Sky Sports

Infobox TV channel
name = Sky Sports
logofile = Skysportslogoaug07.png logosize = 250px
logoalt = Sky Sports Logo from August 2007
launch = 25 March, 1990
share = 0.8%
(Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 & Xtra)
share as of = February 2008
share source = [http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/monthreports.cfm?report=monthgmulti&requesttimeout=500]
picture format = 576i (SDTV 16:9, 4:3),
1080i (HDTV)
owner = BSkyB| March Industries
former names = The Sports Channel (1990-1991)
web = [http://www.skysports.com www.skysports.com]
terr serv 1 = Freeview
terr chan 1 = Channel 83 (Sky Sports News)
sat serv 1 = Sky Digital
sat chan 1 = Channels 401-405, 408-409, 450
cable serv 1 = Virgin Media
cable chan 1 = Channels 511-513, 516
cable serv 3 = UPC Ireland
(ex NTL Ireland)
cable chan 3 = Channels 402-405 and 408
cable serv 4 = UPC Ireland
(ex Chorus Digital)
cable chan 4 = Channels 60-62
adsl serv 1 = Tiscali TV
adsl chan 1 = Channels 551-554| Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels. 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 football coverage, due to this it suffers a loss of viewers in the summer when no football is played.

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. 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 formation of the FA 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 for the first time in its history.

In 1995, 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 Max Rushden and Helen Chamberlain. (Goldstein replacing former presenter Tim Lovejoy just before the start of the 2007-08 season, and then Max Rushden replacing former presenter Andy Goldstein just before the start of the 2008-09 season.) 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. Following the success of the show a spin-off show launched in 2002, Soccer AM's All-Sports Show. The show dealt with all sports, and was also presented by Andy Goldstein and Helen Chamberlain . However in 2007 when presenter Tim Lovejoy left Soccer AM to continue his career elsewhere this left the future of the All-Sports Show in doubt as Andy Goldstein took over the vacant Soccer AM position. It was then confirmed just before the start of the 2007-08 season that the All-Sports show would not be returning along with its sister brand as neither Andy Goldstien nor Helen Chamberlain agreed to present both shows each week.

More Sports Channels

Sky launched its second sport-dedicated channel, "Sky Sports 2" in August of 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. Prior to 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.

ky Digital (1998 - present)

October 1998 saw BSkyB launch Sky Digital. 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 [Sky Sports Active is the third most popular reason for people to join Sky; Independent Article, June 2001 ] 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 version of Championship Manager 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. [ [http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1374223,00.html Channel 4 Test coverage bowled out by Sky and Five] "Guardian Unlimited". URL accessed on December 15, 2004] 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, worth around £352m.

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 is expanding its range of high profile live events, for example offering 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 remains the market leader by a wide margin.

In 2007 Sky secured a licence for 'Sky Sports 4' from TV regulator Ofcom which is planned to launch in 2008 to cater for the demand of live sporting rights Sky have.

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 to 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 February 13 2006, and currently airs live cricket, Premier League and Football League, and Guinness Premiership Rugby. Sky has also announced that this year's Ryder Cup will be televised 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.

It has been announced that the new season of the rugby Super League will be broadcast in HD from the start of the season in February. 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 will be shown in HD from 2008. [http://www.nfluk.com/news-display.php?id=3139]

Sky Sports HD 3 launched on March 17, to conside with World Wrestling Entertainment's first UK HD broadcast. The new channel will broadcast European Tour Golf in HD (along with any other golf Sky have the rights to).

ky Sports News

Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel operated by Sky Sports. Sky Sports News launched on the 1 October 1998, with Sky Digital becoming BSkyB's first digital only channel. On 10 April 2000, Sky Sports News relaunched as "Sky Sports.com TV", a move to bring it tie in to the launch of the skysports.com website. However, the name was soon reverted back to Sky Sports News.

The channel replaced Sky Sports Centre, a news show at 6pm, devoted to the key events in the sporting world. The show famously broke the news that Kevin Keegan would resign as Newcastle United boss, with immediate effect.

Presenters on the channel include Ian Payne, Simon Thomas and Georgie Thompson.

On 5 August, 2007 the channel was "refreshed" in line with the Sky Sports new look.

