Sky Sports News

Sky Sports News
Launched	1 October 1998
Owned by	British Sky Broadcasting
Picture format	576i (4:3 SDTV) (1998-2009) 576i (16:9 SDTV) (2010-present) 1080i (16:9 HDTV) (2010-present)
Audience share	0.7% (August 2011, BARB)
Slogan	The home of sports news
Formerly called	Sky Sports News (1998-2000, 2001-present) Sky Sports.com TV (2000-2001)
Sister channel(s)	Challenge, Pick TV, Sky1, Sky2, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky Livingit, Sky Living Loves, Sky Movies, Sky Movies Box Office, Sky News, Sky Sports
Website	www.skysports.com
Availability
Satellite
Sky	Channel 405 Channel 455 (HD customers)
Cable
Virgin Media	Channel 515
UPC Ireland	Channel 408
Smallworld Cable	Channel 405
IPTV
TalkTalk TV	Channel 550
Internet television
Sky Go	Watch live (UK & Ireland only)

Sky Sports News (SSN) is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4.

Two hours of live feed (daily at 7am BST, weekdays at 5pm BST) and one hour of delayed feed (daily at 11pm BST) are picked up by Fox Soccer Channel in the United States and Fox Sports World Canada; both FSC and Sky are News Corporation companies.

Overview

The channel focuses predominantly on football (especially during the August–May season) but reports on a wide range of sports; even sports to which Sky do not possess broadcasting rights (such as Formula One and Baseball) receive limited coverage. The programming is presented by two reporters in the studio who read the news or introduce short clips featuring highlights and interviews covering a variety of topics. Tabs at the bottom of the screen give unrelated information on a wide range of sports, while a sidebar also shows unrelated league tables or other information. The content of the main studio feed generally repeats depending on the amount of news at a given time, varying from 20 minutes to an hour.

On 20 May 2007, SSN broadcast the Conference Play Off Final between Exeter and Morecambe. This was the first live match to be shown on the channel since certain European games involving British teams were shown to provide exclusivity when competing with the then operational OnSports (owned by ITV) as Sky Sports News was not available at that time via digital terrestrial platforms. This was due to all other Sky Sports channels being occupied by live sport. This enabled Freeview viewers to watch a live match on Sky Sports. The second live game broadcast on SSN was Wales v New Zealand on 26 May 2007, it also screened the La Liga tie between Espanyol and Barcelona live in December 2007.

History

Sky Sports News viewing figures

Sky Sports News launched on 1 October 1998, the launch date of BSkyB's Digital Satellite service, and was BSkyB's first digital only channel. On 10 April 2000 SSN relaunched as Sky Sports.com TV, a move to bring it tie in to the launch of the skysports.com website. Despite criticism of the channel's style and content, Sky Sports News was a success.

Due to the main success of Sky Sports News, the Channel had soon scrapped its ".com TV" look, and on 1 July 2001, Sky Sports News launched another graphics change. A major part of this was the standardisation, i.e. a more corporate look across the Sky channels. The channel also scrapped its slogan and just paid attention to the fact of the news. This was clearly a success for Sky Sports News, and the channel continued its services to its viewers.

From April 2002, Sky Sports News launched yet another face-lift to its channel, and it was the biggest yet. The channel stayed in the same studio, but with a silver look replacing the old wooden bench, and there was a promise of being first for breaking news, along with much more useful information.

In 2004 Sky Sports News changed its image, with a more open blue look to the channel. The titles featured players such as Frank Lampard, Tim Cahill, Thierry Henry and Ryan Giggs passing the football to each other and unveiling the Sky Sports News logo. Programmes such as Ford Sports Centre were dropped, and replaced with shows such as Afternoon Report, Evening Update, Good Morning Sports Fans, Through the Night, and Sky Sports News at Ten.

The Channel also previously used a different piece of music for each news programme, the most well-known of these being Republica's "Ready to Go", "Surface to Air" by The Chemical Brothers, "Shooting Star" by Deepest Blue, and "Club Foot" by Kasabian.

Revamps

A new look for the channel was introduced at 7 am on 5 August 2007, in time for the 2007–08 football season. The revamp is part of a wider reimaging of the Sky Sports brand across all channels.

Sky Sports News – August 2007, featuring former presenter Dan Lobb

The main presentation structure was retained, including the right-hand information box displaying transfers and league table. The ticker at the bottom of the screen was also retained, however changed from white to red, with the yellow and black breaking news ticker being slightly tweaked but is largely similar to before. One of the largest changes occurred with the tocker, which has changed from blue to white, and which now has a tabbed effect showing the viewer what headlines are coming next.

Along with the changes to on-screen presentation, the revamp also included a new studio, new title sequences and a new theme tune. However, the channel did not change to a 16:9 widescreen broadcasting format, instead it remained in a 4:3 format as it was before the revamp.

All of the old music was replaced and every show used the track "Requiem for a Tower, Movement 4" by Corner Stone Cues.

On 5 August 2009, the channel received a small make-over with regards to a new music sequence and a new font used for all on-screen displays; this was despite some fans^[who?] expecting wholesale changes.

On 6 January 2010, the channel underwent another slight revamp to the logo and side graphics.

In August 2010, the channel received an updated graphics package including new titles, music, and side graphics in-line with the launch of Sky Sports News HD.

On 4 July 2011, Sky Sports News HD moved to a new studio on the Sky campus and with that came a minor change to on-screen graphics and side graphics.

