channel Sky Sports who also represented Great Britain in the sport.Stevo, the nickname that he is commonly known as on TV...
- who are a rare example of a dual studio-presentation and commentary-box partnership in sports broadcasting. They are joined by Phil Clarke
Phil Clarke
Phil Clarke is an English rugby league football commentator and former professional player of the 1980s and 90s. A Great Britain and England international representative loose forward, he spent his club career with Wigan, as well as a stint in Australia with the Sydney Roosters.Phil Clarke is the...
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
Barrie McDermott
Barrie McDermott is an English former professional rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. A Great Britain international representative , he played his club football at Oldham, Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos , Bramley and Widnes.McDermott later became the Head of Youth Development with...
, Terry O'Connor, Brian Carney or Shaun McRae
Shaun McRae
Shaun McRae is a rugby league coach, who is currently the director of rugby at hull fc after a spell with the Salford City Reds.-Career:...
often occupy the guest position. Live Super League broadcasts routinely rank amongst the top 10 most watched programmes in a week on Sky Sports. Sky has sold rights to a highlights package of the Super League to BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
.
Sky also holds the rights to show five matches from the Rugby League Four Nations
Rugby League Four Nations
The Rugby League Four Nations is an annual rugby league football tournament run in partnership between the Australian Rugby League, Rugby Football League and New Zealand Rugby League representing the top three nations in the sport: Australia, England and New Zealand. A fourth partner, France,...
live, with the other two games being shown live on BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
. They also announced in 2007 that it had bought the rights to televise National League (now Championship
Rugby League National Leagues
The Championship, known as Co-operative Championship due to sponsorship by The Co-operative Group, is a professional rugby league competition based in the United Kingdom. It is currently contested by ten teams from England. It acts as Europe's second-tier competition below the Super League, and has...
) 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
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
(NRL) competition was shown until the 2005-06 season when Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...
outbid Sky for the rights, despite the NRL being half owned by News Corp.
Sky Sports showed the 2008 World Cup
2008 Rugby League World Cup
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since the inauguration of the tournament in 1954, and the first since the 2000 event...
exclusively live.
They also broadcast a weekly midweek rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
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
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4....
on a Sunday night. This is presented by Martin Offiah
Martin Offiah
Martin Offiah MBE is an English former rugby league and rugby union footballer.He is known as "Chariots" Offiah after the film Chariots of Fire...
.
Coverage of the Australian National Rugby League
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
Grand Final as well as the State of Origin
Rugby League State of Origin
State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...
series and the Anzac Test between Australia & New Zealand in May, returned to Sky Sports in 2010 on a two year contract.
Rugby Union
Sky began its live coverage of Premiership rugby on 10 September 1994 with the match between Bath RugbyBath Rugby
Bath Rugby is an English professional rugby union club that is based in the city of Bath. They play in the Aviva Premiership league...
and Bristol Rugby
Bristol Rugby
Bristol Rugby is a rugby union club based in Bristol, England. The club currently plays in the RFU Championship and competes in the British and Irish Cup. They rely in large part on the many junior rugby clubs in the region, particularly those from 'the Combination'...
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
ESPN (UK)
ESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009...
and will show 26 live games a season (including one Premiership Semi-Final) until the end of the 2012/13 season.
In 2003, it began its coverage of the Heineken Cup
Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...
, outbidding previous rights holder BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
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. 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
S4C
S4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fifth oldest British television channel .The channel - initially broadcast on...
able to show only highlights. Sky Sports started to broadcast games from the European Challenge Cup from the season 2007/08, with one game every week.
In 2008, Sky Sports extended their already long-term deal with the RFU to continue showing England Internationals (outside of the Six Nations
Six Nations Championship
The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....
) exclusively live up until the end of the 2014-15 season, including their autumn test matches at Twickenham
Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...
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.
They have also had exclusive UK rights for live coverage of the last three British and Irish Lions
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
tours. This is partly because of Sky's links with News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
television channels in the southern hemisphere. Sky's links with News Corporation, also allows them to show live matches from the Super 15 competition.
Sky Sports' rugby coverage is presented by Simon Lazenby and 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
Miles Harrison
Miles Harrison is the principal rugby union commentator for British television network Sky Sports. After obtaining a degree in Radio studies at City University London he found work in the early 1990s working on BBC Radio, commentating on rugby union and also occasional football matches...
