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 Xtra are available as a premium package on top of the basic Sky package. These channels are also available as premium on nearly every satellite, cable and IPTV broadcasting system in the UK and Ireland. Unlike the other channels, Sky Sports News is provided as part of basic packages and also broadcasts on Freeview. Sky Sports is perhaps best known for its Premier League football coverage.
History
The early years (1990-1998)
Sky Sports originally began broadcasting of sports events as The Sports Channel in March 1990, as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting service on cable, becoming available on the Marcopolo satellite the following month. Sky Television did not originally launch with a sports channel of their own - though sports programmes were occasionally broadcast on Sky Channel - but instead chose to invest in Eurosport instead, which was marketed as one of Sky's four channels upon its launch on 5 February 1989.
On 2 November 1990, British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television announced that they would be merging. At first the Sports Channel gained a "British Sky Broadcasting" suffix on its logo, however from 6 April 1991 - when the channel debuted on the SES Astra 1B satellite - it was rebranded as Sky Sports. Sky and Eurosport discontinued their partnership upon the launch of Sky Sports, even though Eurosport continued to be available on the Astra platform.
The channel was sold as one of the major draws of the Sky system and from 1 September 1992 Sky Sports was sold as a subscription channel and encrypted using the VideoCrypt system. It was the second Sky channel to be encrypted (following Sky Movies in 1990). It initially aired sports such as rugby and golf in 1990, before acquiring rights to German and Italian league football in 1990.
However, it was following the formation of the Premier League for the 1992/93 football season, believed to have been assisted by the promise of higher TV payments, that Sky Sports became well known. By bidding £305m, BSkyB beat the BBC and ITV to acquire the live and exclusive Premier League football broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland for a five-year period. In doing so, they had taken live top-flight English league football from terrestrial and free-to-air television for the first time in its history.
More Sports Channels
Sky launched its second sport-dedicated channel, Sky Sports 2 in August 1994, four years after the original channel launched on the Marcopolo satellite on BSB. Sky Sports Gold , a channel dedicated to classic sport, in a similar vein to ESPN Classic, launched on 1 November 1995 and ended as a separate channel by 1997 but only really petered out (as a filler slot on the other Sky Sports channels) by 2001. At the start of the 1996-97 season Sky Sports 3 was launched. The launch promotion involved many top sporting figures such as Dennis Bergkamp and Ryan Giggs to help the launch of the channel. Sky Sports had also acquired the rights to Scottish football and the Coca-Cola Cup.
Sky Digital (1998 - present)
October 1998 saw BSkyB launch Sky Digital 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 utilised a feature of, the then new, Sky Digital system to allow an interactive football match to be shown. Viewers were given the ability to choose the things such as which camera they viewed during the Arsenal vs. Manchester United. The concept proved popular and soon Sky used the new interactive service, known as Sky Sports Active, for other sports.
Around 2001, a cross-branding deal ensured that a quiz under the name of the Championship Manager series would be produced with the Sky Sports name on it. Kirsty Gallacher was the host of the PlayStation 2 quiz.
In 2004, Sky signed an exclusive deal to broadcast live English cricket matches for four seasons from 2006 to 2009 for a fee of £55 million a year. As with other of their exclusive deals this has caused some controversy, as the matches would no longer be available on terrestrial TV. Sky also signed an exclusive deal with the BCCI to televise the tour of India.
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. In June 2009 Setanta's UK operations went into administration and ceased broadcasting.
Other Sky Sports Channels
Sky Sports Xtra
Sky Sports Xtra was the fourth Sports Channel launched by Sky Sports. It airs repeats and live events of many Sky Sports programmes, such as La Liga. The channel launched in April 1999, and is a free bonus channel for those who subscribed to both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2. The channel was originally launched as Sky Sports Extra but later rebranded to Sky Sports Xtra . The name Extra rather than Sky Sports 4 was chosen as the original intention of the channel was to simulcast sporting events showing on the main channels with the addition of interactive services.
More recently the channel has stopped simulcasting, and the interactive services have moved to the main Sky Sports channels. Sky Sports Xtra now shows live and recorded sports events, and is in an effect a fourth main Sky Sports channel.
Sky Sports HD Channels
Sky Sports HD launched on 22 May 2006, 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 HD 2 launched on Sky Digital channel 409, at the same time Sky Sports HD 1 moved to channel 408, with Sky Sports News switching to channel 405. There was also an HD version of PremPlus, called Prem Plus HD , which broadcast on Sky channel 483 until the football session ended. It was briefly branded Sky Sports HD X and used to broadcast other Sky Sports content in HD, before it ceased broadcasting.
HD broadcasts of 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 will be shown in HD from 2008.
Sky Sports HD 3 launched on 17 March 2008, to coincide with World Wrestling Entertainment's first UK HD broadcast.
Sky Sports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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