HD channel

Sky Sports News HD launched on 23 August 2010 on Sky channel 455, transferring to channel 405 several months later. ^[1] The channel offers enhancements such as widescreen viewing and sharper graphics. A range of new programmes, such as First Fast Now and Sky Sports News At Seven, plus new presenters, are available, as well as the extension of existing offerings, such as Ed Chamberlin presenting a regular live Sunday afternoon sports update.^[2] Sky backed the launch of the channel with an extensive advertising campaign, including an advert featuring its current presenters, stressing that the new channel would make it the first sports broadcaster to have five high definition channels.^[3]

Discrepancy between Sky and Freeview

From 2002, Sky Sports News was available free to view on digital terrestrial TV. On Sky's digital satellite service, the channel was made available to the Sports Pack from 1 September 2009, in addition to being available in the News & Events Pack.^[4]

Sky Sports News was removed from Freeview on 23 August 2010 and replaced with Sky3+1, a one hour timeshift Sky3.^[5][6][7] Approval for the DTT change was needed from the regulator Ofcom, which told Sky and multiplex licence holder Arqiva that the move “would not unacceptably diminish the capacity of the services broadcast to appeal to a variety of tastes and interests”.^[8]

Sky claims that the move back to pay TV allows Sky to improve the channel through increased editoral investment.^[9]

Virgin Media dispute

On 1 March 2007, Virgin Media removed Sky's basic channels including Sky One, Sky Two, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra, from their Television Services after a dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB caused by the expiry of their carriage agreement and their inability to reach a new deal,^[10] after attempts were made to reach an agreement. At Midnight, Sky Sports News was removed, and the name of the station in the electronic programming guide was changed to "OLD SKY SPORTS SNOOZE". As a direct rival to Sky Sports News, Virgin Media and Setanta Sports launched Setanta Sports News on 30 November 2007.

A deal was eventually reached between Virgin and Sky resulting in Sky Sports News returning to the Cable platform on 13 November 2008 on channel number 517.^[11]

Sky Sports News Radio

In June 2010, Sky launched Sky Sports News Radio. Billed as "the World's only 24 hour sports news radio channel", the station broadcasts from Teamtalk studios in Leeds^{[citation needed]} and is available online.^[12] The station initially broadcast live from 0800 to 1800 and will expand to a 24/7 operation on 23 August 2010.^{[citation needed]} Content and audio is sourced from the Sky Sports News television channel, Teamtalk's Sportslive Radio online horse racing service and Sky News Radio's IRN radio news service.^{[citation needed]}

A number of programmes are simulcast on Sky Sports 1, including the 6am to 9am portion of breakfast news programme Good Morning Sports Fans, between 7pm and 7.30pm and the midweek Gillette Soccer Specials. Soccer Saturday also used to be simulcast on Sky Sports. However, this was cut back in August 2007 to just the live scores section of the programme ie between 3pm to 5.15pm. Simulcasting of Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports 1 stopped altogether at the start of the 2010/11 football season.

Current presenters

David Bobin Rachel Brookes Ed Chamberlin (Premier League) Millie Clode John Davies Sean Fletcher David Garrido Kirsty Gallacher Olivia Godfrey Vicky Gomersall Pete Graves Alex Hammond

Charlotte Jackson David Jones (Freelance) Adam Leventhal Graham Little Hayley McQueen Alex Payne Natalie Sawyer Jeff Stelling (Presents Soccer Saturday, Soccer Special weekend editions) Simon Thomas Georgie Thompson

Clare Tomlinson Julian Warren (Presents Soccer Special midweek editions) Julian Waters Charlie Webster Mike Wedderburn Jim White Tom White Tony Wrighton (Freelance) Rob Wotton Rachel Wyse

References

1. ^ "Programme Information Highlights". Sky Programme Information. http://www.skyprogrammeinformation.co.uk/download/Week%2034%20Sky%20Highlights.pdf#page=23. Retrieved 6 August 2010. 
2. ^ "Sky Sports News HD to launch on August 23". Digital Spy. 20 July 2010. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news/a246475/sky-sports-news-hd-to-launch-on-august-23.html. 
3. ^ Sky Sports News HD Advert - Reporting for Duty YouTube
4. ^ "Sky Sports News to join the sports pack". Digital Spy. 30 July 2009. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news/a168300/sky-sports-news-to-join-the-sports-pack.html. 
5. ^ "Sky Sports News to get bigger and better as a pay TV channel". British Sky Broadcasting. 17 June 2010. http://corporate.sky.com/page.aspx?pointerid=31fb93be272445fc96f0d9a59fb39145. 
6. ^ "Sky Sports News to go subscription-only". Media Week. 17 June 2010. http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/News/MostRead/1010688/Sky-Sports-News-go-subscription-only/. 
7. ^ "Sky Sports news to be replaced by Sky3+1 on Freeview". UK Free TV. 17 June 2010. http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051688. 
8. ^ "Sky Sports News to move to pay". Broadband TV News. 17 June 2010. http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2010/06/17/sky-sports-news-to-move-to-pay/. 
9. ^ Bigger and better! Sky Sports, 24 August 2010
10. ^ Sky One, Sky News pulled from Virgin Digital Spy, 1 March 2007
11. ^ Sky1, Sky News back on Virgin cable Digital Spy, 4 November 2008
12. ^ Sky Sports News Radio

External links

• Sky Sports