Sky Sports

Sky Sports is a group of British subscription television sports channels operated by the satellite pay-TV company BSkyB, a division of Sky Ltd. 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 Football League, Football, Cricket, Cricket 2, Golf, GAA, and Darts 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 Sport Select, Sky Sports Racing, and Sky Sports Mix are all provided as part of basic packages. The Sky Sports network is managed by Rob Webster.

1989-1991: Predecessors
British Satellite Broadcasting operated The Sports Channel, which launched on 25 March 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. On 2 November 1990, BSB merged with Sky Television plc to form British Sky Broadcasting.

In 1989, Sky Television had co-founded another sports network, Eurosport, with the European Broadcasting Union. However, in 1991, 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, and Sky pulled out of the venture. Later in 1991, the channel was sold to the TF1 Group and merged with Screensport.

1991-1998: 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 United Kingdom, this measure was intended to prevent viewing of the service outside the United Kingdom 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 television 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 5-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, on 1 September 1992, Sky Sports became a monthly subscription channel and was sold either 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 often used at weekends. 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. On 1 September 1997, Sky Sports 2 became a full-time service.

1998-2017: Digital era
With the launch of the Sky Digital satellite platform on 1 October 1998, Sky Sports launched Sky Sports News, a channel carrying rolling sports news coverage, followed by Sky Sports 4 in August 1999. 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.

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. 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. However, unlike Gray and Keys, Burton later returned to his regular duties at Sky.

Om 29 July 2011, it was announced that Sky Sports had acquired rights to Formula One racing from 2012 until 2017, with the BBC to share free-to-air rights to roughly half of the events, and have highlights rights for the remainder. 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. This however was removed in 2017 when Sky lost F1 rights to Channel 4.

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.

2017-present: Channel re-alignment and expansion
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, GAA, Golf, Darts, Racing and 2 football channels (with one specifically dedicated to the Football League), 2 Cricket channels and Mix which shows a mixture of sports. 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 3 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.

Channels
Football graphic history

1992/93 and 1993/94

1994/95

1995/96 and 1996/97

1997/98 and 1998/99

1999/2000 and 2000/01

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04 and 2004/05

2005/06 (Teams playing)

2007/08 - 2010/11

2011/12 and 2012/13

2013/14 - 2016/17

Graphics

 * Match being played (Championship, Championship playoff, Championship playoff final, FA Cup, League Cup)
 * Presenter lower 3rd (playoff edition)
 * Pundit lower 3rd
 * Table
 * Manager lower 3rd (playoff edition)
 * Player to watch (playoff edition)
 * Team lineup
 * Lower 3rd just on kickoff (League Cup, Championship, playoff, Championship playoff, FA Cup)
 * Player who scored (playoff edition)
 * Player booked
 * Player sent off
 * Normal transition (League Cup edition, Championship edition, Playoff edition, FA Cup edition). Goal transition
 * Substitution
 * Head-to-head record
 * Referee (playoff edition)
 * Score (Championship, League Cup, Playoff, Championship playoff, FA Cup edition)

Historical graphics 2006/07 - 2010/11


 * Digital on-screen graphic (2006/07)
 * Digital on-screen graphic (2007/08 - 2010/11)
 * Match being played
 * Presenter lower 3rd, Pundit lower 3rd
 * Table
 * Team lineup lower 3rd
 * Manager lower 3rd
 * Player to watch
 * Team lineups
 * Lower 3rd just before kickoff
 * Normal transition. Goal transition
 * Player who scored
 * Player who booked
 * Player who is sent off
 * Half time lower 3rd
 * Substitution
 * Score

Historical graphics 2011/12-2016/17


 * Match being played
 * Lower 3rd just before kickoff
 * Pundit lower 3rd
 * Table
 * Team lineup lower 3rd
 * Manager lower 3rd
 * Player to watch
 * Team lineups
 * digital on-screen graphic (2011/12 - 2012/13)
 * digital on-screen graphic (2013/14 - 2015/16) (when goal is scored)
 * Normal transition. Goal transition
 * Player who scored
 * Player who booked
 * Half time score lower 3rd
 * Substitution
 * Score

Rugby graphics


 * Match being played
 * Dressing room
 * Presenter lower 3rd
 * Pundit lower 3rd
 * Table
 * Head coach lower 3rd
 * Player to watch
 * Team lineup
 * Lower 3rd just on kickoff
 * TV scoreboard digital on-screen graphic
 * Player who scored the try
 * Player taking the conversion/penalty kick
 * Player sin binned
 * Player sent off
 * Normal transition. Try transition
 * Substitution
 * Head-to-head record
 * Referee
 * Score (Half-time)

Current TV scoreboards


 * UEFA Euro Qualifiers
 * FIFA World Cup
 * UEFA Champions League, Studio
 * UEFA Cup
 * UEFA Cup Winners Cup
 * Football League, Football League Trophy and Football League Cup
 * Bundesliga
 * DFB Pokal
 * Ligue 1
 * Coupe de France
 * Turkish Super League
 * A-League
 * Substitutes

Personnel
Early Kick-off - Presented by Adam Smithy and Jimmy Bullard. Tubes and "Rocket" James Long also feature. 2 hours on Saturday from 10am, featuring debates, talking points, gossip & build up to upcoming football games as well as introducing celebrity football fans, comedy sketches (done by John "Fenners Fendley and Tubes) and football quizzes. 8 fans of a British football club feature as studio guests every week, seated in a section of the set known as the "Luther Blissett Stand" and were featured in various aspects of the show, culminating in a team footballing challenge at the end of the programme. Clips of the Futsal Cup

UCL Magazine - Fridays

UEFA Champions League Goal Show - Similar to Sky Sports Scores.