, Mark Robson, Martin Gillingham*, Johnnie Hammond*, Andrew Cotter*, Scott Hastings
Scott Hastings
Scott Hastings may refer to:*Scott Hastings , American baseball player*Scott Hastings , American basketball player*Scott Hastings , Scottish rugby player-See also:...
*, Will Chignell* and Bob Symonds*. Co Commentators/Analisers: Stuart Barnes
Stuart Barnes
Stuart Barnes is a former English rugby union footballer, and now rugby commentator for Sky Sports. Barnes played fly-half for Newport RFC, Bristol, Bath; and represented England and the British Lions at international level.-Biography:Born in Essex, Barnes was educated at Rougemont and Bassaleg...
, Ieuan Evans
Ieuan Evans
Ieuan Evans is a former rugby union footballer who played on the wing for Wales. He is regarded as one of the best Welsh wingers of all time, despite playing through a disappointing era of Welsh rugby. A prolific try scorer at International level, Evans is listed 19th in the world on the all-time...
, Dewi Morris
Dewi Morris
Dewi Morris is a former rugby union footballer, who played scrum half for England.Morris made his England debut in 1988 against Australia. He was dropped in 1990 in favour of Richard Hill, but returned to the England side in 1992 and was the Lions scrum-half in 1993...
, Tyrone Howe
Tyrone Howe
Tyrone Gyle Howe is a former rugby union footballer who played on the wing for University of St Andrews RFC, Ulster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions....
*, Dean Ryan
Dean Ryan
Dean Ryan is a former corporal in the Corp of Royal Engineers and England Rugby Union Number 8, and was Head Coach at Guinness Premiership side Gloucester Rugby.-Playing career:During his on-field career Ryan played for Saracens, Wasps, Newcastle and Bristol...
, Will Greenwood
Will Greenwood
William John Heaton "Will" Greenwood, MBE is an English former rugby union footballer of the 1990s and 2000s.-Career:...
, Sean Fitzpatrick
Sean Fitzpatrick
Sean Fitzpatrick MNZM is a former rugby union footballer who represented New Zealand, and is widely regarded as one of the finest players ever to come from that country. He is also the son of former player Brian Fitzpatrick....
*, Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh is a former Australian rugby union footballer who played as a Fly-half.Lynagh represented Australia from 1984 to 1995, playing at both inside centre and fly half. Lynagh was capped 72 times for Australia, and was captain from 1993 to 1995. He was the world points scoring record...
*, Paul Wallace
Paul Wallace
Paul Wallace may refer to:* Paul Wallace , Irish former international rugby union player* Paul Wallace , Canadian historian* Paul Wallace , British former racing driver...
*, Frankie Sheahan
Frankie Sheahan
Frankie Sheahan is a retired Hooker and played for Munster from 1996 up to the end of the 2008-2009 season, and also for the Ireland where he gained 29 caps, having made his debut on June 10, 2000....
* and Scott Quinnell
Scott Quinnell
Scott Quinnell is a former Welsh international rugby league and rugby union player, who was a number 8 for Wales, Llanelli RFC, the Llanelli Scarlets and the Lions. He scored 11 tries for Wales and captained his country on 7 occasions in rugby union.-Biography:Scott is the son of former Welsh...
, Scott Hastings
Scott Hastings
Scott Hastings may refer to:*Scott Hastings , American baseball player*Scott Hastings , American basketball player*Scott Hastings , Scottish rugby player-See also:...
*. Employees marked with an asterisk (*) are not used for Premiership.
They will often take the host broadcasters commentary for Super 15 and Tri-Nations, with commentators including Grant Nisbett, Grant Fox
Grant Fox
Grant James Fox is a former rugby union player from New Zealand. He was born in New Plymouth. He attended Auckland Grammar school....
, Ian Smith
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...
, Murray Mexted
Murray Mexted
Murray Graham Mexted is a New Zealand rugby union player who played 34 tests for the All Blacks from 1979 to 1983. He also played 38 non-test game including 7 as captain. During his time with the All Blacks, he wore the Number eight jersey and was considered an excellent ball winner and an...
, Justin Marshall
Justin Marshall
Justin Warren Marshall, MNZM is a New Zealand rugby union footballer. He was born in Mataura and educated in Gore before settling in Christchurch. Marshall played 81 games for the New Zealand All Blacks between 1995 and 2005...
and Tony Johnson (Sky in NZ). The feed from Fox Sports in Australia usually involves Phil Kearns
Phil Kearns
Philip Nicholas Kearns is a former Australian rugby union player. He represented Australia 67 times and was captain of on 10 occasions....