At the Races

At The Races was originally founded by the Go Racing consortium, a partnership of Channel 4, British Sky Broadcasting, and Arena Leisure plc (owner of Ascot Racecourse, and acting on behalf of a further 27 out of the 59 UK racecourses) in July 2004. Following its high profile collapse (and Channel 4 removing itself from the consortium) the station - now purely a joint venture between BSkyB and Arena Leisure - focuses on horse racing from the UK, Ireland, North America and Germany, showing many live races and related shows. The station is "affiliated" with various betting companies, since gamblers are generally the sports main audience, and its pictures, provided by satellite link provider SIS, are also commercially distributed to betting shops across the country.

PremPlus

PremPlus was a pay-per-view channel dedicated to airing live Premiership Football. PremPlus launched on 18 August 2001, showing 40 pay-per-view matches from the English Premier League. The main presenter on PremPlus was Marcus Buckland with former Arsenal manager George Graham, providing punditry.

The channel was called "Premiership Plus" from 2001 to 2004, before being shortened to the current PremPlus for the beginning of the 2004-05 season.

PremPlus closed down after the last match of the 2006-07 season, because the Premiership's 2007-10 rights offer did not include a pay per view package.

ky 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 Sports signed an exclusive deal with Ford in 2001 [BSkyB Press Release: [http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104016&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=186436&highlight= Sky Sports and Ford Announce Premier League Sponsorship] "BSkyB" URL accessed on June 22, 2001]

Premier League

Live Premier League coverage has been a critical factor of the success of Sky Sports. The foundations of Sky Sports have been built on the coverage and allowed a dramatic growth in the number of subscribers in homes as well as pubs.

Sky has had rights to the Premier League since 1992 when the Division One clubs broke off from the Football League to form the Premier League. The first live Premier League game televised was Nottingham Forest's 1-0 win over Liverpool in August 1992. The millions and then billions of pounds which Sky has brought into the game has changed English football almost beyond recognition [ [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2103875,00.html Murdoch: How I changed football] Mediaguardian] ] . Sky Sports have introduced many new features into coverage of the game since 1992 including the initially-controversial permanent digital on-screen graphic scoreboard, an idea that was subsequently copied by American sports (now known as a score bug) and by other British sport producers. [ [http://business.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=807&id=723292007 Looking back to Sky's first live game] Scotsman.com]

BSkyB's relationship with the "FA Premier League" had caused a stir with the EU, which eventually intervened and ended Sky's 13-year monopoly of live broadcasting rights. BSkyB's current deal allowed the company to win four of the six tiered live rights packages and left the BBC with the two highlights packages. These events left the European Commission 'unhappy' and representatives of the Commission expressed views that the league had a lot of 'serious questions' to answer.

The deal was reviewed by the Commission, who came to the conclusion that they would threaten to take legal action against the Premier League if it failed to agree new arrangements giving other broadcasters a share of live TV coverage of matches. The EU believed that it would give 'better choice and value' for viewers.

Following the agreement, rival bids were launched. NTL and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin, ITV and Channel 4 were some of the big names that launched their own bids. Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports also declared that it would make a bid, depending on the overall concepts in the 'bidding wars'.

Sky Sports won the rights to four out of the six available live rights packages for the 2007/08 season and beyond, with another Pay TV company, Setanta Sports winning the remaining two. Despite losing two of the packages, the broadcaster will show even more live matches from the 2007/08 season, making better use of the matches available to it. Sky Sports' flagship football show, Super Sunday is not affected by the loss of packages, but Sky Sports closed its PPV channel Prem Plus at the end of the 2006-07 season.

The four main commentators are Martin Tyler, Rob Hawthorne, Alan Parry and Ian Darke. These commentators will work along Andy Gray for Saturday and Sunday matches. If there are two matches on Sunday live Gray will do the 4pm with Alan Smith getting the earlier kick-off. One of the main shows where viewers get their say is You're on Sky Sports hosted by Jeff Shreeves and Chloe Everton.

Football League

Following the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002, the Football League reformed a connection with Sky to show live coverage of its divisions and the League Cup. The contract, worth around £250 million, ran until 2007. From 2007, ITV Sport have rights to show highlights from the Football League and the League Cup. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4079956.stm League agrees improved TV deals] "BBC Sport." URL accessed on June 10, 2005] Bill Leslie commentates mainly as does Ian Darke. The two main co-commentators are Garry Birtles and Don Goodman.

