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Sky Sports is a group of 6 channels - '''Sky Sports 1''', '''Sky Sports 2''', '''Sky Sports 3''', ''' Sky Sports Xtra ''', ''' Sky Sports News ''' and ''' Sky Sports HD ''' - operated by British Sky Broadcasting , mainly for their Sky Digital platform. Sky Sports is the dominant sport network on pay-television in the United Kingdom and Republic Of 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 FA Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992. The first channel, Sky Sports (now Sky Sports 1) was launched in 1990 , as The Sports Channel, renamed '''Sky Sports''' after Sky Television 's merger with British Satellite Broadcasting . Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, and Xtra are available as an additional subscription package on top of normal Sky Digital, and the channels are available as options on nearly every cable system in the UK and Ireland. Unlike the other channels, Sky Sports News is usually provided as part of the basic package. They are mainly known for the extremely extensive Football coverage. OVERVIEW Sky Sports originally began the 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 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. In 1989 , Sky Sports had acquired the rights to '''WWF Wrestling''' (now WWE ), from America . As of late 2005, Sky have signed a new deal giving them the rights until 2010. Part of the deal states that major PPV's such as Wrestlemania would be part of the Sky Box Office subscription, and that SmackDown! would move from Sky One to Sky Sports. This, however wasn't a move favoured by many British WWE fans. However as part of the deal WWE Raw is now shown live at 2am on '''Sky Sports 3''' every Monday night. SmackDown! is shown before it is in America on Friday nights at 9pm on '''Sky Sports 3'''. Sky Sports 1 shows 6 WWE PPV's free and live a year. WWE ranks amongst the most watched Sky Sports shows, along with football and rugby league. The channel was sold as one of them major draws of the Sky system, and used the VideoCrypt encryption to fund its programming acquisition. It was the second Sky channel to be encrypted (following Sky Movies in 1990), although after the launch of the Sky Multi-Channels package in 1993, almost all Sky channels were encrypted. The channel initially aired sports such as rugby and golf in 1990, before acquiring rights to German and Italian league football in 1990. However, it wasn't until the formation of the F.A. Premier League for the 1992/1993 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 FA 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. During the 1990s , Sky Sports expanded to three channels, imaginatively named Sky Sports 1, '''Sky Sports 2''' and '''Sky Sports 3'''. Ever since Sky acquired live rights to Premier League Football, their programming has been sponsored by Ford . Their four flagship shows are Ford Monday Night Football , Ford Super Sunday , Soccer Saturday and Football Special , most of which have remained relatively unchanged in format or presenters since their foundations in the early 1990s . In 1994, the channel launched Soccer AM , a slapstick morning chat show, talking mostly about football events around the world, along with many gags in the world of soccer and the media. This show has proved highly successful, and is still airing as of today. The current presenters are Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain . It became a media phenomenon for a short period of time in the early 2000s when they lead a campaign to ''save'' a man from his non-football tolerating wife. The Save Chip! campaign was mentioned on non-Sky news channels, and even made its way into the title sequences of a number of football simulation Computer Games . It was also given notable fame for the word "bouncebackability" which was entered into the Collins Dictionary , and for the Easy Chant which has been used at football matches around the country and even the world. Sky Sports, following the success of the show had launched in 2002, Soccer AM's All Sports Show . It deals with all things sport, and is currently presented by Helen Chamberlain and Andy Goldstein. Sky Sports 3 was launched at the start of the 1996-97 Football Season, and involved many top sporting figures as well as legends to help out. The theme was ''It's about...'' with players and managers talking about key issues in their own sport. By then Sky Sports had also acquired the rights to Scottish football, and the Coca-Cola Cup, now known as the Carling Cup . UEFA Cup Fever had hit Sky in 1998, and was exclusively given the rights to the elite competition. However, the deal ended in 2001/2002 and was soon presented to Channel 5 and BBC Two , in a joint bid. Sky Sports Xtra was launched in March 1999 and was available exclusively on Sky Digital . The channel had aired Interactive Premiership Football, with a touch of a button, along with Sky Sports 1, as of that time. However, you need to press the channel if you wanted to view Interactive Football. Today the channel broadcasts include repeats from the other Sky Sports channels, along with live programming such as Spanish Football , UEFA Champions League Interactive Football , The NFL and NBA Basketball . By late 2003 , the channel had launched on NTL and Telewest , and ended 4 years exclusively on Sky Digital. Shortly after the launch of Sky Sports Xtra, on 22 August 1999 , Sky utilised a feature of then- new Sky Digital system to allow an '' Interactive '' football match to be shown. Viewers could watch the Arsenal vs Manchester United match either normally, or through Sky Digital's OpenTV implementation, which let them chose specific viewing angles, different commentary, and similar features. This concept proved popular and soon Sky used the Interactive service, Sky Sports Active , for many sports other than Football . In April 2000 , Sky launched Sky Sports News (formerly '''skysports.com TV''') , a 24-hour rolling sports news channel, which mainly focuses on football, and many other sports. It is available without a subscription to the Sky Sports package, and is also on Freeview . The channel had replaced Sky Sports Centre, a news show at 6pm devoted to the key events in the sporting world. It had famously broke the news that Kevin Keegan would resign as Newcastle United boss, with immediate effect. Sky Sports and other channels such as Cartoon Network and Sky News in June 2001, had ceased broadcasting on Analogue Satellite TV , to be available only on the digital platform. Sky Sports 2 continued the service for a couple of days and moved to Sky Sports 1's transponder. The channels still remained and informed viewers that if they wanted to continue viewing Sky Sports, they should subscribe to Sky Digital or another digital platform. During this period, a cross-branding deal ensured that a quiz version of Championship Manager would be produced with the Sky Sports name on it. Kirsty Gallagher was host of the PlayStation 2 quiz. On 24 September 2002 , BSkyB and ITV jointly won the UK rights to broadcast live matches from the UEFA Champions League . In doing so, they beat channels such as the BBC and Channel 4 , and ensured that every Champions League match could be viewed live in the United Kingdom . Under the three-year deal ITV had first choice of the two live matches on Tuesday evenings, leaving Sky Sports the remainder. On Wednesdays Sky Sports can broadcast all games exclusively live. This means they can show up to 14 live UEFA Champions League matches per week. Sky immediately incorporated interactivity to their UEFA Champions League coverage and called it 'Champions League Interactive'. This involved up to eight different games being available on eight different screens, all are now available full-screen with a full commentary team. As of 2005, Sky Sports and ITV have renewed their Champions League contract which was going to expire on 2006, but now lasting until 2009. Sky Sports also signed a new contract with the In July 2004 , Sky had purchased the horse racing channel, Attheraces from Channel 4 . Attheraces was insolvent, and despite being promoted as part of the Sky Sports line up, has failed to turn a profit, or even overtake Racing UK as the most-watched horse racing channel. Racing UK had eventually launched in Late 2004, as a major competitor to the channel. Football First , an interactive football programme was launched in August 2004 , prior to the launch of the new season. It mainly focuses on extended highlights of every Premiership match played on the day and gives the viewer a choice to see a match, interactively. In As with most of their previous exclusive deals; this has caused some controversy as the matches would no longer be available on terrestrial TV. Sky had also signed an exclusive deal with the ECB to televise the tour of India, worth around £352m. Sky Sports have also snapped up the rights for the A1 Grand Prix , a new exclusive two-year deal with the NFL and a deal with Jamie Redknapp as a regular studio guest for Sky's range of live football, in the coming months. As of March 2006 , Sky Sports has been awarded the rights to Speedway , for the next five years. SKY SPORTS HD ''For more information prior to Sky Sports HD, see Sky Sports HD '' Sky Sports have recently launched a new 'State of the Art' HD Channel, prior to the launch of BSkyB's new Sky HD package. The channel launched on 13th February 2006 , and notable to air live Barclays Premiership Football as well as Guinness Premiership Rugby. As of February 2006, It has only been launched on Sky Digital , Channel Number '''405'''. The Logo has been given a Glassy look, which would look exceptional to HD Ready TV's. The Channel was announced in August 2005 , along with a similar HD-Base to Sky One and Sky Movies . It should be ready to launch in April 2006 . SKY SPORTS PROGRAMMING Sky own 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. FOOTBALL Sky and the Premier League have an almost symbiotic relationship in that if one was to leave the other, it may not be as effective as it had been before. Since the introduction of the Premier League in 1992, the millions and then billions of pounds which Sky has brought into the game has changed English football almost beyond recognition. The innovative and excellent production of the live games which they produce has allowed the Premier League to become the most popular domestic football product across the globe. Broadcasters such as Martin Tyler , Richard Keys and Andy Gray have covered the sport since the start of the relationship between the two. Sky now shows at least three live matches over the weekend, alongside matches which are held during the working week. Even before Sky won coverage for the Premier League , they had started to broadcast matches from the FA Cup and also international matches involving the England National Football Team , something which it has continued to do, now sharing live coverage with the BBC . Following