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Sky Sports

Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and 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, and has sometimes played a large role inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the First Division to break away from the Football League to form the Premier League in 1992.

For other uses, see Sky Sport (disambiguation).

Country

United Kingdom

United Kingdom
Ireland

Sky Campus, Isleworth, London, England

2160p UHDTV
(downscaled to 16:9 1080i for the HDTV feed and 576i for the SDTV feed)

Sky Group (Comcast)

List of Sky UK channels

27 March 1990 (27 March 1990)

Eurosport (1989–1991)

The Sports Channel (1990–1991)

sky.com/tv/sports
skysports.com

Watch live
(UK and Ireland only)

Watch live (UK and Ireland only)

Watch live (UK only)

Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1, Action, Arena and Tennis are available as a premium package on top of the basic Sky package. These services are also available as premium channels on nearly every satellite, cable and IPTV broadcasting system in the United Kingdom 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 Jonathan Licht.

Country

United Kingdom

United Kingdom
Ireland

English

British Satellite Broadcasting (1990)
British Sky Broadcasting (1990-1991)

27 March 1990 (27 March 1990)

20 April 1991 (20 April 1991)

Sky Sports

Sky Sports Ashes: To coincide with the , Sky Sports 2 was renamed as Sky Sports Ashes on 30 June until 31 August 2013.[24] As well as covering the Ashes, the dedicated cricket channel also featured the Women's Ashes, domestic cricket, various magazine and review shows.[25] The practice was repeated for the 2015 Ashes series and also for the 2019 Ashes series.

2013 Ashes series

Sky Sports Ryder Cup: From 18 September to 2 October 2014, Sky rebranded Sky Sports 4 as Sky Sports Ryder Cup. The channel was dedicated to the coverage of the from Gleneagles. It repeated from 26 September to 5 October 2016 for the Ryder Cup for that year. In 2018, Sky Sports Golf was rebranded to Sky Sports Ryder Cup to bring coverage of the 2018 tournament. The channel will return on 20 September 2021 after a 4-year hiatus.

2014 Ryder Cup

Sky Sports Darts: In recent years, Sky Sports has launched Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the . The channel mixes live coverage with replays of the most recent sessions and classic moments from the tournament's history. Sky Sports Darts was first seen for the 2015 World Darts Championship as a rebrand of Sky Sports 3.[26] It returned for the 2016 event when Sky Sports F1 was temporarily renamed Sky Sports Darts instead,[27] while in 2017 it was Sky Sports 3 that was rebranded again. After this, Sky Sports Arena was rebranded as Sky Sports Darts for all subsequent events.

PDC World Darts Championship

Sky Sports World Cup: From 14 February to 29 March 2015, Sky rebranded Sky Sports 2 as Sky Sports World Cup. The channel was dedicated to the coverage of the , from Australia and New Zealand.

2015 Cricket World Cup

Sky Sports The Open: During their first live broadcast of golf's from 11 to 18 July 2016, Sky Sports 1 rebranded as Sky Sports The Open. From 17 to 24 July 2017, Sky Sports 4 was rebranded Sky Sports The Open, and would be replaced by Sky Sports 4's replacement, Sky Sports Golf.[28] Sky Sports The Open returned in 2018, 2019 and 2021 during the week in which the Open was held.

Open Championship

Sky Sports The Players: From 8 to 14 May 2017, Sky rebranded Sky Sports 4 as Sky Sports The Players. The channel was dedicated to the coverage of the . This was repeated on Sky Sports Golf for the 2018, 2019 and 2021 competitions, and also the 2020 competition prior to it being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2017 Players Championship

Sky Sports US Open: From 11 to 19 June 2018, Sky rebranded Sky Sports Golf as Sky Sports US Open, dedicated to the coverage of the golf tournament.

2018 US Open

Sky Sports USA: From 3 January to 5 February 2019, Sky Sports Action was rebranded as Sky Sports USA, with a focus on the (highlighted by the playoffs leading up to Super Bowl LIII) and National Basketball Association coverage (highlighted by the NBA Global Games series at The O2 Arena in London), as well as shoulder and archive programmes.[29][30]

National Football League

Sky Sports Cricket World Cup: From 31 May 2019 to 14 July 2019, Sky Sports Cricket was rebranded as Sky Sports Cricket World Cup. The channel was dedicated to the coverage of the in England and Wales.