Conference National

Sky has also screened live matches from the Nationwide Conference, the top tier of Non League Football, in some seasons. From 2007/08 season however Setanta Sports has won comprehensive live broadcast rights for the Conference, now renamed the Blue Square Premier.

UEFA Champions League

In 2003, BSkyB won joint rights to coverage of the UEFA Champions League with ITV, who had previously held exclusive rights with all matches shown on their channels only. ITV got first choice of 2 matches on Tuesdays, with Sky taking the remaining six (with coverage of any Scottish teams' games being shared with STV) and all eight matches on a Wednesday. Matches that are not shown on one of the Sky Sports channels are usually available through the interactive service. In 2005, Sky Sports and ITV renewed their Champions League contract up until 2009. Currently, any one British club match being played on a Wednesday is shown on non-premium channels Sky1 and Sky1 HD. Sky Sports recently extended their Champions League contract till 2012. [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a91792/sky-wins-best-part-of-champions-league-rights.html] .

FA Cup

In a joint deal with the BBC, Sky Sports secured the rights to the FA Cup in June 2000. [ [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds830.html BSkyB and BBC get FA Cup rights] "Digital Spy" URL accessed on June 16, 2000] Under the three-year deal, Sky won live and interactive coverage to the competition, which previously was occupied by ITV. The channel on the other hand, did not have the choice of first pick of games. ITV and Setanta Sports took over coverage in the 2008-9 season.

Internationals

Currently, Sky Sports holds the rights to every home Live Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales International, whilst sharing coverage of away ties with the respective BBC Nations. Republic of Ireland matches are also shown and coverage is shared with RTÉ. Sky Sports have also shown some of England's home and away Internationals live in the past; Setanta Sport and ITV now hold those rights.

Spanish La Liga

Sky Sports also show live matches from the Spanish La Liga on Saturday and Sunday nights. They also show a review show called "Revista de La Liga" on Tuesdays. The Spanish Football is fronted by Mark Bolton, along with Guillem Balague.

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 months under the banner of the Super League. 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 has had with football. The sport is now seen as being in a healthy state with two or three live matches from the Super League every week fronted by 'Eddie and Stevo' - Eddie Hemmings and former Great Britain World Cup winner Mike Stephenson - who are a rare example of a dual studio-presentation and commentary-box partnership in sports broadcasting. They are joined by Phil Clarke in both the studio and on commentary, Bill Arthur, the pitch-side reporter, and a guest (generally a coach or a former player). Barrie McDermott, Terry O'Connor or Shaun McRae often occupy the guest position. Live Super League broadcasts routinely rank amongst the top 10 most watched programmes in a week on Sky Sports regularly. Sky has sold rights to a highlights package of the Super League to BBC Sport.

Sky also hold the rights to show the Rugby League Tri-Nations live, whilst highlights are shown on BBC Sport. Sky also announced in 2007 that they had bought the rights to televise National League matches midweek. Australia and NZ's National Rugby League (NRL) competition was shown until 2005-06 season when Setanta Sports outbid Sky for the rights, despite the NRL being half owned by News Corp.

Sky Sports will show the 2008 World Cup exclusively live. [ [http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11979_2794082,00.html World Cup deal for Sky] ]

Sky Sports' shows a weekly rugby league magazine show, "Boots 'N' All", during the season.

Rugby union

Sky began its live coverage of what is now known as the Guinness Premiership on the 10 September 1994 with the match between Bath Rugby and Bristol Rugby 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, outbidding previous rights holder BBC Sport with its offer of £20 million for 3 years., showing usually 6 matches each pool weekend as well as all knockout matches. [ [http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/5018_2923.php ERC Rugby: Sky Sports 3-Year Deal] ] For the first time in 2006, Sky Sports will hold exclusive rights to live Heineken Cup rugby in the UK and ROI, with RTÉ only able to show tape-delayed coverage and S4C able to show only highlights. Sky Sports will start to broadcast games from the European Challenge Cup from the season 2007/08, with one game every week.