the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002, the Football League had to ask Sky to continue with its live coverage of its divisions and the League Cup . This production covers the same areas as that of the Premier League , however matches are only broadcast when there are no top division matches being played. In 2003, Sky began its coverage of the UEFA Champions League and now offers through its interactive services the opportunity of seeing all the matches being played over the two nights with the exception of the two which are shown by ITV . Premiership Coverage Crisis? BSkyB's relationship with the FA Premier League had caused a stir with the EU and eventually ended the 13-year monopoly with the elite broadcasting rights. BSkyB's current deal had allowed the company to win four of the six tiered live rights packages and the BBC with the remaining two packages. The events had left the European Commission 'unhappy' and expressed that the league has a lot of 'serious questions' to answer. Live Premiership coverage was a critical factor for the station, since the launch in 1992. The foundations of the channel was build on the coverage and allowed a dramatic growth in the number of subscribers in homes as well as pubs. The deal was reviewed by the Commission and came to a conclusion that they would threat to take legal action against the Premier League if it failed to agree new arrangements giving other broadcasters a piece of live TV coverage of matches. The EU had also believed that it would give a 'better choice and value' for terrestrial viewers. Terrestrial viewers had previously opted for the BBC's Match Of The Day as well as ITV's The Premiership. However, The Premiership hadn't proved to be a success on the channel. Since it's launch in August 2001 , continuous advert breaks at the middle of the game and scheduling changes in a month were some of the reasons for it's failure. The ratings had dropped significantly and paved the way for shows such as The Weakest Link and Dog Eat Dog to win in the ratings. Match of the Day, on the other hand had proved to be a more safer option. Following the agreement, rival bids as well as joint were launched to compete with the growing competition. NTL with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin , ITV along with Channel 4 were some of the names that launched their own bids. Irish broadcaster Setanta had announced that it would deliver a late bid, judging on the overall concept in the 'bidding wars'. However, Sky Sports had proved that it was still on top of it's game and won a majority '3 out of 6' stake in bidding. Football rights hat-trick for Sky ''BBC Sport.'' URL accessed on April 28 2006 The deal had meant that Sky will be able to televise up to 69 live matches, prior to the launch of the 2007-08 season. BSkyB can now be able to bid for two more packages and gain total control in the bidding. RUGBY LEAGUE The power of television over sport can perhaps be best portrayed by the change of Rugby League from a winter sport to one played during the summer under the banner of the Super League (Europe) . 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 had had with football. The sport is now seen as being in a healthy state with one or two live matches a week often fronted by Mike Stephenson and Eddie Hemmings . RUGBY UNION During the early 1990s, Sky began its live coverage of what is now known as the Guinness Premiership and continues to do so by showing one live match, usually on a Saturday, every week. In 2003, it began its coverage of the Heineken Cup , further cementing the broadcasters position as the pleading broadcaster of domestic Rugby in the country. In 1996, a deal between Sky and the Rugby Football Union led to the England National Rugby Union Team to be exclusively shown on Sky. Although this deal caused great controversy at the time, in which England would not appear during certain matches of the Six Nations for six years, the two have maintained their association meaning test matches involving the side appear on Sky. The broadcaster's link with international rugby union has continued with its live and exclusive coverage of the last three British And Irish Lions tours, which have largely come about due to Sky's links with Rupert Murdoch 's other television channels in the southern hemisphere. CRICKET Sky was the first broadcaster to show live coverage of an overseas tour involving the England Cricket Team on the tour to the West Indies in 1990. It has maintained this coverage with commentators such as David Gower , David Lloyd , Ian Botham , Michael Holding and Nasser Hussain . With this line-up Sky has acquired rights to more or less all of the cricket which is available, both in England and abroad. All domestic cricket is broadcast live and following the controversial agreement made in December 2004 by the England And Wales Cricket Board it now shows all international cricket. The fact that it has such a monopoly has been a source of great anger among the many cricket fans who cannot afford to subscribe. Sky have more recently signed an exclusive deal with the 2006 BOXING Following the departure of Frank Warren'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 and those fighters who do still remain on Sky, such as Ricky Hatton can often only be seen on a pay-per view service. SKY SPORTS PRESENTERS AND PUNDITS Football/Soccer
Rugby League Rugby Union Boxing Sky Sports News
Cricket
REFERENCES Books Notes EXTERNAL LINKS
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