Presenters

 * Richard Keys-UCL and UEFA Cup Winners Cup Presenter
 * Kate Abdo-UEFA Cup presenter
 * Laura Woods-Football League Cup presenter
 * David Prutton-Football League and Football League Trophy presenter
 * Caroline Barker-Football League, Football League Cup and Football League Trophy presenter
 * Matt Smith-Vanarama Division 4 & 5 presenter

Pundit

 * Jamie Carragher, Roberto Martinez and Graeme Sourness-UCL, UEFA Cup Winners Cup and Football League Cup pundits
 * UEFA Cup pundits
 * Clive Allen, Matthew Upson, Mark Schwarzer, Leon Osman, David Phillips, Stuart Pearce, Darren Bent, Darren Murphy, Steve Sidwell, Michael Brown and Danny Higginbotham-Football League pundit
 * Dermot Gallagher-UEFA Referee analysts
 * Peter Walton-Football League and Football League Cup referee analyst
 * Raphael Honigstein	-Bundesliga pundit

Commentators

 * Peter Drury and Jim Beglin-UCL, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Football League Cup and Football League playoffs main commentary team
 * Ian Darke and Steve McManaman (Coleman instead of McManaman for Wales)-Wales national team main commentary team. UCL, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Football League playoffs and Football League Cup commentary team 2.
 * Martin Tyler and Andy Grey-International, UCL, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Football League Cup, Football League playoffs, Internationals commentary team 3.
 * Alan Parry and Robbie Savage-International, UCL, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Football League Cup, Football League playoffs, Internationals commentary team 4.
 * Ian Crocker and Andy Walker-Football League (including playoffs) main commentary team. UCL, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Football League Cup, Internationals commentary team 5.
 * Rob Hawthorne and Craig Burley-Football League (including playoffs) commentary team 2, UCL, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Football League Cup, Internationals commentary team 5
 * Bill Leslie
 * Andy Hinchcliffe and -Football League Commentary team 3 + Internationals
 * Gary Weaver and -Football League Commentary team 4 + Internationals
 * Gary Taphouse and Keith Andrews-Football League Commentary team 5 + Internationals
 * -Football League Commentary team 6 + Internationals
 * Seb Hutchinson and Adam Virgo-Division 4 & 5 commentator
 * Adam Summerton and Kevin Davies-Division 4 & 5 commentator
 * Simon Hill and Kevin Gallacher
 * Danny Mills
 * Dave Farrar-UCL, Bundesliga & Ligue 1 commentary team
 * Steven Wyeth-UCL, Bundesliga & Ligue 1 commentary team
 * Stewart Robson-Serie A commentary team
 * Kevin Gallacher-Bundesliga commentator

Interviewer

 * Geoff Shreeves-Interview for Football League Cup matches and Football League playoffs
 * Emma Dodds-Interviewer
 * Greg Whelan-Interview for Football League Cup, EFL Trophy matches and Football League playoffs
 * Patrick Davison-Interview for Football League Cup, EFL Trophy matches and Football League playoffs
 * Jonathan Oakes-Interviewer for Football League matches
 * David Craig-Interviewer for Football League matches
 * Luke Shanley-Interviewer for Football League matches
 * Becky Ives-Interviewer for Football League matches
 * Jeff Brazier-Interviewer for Football League matches
 * Luke Shanley-Interviewer for Division 4 & 5
 * Geraint Hughes-Interview for Wales national team matches

Sky Sports Scores


 * Jeff Sterling-Presenter
 * Darrell Currie-Stand-in presenter
 * Peter Walton-Referee analyst and also covers a Northampton Town match
 * Matt Le Tissier, Chris Kamara, Phil Thomson, Peter Crouch, Jermaine Jenas and Charlie Nicholas-Studio pundit and reporter
 * Matt Murray, Bianca Westwood, Iain Dowie, Dickie Davies, Michelle Owen, Rob Palmer, Johnny Phillips, Karen Carney, John Gwynne, Andy May, Alan McInally, ?, Paul Walsh, ?, Jonathan Beales, Bob Hall, Steve Jackson, Mike Jones, Russ Taylor, Mark Benstead, Charles Paterson, Frank Gilfeather, Andy Walker, Stuart Lovell, Davie Donaldson and John Temple-Reporter

Theme songs

 * Football League Live-"You Got The Love (New Voyager Radio Edit)" by The Source feat. Candi Staton (skip to 17:51)
 * Football League Cup Live-"Watch Me Rise" by Mikky Ekko
 * Football League Trophy-
 * Division 4 and Division 5 Live-"Be Somebody" by The Enemy