, Greg Martin, Greg Clark, Tim Horan
Tim Horan
Tim Horan AM is a former Australian rugby union footballer. He played for the Queensland Reds in the Super 12, and represented Australia, he was one of the best centres in the world throughout the 1990s due to his attacking prowess, formidable defence and playmaking ability.As well as inside...
, Brendon Cannon and Rod Kafer
Rod Kafer
Rodney "Rod" B. Kafer was a rugby union player for the ACT Brumbies and the Australian Wallabies. He is remembered by Brumbies fans for kicking a drop-goal in the final minute in a 2001 game against the Cats giving the Brumbies a one point win...
Golf
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 HarmonButch Harmon
Claude "Butch" Harmon, Jr. is an American golf instructor and former professional player. He is the son of 1948 Masters Tournament champion Claude Harmon, Sr. and has been in the golf industry since 1965.-Early life:...
, 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
Peter Oosterhuis
Peter A. Oosterhuis is an English professional golfer and golf analyst.-Early years, amateur golf:Oosterhuis was born in London...
, Tony Johnstone
Tony Johnstone
Anthony Alastair Johnstone is a Zimbabwean professional golfer.Johnstone was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia and attended Christian Brothers College. He lives in Sunningdale in England. He turned professional in 1979 and has spent his career playing mainly on the Southern African Sunshine Tour and in...
, Thomas Bjørn
Thomas Bjørn
Thomas Bjørn is a professional golfer from Denmark who plays on the European Tour. He is the most successful Danish golfer to have played the game having won thirteen tournaments worldwide on the European Tour. In 1999 he also became the first Dane to qualify for a European Ryder Cup team...
, David Howell
David Howell (golfer)
David Alexander Howell is an English professional golfer from Swindon. His career to date peaked in 2006, when he was ranked in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings for a short time....
, Richard Boxall
Richard Boxall
Richard Boxall is an English professional golfer.-Golf career:Boxall turned professional in 1982 and won a place on the European Tour at that year's final qualifying school. He played on the Tour until 2000, and won one Tour event, the 1990 Lancia Martini Italian Open...
, Jamie Spence
Jamie Spence
Jamie Spence is an English professional golfer.Spence was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He turned professional in 1985 and has finished in the top 100 on the European Tour Order of Merit more than a dozen times, with a best placing of tenth in 1992...
, Mark Roe
Mark Roe
Mark Adrian Roe is an English professional golfer, best known for being disqualified from the 2003 Open Championship for a scorecard error....
, Robert Lee
Robert Lee (golfer)
Robert Lee is an English professional golfer.Lee was born in London. He turned professional in 1982 and was in his prime from 1985 to 1987, finishing in the top thirty of the European Tour Order of Merit each of those years. He twice shot 27 for nine holes on the tour, first at the 1985 Monte...
, Ross McFarlane
Ross McFarlane
Ross McFarlane ) is an English professional golfer.McFarlane was born in Manchester, and is the son of Manchester United footballer Noel. He turned professional in 1979 and played on the European Tour for many years, making the top 100 in the Order of Merit seven times, with a best ranking of 26th...
, Sandy Lyle
Sandy Lyle
Alexander Walter Barr "Sandy" Lyle, MBE is a Scottish professional golfer. Lyle has won two major championships during his career. Along with Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam, he became one of Britain's top golfers during the 1980s...
, Colin Montgomerie
Colin Montgomerie
Colin Stuart Montgomerie, OBE is a Scottish professional golfer, often referred to by one of his nicknames 'Monty'. He has had one of the finest careers in European Tour history, having won a record eight Order of Merit titles, including a streak of seven consecutively from 1993 to 1999, and 31...
, Philip Parkin
Philip Parkin
Andrew Philip Parkin is a Welsh professional golfer who has also worked as a golf commentator and analyst.Parkin was born in Doncaster, England and raised in Newtown, Powys. He attended Texas A&M University in the United States, where he was the first person to receive a full scholarship for the...
and Ken Brown
Ken Brown (golfer)
Ken Brown is a Scottish former European Tour golfer who now works as a golf broadcaster and writer, primarily for the BBC. He also works as part of the commentary team for the international coverage of the European Tour on selected events which are not covered by the BBC...
contributing to their coverage over the years.