2019 Cricket World Cup

Sky Sports Netball: From July 2019 to August 2019, Sky Sports Mix was rebranded as Sky Sports Netball. The channel was dedicated to coverage of the .

2019 Netball World Cup

Sky Sports NFL: In August 2020, to mark its 25th season of its broadcast rights to the , it was announced that Sky Sports Action would be rebranded annually as Sky Sports NFL, lasting from early September through the Super Bowl in February. It was stated that at least five games per-week would air on the channel, including all Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football games.[31][32] This has been repeated in subsequent years.

NFL

Sky Sports The Lions: From 17 July 2021 to 10 August 2021, Sky Sports Action was rebranded as Sky Sports The Lions. This channel was dedicated to coverage of the .

2021 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa

Sky Sports The Hundred: From 21 July 2021 to 23 August 2021, Sky Sports Cricket was rebranded as Sky Sports The Hundred. This channel was dedicated to coverage of the inaugural . This returned since the 2022 season.

2021 season of The Hundred

Sky Sports Tennis: From 28 August to 11 September 2023, Sky Sports Arena was rebranded as Sky Sports Tennis so that the channel could provide non-stop live and recorded coverage of the . The channel launch as a 24-hour channel on 11 February 2024.[33]

2023 US Open

Technological advances[edit]

Sky Sports channels in HD[edit]

Sky Sports Main Event HD launched on 22 May 2006 as Sky Sports HD, and airs live all sports screened in HD like cricket, Premier League and English Football League as well as English Premiership, Super League Rugby and among others. The 2008 Ryder Cup was also screened in HD.


In July 2006, Sky Sports HD2 launched on Sky channel 409, at the same time, the original HD channel was renamed Sky Sports HD1 and moved to channel 408, with Sky Sports News switching to channel 405. There was also a HD version of PremPlus, called PremPlus HD, which broadcast on Sky channel 483 until the football season 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 2007 season in February 2007. 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 Day games 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 broadcast a large quantity of WWE and golf.


Sky Sports HD4 launched on 29 April 2010.[38]


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. Smallworld Cable added Sky Sports HD1 and HD2 in the first quarter of 2012. UPC Ireland added Sky Sports 1 HD and 2 HD along with Sky Sports News HD on 16 August 2012.[39]


Sky Sports News HD launched on 23 August 2010. It was rebranded as Sky Sports News HQ HD on 12 August 2014 along with the standard channel.


On 1 March 2012, the HD channels were given a minor rebrand, with the 'HD' moving to the end of the channel names, for example Sky Sports 1 HD instead of Sky Sports HD1. Sky Sports F1 HD launched on 9 March 2012.[40]


Sky Sports 2 HD was also rebranded to 'Sky Sports Ashes HD' in the same move used for the standard channel on 30 June until 31 August 2013.[24] Sky Sports 4 HD was also rebranded to 'Sky Sports Ryder Cup HD' in the same move used for the standard channel on 18 September 2014 until 2 October 2014.


Sky Sports 3 HD, Sky Sports 4 HD and Sky Sports F1 HD launched on Virgin Media on 15 July 2014. Sky Sports 5 HD launched on 12 August 2014 as well as being added on Virgin Media. Sky Sports 3, 4 and 5 HD launched on Virgin Media Ireland on 15 October 2014.


On 1 January 2015, Sky Sports News HQ HD, along with Sky News HD were added on Virgin.[41][42]

Game of the Day: On-air at 8.30pm every Saturday evening with the full 90 minutes of a match selected from the day's 3.00pm kick-offs.

Premier League Replay: On-air at 10.30pm every Saturday with a choice of extended highlights of every Premier League game played that day except matches shown live on . Viewers on the Sky Digital and Virgin TV platforms can choose extended highlights of up to eight games. Viewers who do not use the interactive service will see 30 minutes of highlights from one match.

TNT Sports

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