sky Sports is a group of British subscription television sports channels operated by the satellite pay-TV company Sky, a division of Comcast. 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 1991, 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 Main Event, Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1, Action, and Arena are available as a premium package on top of the basic Sky package. These channels are also available as premium channels on nearly every satellite, cable and IPTV broadcasting system in the UK and Ireland. Sky Sports News, Sky Sports Racing, and Sky Sports Mix are all provided as part of basic packages. The Sky Sports network is managed by Barney Francis.
History
Predecessors
British Satellite Broadcasting operated The Sports Channel, which launched in April 1990. In the BSB years, it shared the same frequency with its underpromoted sister channel, the Computer Channel, which broadcast in the mornings when the Sports Channel was off-air.
BSB merged with Sky Television plc to form British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Television had co-founded another sports network known as Eurosport with the European Broadcasting Union. Eurosport was the subject of a complaint by a competitor, Screensport, who argued that the venture had the effect of restricting and distorting competition in the sports market.[1] Sky later pulled out of the venture, and the channel was later sold to the TF1 Group and merged with Screensport.
Beginnings
The Sports Channel was renamed Sky Sports on 20 April 1991, and began broadcasting to Sky viewers via the newly launched Astra 1B satellite on that date, alongside its existing transmissions on BSB's Marcopolo satellite. The channel was sold as one of the major draws of the Sky system and initially aired sports such as rugby and golf before acquiring rights to German and Italian league football (both previously carried over from the Sports Channel). The channel was initially encrypted but broadcast free-to-view, requiring an analogue VideoCrypt decoder, but no paid subscription, to be viewed. Since VideoCrypt decoders were only officially available within the UK, this measure was intended to prevent viewing of the service outside the UK and Ireland.
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 £304m, BSkyB beat the BBC and ITV to acquire the live and exclusive Premier League football broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom and 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 ever. At this point, Sky Sports became a subscription channel, available with a monthly subscription on a standalone basis, or at a reduced price if taken with Sky's movie channels.
On 19 August 1994, a secondary channel called Sky Sports 2 was launched. On 1 November 1995, Sky launched a classic sports channel called Sky Sports Gold. However, the channel ceased broadcasting after only a year on the air. On 16 August 1996, Sky launched Sky Sports 3, the original channel was renamed to Sky Sports 1. Sky Sports also acquired the rights to Scottish football and the League Cup.
Digital era
With the launch of the Sky Digital satellite platform in October 1998, Sky Sports launched Sky Sports News—a channel carrying rolling sports news coverage, in March 1999, followed by Sky Sports Xtra (later branded as Sky Sports 4 since 2010, then Sky Sports Golf since 2017) in April.
During a Premier League match on 22 August 1999, Sky Sports launched an interactive television service known as Sky Sports Active via the digital platform, allowing viewers to watch matches with access to additional on-screen statistics, and a choice of alternate camera angles and replays. Sky expected to extend the interactive services to other sports the following year.[2][3]
Sky Sports' football coverage was at the centre of controversy in January 2011 when footage emerged of presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys making comments perceived as sexist. On 25 January 2011, Gray was sacked over the comments.[4] On 25 January 2011, fellow reporter Andy Burton was suspended by Sky due to his involvement in the sexist comments made about a female assistant referee, Sian Massey, which also involved Gray and Keys.[5] However, unlike Gray and Keys, Burton later returned to his regular duties at Sky.[6]
Om 29 July 2011, it was announced that Sky Sports had acquired rights to Formula One racing from 2012 through 2018, with the BBC to share free-to-air rights to roughly half of the events, and have highlights rights for the remainder.[7][8] Sky subsequently announced that it would introduce a new channel dedicated specifically to its coverage, Sky Sports F1, which would air practices, qualifying, and advert-free coverage of each race; the channel was made available at no extra charge to all Sky high-definition subscribers, regardless of whether they were a Sky Sports subscriber.[9] Sky extended its contract in 2016, to last through 2024; beginning in 2019, Sky became the exclusive broadcaster of all F1 races excluding the British GP which will also be broadcast on the free to air Channel 4 (who also hold highlights rights for all the races).[10]
On 12 August 2014, Sky launched a new channel called Sky Sports 5, which would be dedicated primarily to European football, including UEFA European Championship qualifiers, La Liga, Eredivisie and others.[11]
On 24 August 2016, Sky launched Sky Sports Mix, a new channel designed to offer a sampling of content from the full range of Sky Sports networks to those who are not subscribers. On Sky, the channel is included as a basic channel with all plans, and was also available on certain Virgin Media packages on-launch.[12][13]
Channel re-alignment and expansion (2017)
On 18 July 2017, Sky re-aligned its sports channels, dropping the numbered services in favour of dedicated channels devoted to their core sports properties, including cricket, Formula One, golf, and two football channels (with one specifically dedicated to the Premier League), and three channels dedicated to general sports coverage.[14][15] In addition, Sky announced that it would revise the pricing structure of the channels to make them more attractive to viewers; Sky customers can purchase up to three of the channels on an a la carte basis, or the entire bundle. As before, Sky Sports Mix airs selected programming from across the channels, and is included in Sky's basic service. On Sky's Now TV service, the entire Sky Sports service continues to be available through the timed pass system. The availability and packaging of the new service varies on other providers.[14][16][15]
The U.S. NBC Sports division became a sibling of Sky Sports following Comcast's acquisition of Sky plc. In January 2019, Sky and sister U.S. pay television network NBCSN partnered on coverage of the transfer deadline (NBC holds the Premier League rights in the U.S.), and the network later announced that it would add an hour-long simulcast of the Sky Sports News channel to its lineup beginning 4 March.[17][18] For the PGA Tour's 2019 Players Championship, Sky Sports Golf trialled similar synergies with its new sister Golf Channel
Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1, Action, and Arena are available as a premium package on top of the basic Sky package. These channels are also available as premium channels on nearly every satellite, cable and IPTV broadcasting system in the UK and Ireland. Sky Sports News, Sky Sports Racing, and Sky Sports Mix are all provided as part of basic packages. The Sky Sports network is managed by Barney Francis.