Major championships
Sky Sports has exclusive UK rights for live coverage of two of the four major championshipsMen's major golf championships
The men's major golf championships, commonly known as the Major Championships, and often referred to simply as the majors, are the four most prestigious annual tournaments in professional golf...
, the U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
until 2014 and the U.S PGA Championship
PGA Championship
The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
until 2016. From 2011 Sky will broadcast all four days of The Masters in High Definition and 3D, as well as the Par 3 Tournament. BBC Sport will broadcast the final two rounds simultaneously with Sky. Sky also broadcasts major championships from the women's tour
Women's major golf championships
Women's golf has a set of major championships which parallels that in men's golf, but the women's system is younger and has been less stable than the men's. Many professional stroke play events for women are played over three rounds , but the majors are played over four rounds , which is the...
and senior tour
Senior major golf championships
Men's professional senior golf is for players aged 50 and above. Golf differs from all other sports in having lucrative competitions for this age group. The leading senior tour is the U.S. based Champions Tour, which was established in 1980 . It has established a roster of five major championships...
, including the Kraft Nabisco Championship
Kraft Nabisco Championship
The Kraft Nabisco Championship is one of the four major championships on the LPGA Tour. It was founded in 1972 by Dinah Shore and has been classified as a major since 1983...
, U.S. Women's Open, Senior PGA Championship
Senior PGA Championship
The Senior PGA Championship is one of the five major championships in men's senior golf. It is administered by the Professional Golfers' Association of America and is recognized as a major championship by both the Champions Tour and the European Seniors Tour. It was formerly an unofficial money...
, Senior British Open Championship
Senior British Open Championship
The Senior Open Championship, or simply The Senior Open is a professional golf tournament for men aged 50 and over. It is run by The R&A, the same body that organises The Open Championship. Prize money won in the event is official money on both the Champions Tour and the European Seniors Tour...
and U.S. Senior Open.
World Golf Championships
Since its inception in 1999, Sky Sports has broadcast the World Golf ChampionshipsWorld Golf Championships
The World Golf Championships are a group of four annual events for male professional golfers created by the International Federation of PGA Tours, with a fifth to be added in 2012...
exclusively live, with the exception of the 2001 WGC-American Express Championship, which was broadcast on the BBC. They usually present the broadcast on site, as they do for major championships and the Ryder Cup, reflecting their importance in the game as the next most important series of events after the majors.
PGA Tour
Sky also have exclusive live UK rights to broadcast the PGA TourPGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
(until 2017) including The Players Championship
The Players Championship
The Players Championship is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour.Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, the inaugural event in 1974 was played at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia before moving to the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas in 1975 and Inverrary...
and PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup
FedEx Cup
The FedEx Cup is a championship trophy for the PGA Tour. Its introduction marked the first time that men's professional golf had a playoff system. Announced in November 2005, it was first awarded in 2007 after a NASCAR-like points race. Bill Haas is the current champion...
. Sky were the exclusive UK broadcasters of the PGA Tour from 1993 to 2006 until Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...
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
Eurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...
.
European Tour
Sky show at least 32 events on the European Tour (until 2012) including the Dubai World ChampionshipDubai World Championship
The Dubai World Championship is a golf tournament on the European Tour that was held for the first time from 19–22 November 2009 on the Earth course at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, United Arab Emirates....
. Since 2009, Sky Sports and BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
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.
Ryder Cup
Sky Sports shows live coverage of the sport's premier event, the Ryder CupRyder Cup
The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...
. 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. The event was broadcast in High Definition for the first time in 2006 at the K Club in Republic of Ireland. Since 1999 it has also offered interactive coverage with options including the American coverage, Highlights and course guides. Sky holds the rights until 2012, with BBC broadcasting evening highlights. In 2010, Sky broadcast the Ryder Cup in 3D, making it the first live event on Sky 3D, Europe's first residential 3D channel.
They also broadcast all of the other major professional team events in the sport such as the Presidents Cup
Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world less Europe. Europe competes against the U.S. in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup. The Presidents Cup is held biennially...
, Seve Trophy
Seve Trophy
The Seve Trophy is a biennial golf tournament between teams of professional male golfers representing Great Britain & Ireland and Continental Europe. It is named after five times major winner Seve Ballesteros, the most successful golfer ever from Continental Europe who was one of the key...
, Royal Trophy
Royal Trophy
The Royal Trophy is a men's professional team golf tournament which was played for the first time in January 2006 at the Amata Spring Country Club in Chonburi, Thailand. The competing teams represent Europe and Asia. Eight man teams play a series of 16 matches involving foursomes, four-ball and...
, Omega Mission Hills World Cup and Solheim Cup
Solheim Cup
The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force behind its creation.The inaugural Cup was held in 1990,...
.
In 2010, Sky Sports will broadcast in excess of 150 tournaments from the men's and women's tours.
Darts
Since the creation of the World Darts Council in 1992, since renamed the Professional Darts CorporationProfessional Darts Corporation
The Professional Darts Corporation is a professional darts organization, established in the United Kingdom during 1992, when a group of leading professional players split from the British Darts Organisation to form what was initially called the World Darts Council...
(PDC), formed when many of the leading darts
Darts
Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
players, including Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow
Eric Bristow
Eric Bristow MBE is a British darts player, whose skill at the game in the 1980s helped turn it into a worldwide spectator sport.- Early career :...
, John Lowe
John Lowe
John Lowe is an English darts player who was one of the best-known men in darts during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the United Kingdom. Lowe is one of only five players to have won the World Championship 3 times.-Biography:Lowe won the World Championship title in three different decades -...
and Dennis Priestley
Dennis Priestley
Dennis Priestley is an English professional darts player. He has won two world championships, and was the first player to win both the BDO and WDC world championships, in 1991 and 1994 respectively...
, broke away
Split in darts
The split in darts refers to an acrimonious dispute between top professional darts players and the game's governing body which began in 1992 and resulted in the formation of a new organisation to arrange tournaments - including a second version of the World Professional Darts Championship...
from the British Darts Organisation
British Darts Organisation
The British Darts Organisation, or the BDO for short, is a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, OBE. The BDO is a founder member of the World Darts Federation which was formed in 1976....
(BDO), the games then sole ruling body, Sky Sports has broadcast the new organisations main darts tournaments live, which currently includes the following:
- PDC World Cup of DartsPDC World Cup of DartsThe PDC World Cup of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is one of the three new tournaments being introduced into the PDC calendar. It is broadcast live by Sky Sports....
- PDC World Darts ChampionshipPDC World Darts ChampionshipThe PDC World Darts Championship is a world championship competition for the sport of darts, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation . It was introduced following a dispute in 1994 with the British Darts Organisation, which has run its own world championship since 1978...
- Premier League DartsPremier League DartsThe 888.com Premier League Darts is a darts tournament which launched on January 20, 2005 on Sky Sports, and is currently the world's largest indoor sports event. The league is now played weekly from February to May, having originally started as a fortnightly fixture...
- UK Open
- World Matchplay
- World Grand Prix
- Grand Slam of DartsGrand Slam of DartsThe Grand Slam of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is known as the William Hill Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC also invites the best performing players from its rival the British Darts Organisation...
- PDC Under-21 World ChampionshipPDC Under-21 World ChampionshipThe PDC World Youth Championship is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, for darts players aged between 14 and 21...
(final only) - PDC Women's World Championship (final only)
BDO tournaments, including the Lakeside World Championship
BDO World Darts Championship
The BDO World Darts Championship is a world championship competition in darts, organised by the British Darts Organisation . It began in 1978, and was the only world championship tournament until 1994...
, continue to be covered by the BBC
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
.
Ice Hockey
From 2006, Sky Sports has showed a replay from a match in the Elite Ice Hockey LeagueElite Ice Hockey League
Several competitions fall under the jurisdiction of the Elite League. In 2006–07, the EIHL ran a total of four competitions: the league, playoffs, Challenge Cup and Knockout Cup. The league consists of a single division, each team playing three home games and three away games against the other...
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.. 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
Following the departure of Frank WarrenFrank Warren (promoter)
Frank Darren Warren is an English boxing manager and promoter.-Early life and early career:The son of a bookmaker, Warren trained as a solicitor's clerk with J Tickle & Co on Southampton Row in London....