History
Predecessors
British Satellite Broadcasting operated The Sports Channel, which launched in April 1990. In the BSB years, it shared the same frequency with its underpromoted sister channel, the Computer Channel, which broadcast in the mornings when the Sports Channel was off-air.
BSB merged with Sky Television plc to form British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Television had co-founded another sports network known as Eurosport with the European Broadcasting Union. Eurosport was the subject of a complaint by a competitor, Screensport, who argued that the venture had the effect of restricting and distorting competition in the sports market.[1] Sky later pulled out of the venture, and the channel was later sold to the TF1 Group and merged with Screensport.
Beginnings
The Sports Channel was renamed Sky Sports on 20 April 1991, and began broadcasting to Sky viewers via the newly launched Astra 1B satellite on that date, alongside its existing transmissions on BSB's Marcopolo satellite. The channel was sold as one of the major draws of the Sky system and initially aired sports such as rugby and golf before acquiring rights to German and Italian league football (both previously carried over from the Sports Channel). The channel was initially encrypted but broadcast free-to-view, requiring an analogue VideoCrypt decoder, but no paid subscription, to be viewed. Since VideoCrypt decoders were only officially available within the UK, this measure was intended to prevent viewing of the service outside the UK and Ireland.
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 £304m, BSkyB beat the BBC and ITV to acquire the live and exclusive Premier League football broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom and 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 ever. At this point, Sky Sports became a subscription channel, available with a monthly subscription on a standalone basis, or at a reduced price if taken with Sky's movie channels.
On 19 August 1994, a secondary channel called Sky Sports 2 was launched. On 1 November 1995, Sky launched a classic sports channel called Sky Sports Gold. However, the channel ceased broadcasting after only a year on the air. On 16 August 1996, Sky launched Sky Sports 3, the original channel was renamed to Sky Sports 1. Sky Sports also acquired the rights to Scottish football and the League Cup.
Digital era
With the launch of the Sky Digital satellite platform in October 1998, Sky Sports launched Sky Sports News—a channel carrying rolling sports news coverage, in March 1999, followed by Sky Sports Xtra (later branded as Sky Sports 4 since 2010, then Sky Sports Golf since 2017) in April.
During a Premier League match on 22 August 1999, Sky Sports launched an interactive television service known as Sky Sports Active via the digital platform, allowing viewers to watch matches with access to additional on-screen statistics, and a choice of alternate camera angles and replays. Sky expected to extend the interactive services to other sports the following year.[2][3]
Sky Sports' football coverage was at the centre of controversy in January 2011 when footage emerged of presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys making comments perceived as sexist. On 25 January 2011, Gray was sacked over the comments.[4] On 25 January 2011, fellow reporter Andy Burton was suspended by Sky due to his involvement in the sexist comments made about a female assistant referee, Sian Massey, which also involved Gray and Keys.[5] However, unlike Gray and Keys, Burton later returned to his regular duties at Sky.[6]
Om 29 July 2011, it was announced that Sky Sports had acquired rights to Formula One racing from 2012 through 2018, with the BBC to share free-to-air rights to roughly half of the events, and have highlights rights for the remainder.[7][8] Sky subsequently announced that it would introduce a new channel dedicated specifically to its coverage, Sky Sports F1, which would air practices, qualifying, and advert-free coverage of each race; the channel was made available at no extra charge to all Sky high-definition subscribers, regardless of whether they were a Sky Sports subscriber.[9] Sky extended its contract in 2016, to last through 2024; beginning in 2019, Sky became the exclusive broadcaster of all F1 races excluding the British GP which will also be broadcast on the free to air Channel 4 (who also hold highlights rights for all the races).[10]
On 12 August 2014, Sky launched a new channel called Sky Sports 5, which would be dedicated primarily to European football, including UEFA European Championship qualifiers, La Liga, Eredivisie and others.[11]
On 24 August 2016, Sky launched Sky Sports Mix, a new channel designed to offer a sampling of content from the full range of Sky Sports networks to those who are not subscribers. On Sky, the channel is included as a basic channel with all plans, and was also available on certain Virgin Media packages on-launch.[12][13]
Channel re-alignment and expansion (2017)
On 18 July 2017, Sky re-aligned its sports channels, dropping the numbered services in favour of dedicated channels devoted to their core sports properties, including cricket, Formula One, golf, and two football channels (with one specifically dedicated to the Premier League), and three channels dedicated to general sports coverage.[14][15] In addition, Sky announced that it would revise the pricing structure of the channels to make them more attractive to viewers; Sky customers can purchase up to three of the channels on an a la carte basis, or the entire bundle. As before, Sky Sports Mix airs selected programming from across the channels, and is included in Sky's basic service. On Sky's Now TV service, the entire Sky Sports service continues to be available through the timed pass system. The availability and packaging of the new service varies on other providers.[14][16][15]
The U.S. NBC Sports division became a sibling of Sky Sports following Comcast's acquisition of Sky plc. In January 2019, Sky and sister U.S. pay television network NBCSN partnered on coverage of the transfer deadline (NBC holds the Premier League rights in the U.S.), and the network later announced that it would add an hour-long simulcast of the Sky Sports News channel to its lineup beginning 4 March.[17][18] For the PGA Tour's 2019 Players Championship, Sky Sports Golf trialled similar synergies with its new sister Golf Channel
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