's Sports Network to ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
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
Sky Box Office (UK & Ireland)
Sky Box Office is the name of BSkyB's pay-per-view system. There are three branded divisions of Sky Box Office - Sky Movies Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office and Sky 3D Box Office. Until 1 February 2011, the system ran under unified Sky Box Office branding.-History:Sky Box Office launched on 16...
instead of Sky Sports. Presenters and commentators for Sky Sports' coverage include Dave Clark
Dave Clark (television presenter)
Dave Clark is a television presenter from Leeds, England who works for British television station Sky Sports, where he is the anchorman for boxing and darts coverage....
, Wayne McCullough
Wayne McCullough
Wayne William McCullough is a professional boxer. During his professional career, which spans back to 1993, he held the WBC title in the Bantamweight category...
and Johnny Nelson
Johnny Nelson
Ivanson Ranny "Johnny" Nelson is a former professional boxer from Sheffield, England. He was the WBO cruiserweight champion for over six years, having successfully defended the title 13 times. Nelson also held the European and British cruiserweight titles...
.
WWE
In 1989, Sky Sports acquired the rights to WWE, from AmericaUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. 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
WrestleMania
WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced annually in late March or early April by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut...
, Survivor Series
Survivor Series
The Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event held in November by WWE. It is one of the "Big Four" events, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, as It is one of the original four pay-per-views produced by WWE....
, the Royal Rumble
Royal Rumble
The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every January by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. The event was created in 1988, with its inaugural event taking place on January 24, 1988 at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario...
and SummerSlam
SummerSlam
SummerSlam is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced annually in August by professional wrestling promotion WWE. The inaugural SummerSlam took place on August 29, 1988 at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York and was broadcast via pay-per-view, unlike the Royal Rumble of that...
are part of the Sky Box Office
Sky Box Office (UK & Ireland)
Sky Box Office is the name of BSkyB's pay-per-view system. There are three branded divisions of Sky Box Office - Sky Movies Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office and Sky 3D Box Office. Until 1 February 2011, the system ran under unified Sky Box Office branding.-History:Sky Box Office launched on 16...
pay-per-view service, and that SmackDown's first broadcast moved from Sky One to Sky Sports. As part of the deal, Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
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
WWE Velocity
WWE Velocity was a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It replaced two syndicated WWE shows, Jakked/Metal. Once a weekly Saturday night show on Spike TV and on Sky Sports 2 in the UK on Sunday mornings, Velocity became a webcast from 2005 to 2006...
on Sunday mornings. It is now shown two nights after the US broadcast after a viewer complained to Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
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.
The first WWE event to be shown in wide-screen (16:9) format on Sky Sports was No Way Out
WWE No Way Out
No Way Out was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every February by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. The event was created in 1998, with its inaugural event produced as an In Your House event in February of that year. The event in 2000 was rebranded...
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
WWE HEAT
WWE Heat was a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment...
ended in June 2008 it was replaced with WWE Vintage Collection
WWE Vintage Collection
WWE Vintage Collection is a professional wrestling television program from World Wrestling Entertainment showcasing action from the extensive WWE video library...
, a programme which showcases classic archive matches from the extensive WWE Video Library
WWE Video Library
The WWE video library is currently the largest collection of professional wrestling videos and copyrights in the world. It is comprised not only of past and current works by WWE but the works of now defunct professional wrestling promotions dating back to the 1940s...
.
On 30 November 2009, Sky Sports announced they had signed up to a new five year deal with the WWE. The deal means This Week in WWE
This Week in WWE
This Week in WWE is a television series produced by WWE, Inc. which recaps events taking place on Raw and SmackDown.This Week in WWE premiered on February 9, 2009. It airs each Monday night at 21:00 CET. Eurosport broadcasts This Week in WWE in all its European countries excluding the United...
and WWE Superstars
WWE Superstars
WWE Superstars is a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment that originally aired on WGN America in the United States. It debuted on April 16, 2009 and ended its domestic broadcasting on April 7, 2011...
will make their UK television debut.
WWE shows on Sky Digital
The following list excludes WWE pay-per-viewPay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
events where a minority are broadcast on Sky Sports while the rest are broadcast on Sky Box Office
Sky Box Office (UK & Ireland)
Sky Box Office is the name of BSkyB's pay-per-view system. There are three branded divisions of Sky Box Office - Sky Movies Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office and Sky 3D Box Office. Until 1 February 2011, the system ran under unified Sky Box Office branding.-History:Sky Box Office launched on 16...
at an additional cost of £14.95 per event.
| All broadcast on Sky Sports unless stated |
|---|
| WWE Raw WWE RAW WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States... |
| WWE SmackDown (occasionally shown on Sky1) |
| WWE NXT WWE NXT WWE NXT is a sports entertainment television program produced by WWE that debuted on February 23, 2010. Described as a hybrid between reality television and WWE's scripted live event shows, the premise of the show follows select talent contracted to WWE's developmental territory Florida... |
| WWE After Burn |
| WWE Bottom Line WWE Bottom Line WWE Bottom Line is a World Wrestling Entertainment syndicated television program which recaps events taking place on Raw. It replaced the WWE's previous syndicated highlight show, WWE Livewire... |
| This Week in WWE This Week in WWE This Week in WWE is a television series produced by WWE, Inc. which recaps events taking place on Raw and SmackDown.This Week in WWE premiered on February 9, 2009. It airs each Monday night at 21:00 CET. Eurosport broadcasts This Week in WWE in all its European countries excluding the United... |
| WWE Vintage Collection WWE Vintage Collection WWE Vintage Collection is a professional wrestling television program from World Wrestling Entertainment showcasing action from the extensive WWE video library... |
| The WWE Experience The WWE Experience The WWE Experience, is a television program produced by WWE, Inc. which recaps events taking place on WWE Raw, and WWE SmackDown that started in May 2004.-History:... (on Sky1) - Free |
| WWE Superstars WWE Superstars WWE Superstars is a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment that originally aired on WGN America in the United States. It debuted on April 16, 2009 and ended its domestic broadcasting on April 7, 2011... (on Sky1) - Free |
Motorsport
Sky Sports also broadcasts major motorsport events. This includes:- A1 Grand PrixA1 Grand PrixA1 Grand Prix was a 'single make' open-wheel auto racing series. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most formula racing series. As such, it was often promoted as the "World Cup of Motorsport"...
- In addition, Sky Sports had their logo branded on the A1 Team Great BritainA1 Team Great BritainA1 Team Great Britain is the British team of A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series.- Management :A1 Team Great Britain was one of the first six seat holders in the series announced, with chairman John Surtees hosting the event...
and A1 Team IrelandA1 Team IrelandA1 Team Ireland is the Irish team of A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series. The team were the A1 Grand Prix champions for the fourth season, 2008-09.- The Team :...
cars during the 2005-06 season2005-06 A1 Grand Prix seasonThe 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix season was the inaugural season for the A1 Grand Prix series.It began on 25 September 2005, and finished on 2 April 2006 after eleven races.This first season was won by A1 Team France on March 12, 2006.-Teams:... - Indy Racing League (including the Indianapolis 500Indianapolis 500The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
) - British SuperbikeBritish SuperbikeThe British Superbike Championship is the leading road racing superbike championship in the United Kingdom.The championship is managed and organised by MotorSport Vision. The Series and Race Director is Stuart Higgs. Event marshals are provided by the Racesafe Marshals Association.Two annual...
s (Highlights) - SpeedwayMotorcycle speedwayMotorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
- Elite League SpeedwaySpeedway Elite LeagueThe Elite League is the top division of Speedway league competition in the United Kingdom and is governed by the Speedway Control Bureau , in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association . It is sponsored by Sky Sports...
- Speedway World CupSpeedway World CupThe Speedway World Cup is an annual speedway event held each year in different countries. The first edition of the competition in the current format was in 2001 and it replaced the old World Team Cup competition.-Format:...
- Speedway Grand PrixSpeedway Grand PrixSpeedway Grand Prix are a series of stand-alone speedway events over the course of a season used to determine the Speedway World Champion. As of 2008, all of the events take place in Europe.- Event format :...
- Elite League Speedway
- NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Race of ChampionsRace of ChampionsThe Race of Champions is an international motorsport event held at the end of each year, featuring some of the world's best racing and rally drivers...
Formula One
In July 2011, Sky Sports acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast Formula OneFormula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
in the United Kingdom from until 2018, including all practice and qualifying sessions in addition to the races. The broadcast will be shared with the BBC
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
, who will televise ten of the races live and extended highlights of the remaining ten on a delayed broadcast. The announcement was controversial, with early promises that the races would be uninterrupted by commercials doing little to quell the highly negative reactions from fans and observers.
External links
- 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