Sky Sports has also had exclusive UK rights for live coverage of the last three British and Irish Lions tours. This is partly because of Sky's links with News Corporation television channels in the southern hemisphere. Sky's links with News Corporation, also allows them to show live matches from the Super 14 competition.

Sky Sports rugby coverage is presented by Simon Lazenby and Dewi Morris, with commentary for internationals and Guinness Premiership from Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes. Sky will often take the host broadcasters commentary for Super 14 and Tri-Nations, with commentators including Hugh Bladen, Murray Mexted and Tony Johnson (Sky in NZ). The feed from Fox Sports in Australia usually involves Phil Kearns, Greg Martin and Greg Clark.

Darts

Since the creation of the Professional Darts Corporation by 16 dart players, such as Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Jocky Wilson, Dennis Priestley and 11 more players in 1992, Sky Sports has broadcast live these PDC Darts Tournaments:

*PDC World Darts Championship
*Premier League Darts
*UK Open
*World Matchplay
*World Grand Prix
*Las Vegas Desert Classic

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 and statisticians such as David Lloyd, Ian Botham, Nasser Hussain, David Gower andMichael Atherton. With this line-up Sky has acquired most of the cricket rights which are available, both in England and abroad. Sky has the live rights to all English domestic cricket and, following the controversial agreement made in December 2004 with the England and Wales Cricket Board, it has the rights to live coverage of all England internationals.

Currently, Sky have a team of Ian Botham, David Gower, David Lloyd, Paul Allott, Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton, Michael Holding, Bob Willis and Nick Knight covering live England internationals at home and abroad. Bob Willis is the only one of the team to have been there since the start in 1990 with live coverage from the West Indies - along with presenter Charles Colville who presents live matches. Willis has his critics, but many believe he is Sky's greatest asset for cricket coverage, his outspoken commentaries going down well with viewers. Mark Nicholas, former Channel Four presenter, Channel Nine anchorman and Cricket on Five commentator started his TV career with Sky Sports in 1996.

Sky also has contracts with the cricket boards of South Africa, Australia, West Indies and India showing Tests and ODIs in these counties, often exclusively live. Often, these live feeds are taken from broadcasters such as Channel Nine in Australia, and Supersport in South Africa, meaning the likes of Richie Benaud, Mark Nicholas, Ian Chappell, Tony Greig, Robin Jackman, Bill Lawry, Ian Healy, Simon O'Donnel, Mark Taylor and Michael Slater are heard every winter on Sky.

Every World Cup since 1992 has been shown live by Sky - held in Australia/NZ in 1992, India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka in 1996, England in 1999, South Africa in 2003 and the West Indies in 2007. The 2011 tournament in the sub-continent is also live on Sky.

Sky also signed an exclusive deal with the BCCI to televise the tour of India, worth around £352m.

Sky have followed England live on every overseas England Test tour since 1990 - here is the full list of England tours shown on Sky:

West Indies - 1990Australia - 1990/91New Zealand - 1991/92India and Sri Lanka - 1992/93West Indies - 1994Australia - 1994/95South Africa - 1995/96 (first England tour to SA post-apartheid)Zimbabwe and New Zealand - 1996/7West Indies - 1998Australia - 1998/99South Africa - 1999/2000Pakistan and Sri Lanka - 2000/01India and New Zealand - 2001/02Australia - 2002/03Sri Lanka and West Indies - 2003/04South Africa - 2004/05Pakistan and India - 2005/06Australia - 2006/07Sri Lanka and New Zealand - 2007/08

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 as well as the remainder of Britain's top fighters including Ricky Hatton. Some of the channels top fights are shown on the Pay-Per-View channel Sky Box Office instead of Sky Sports. Presenters and commentators for Sky Sports' coverage include Dave Clark, Wayne McCullough and Johnny Nelson.

WWE

In 1989, Sky Sports acquired the rights to WWF Wrestling (now World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE), from America. Sky Sports 3 is considered the home of WWE programming on Sky, as the majority of the programs are shown on it.

Part of the current deal with Sky states that major PPV's such as WrestleMania would be part of the Sky Box Office pay-per-view service, and that "SmackDown!'s" first broadcast would move from Sky One to Sky Sports. As part of the deal, "RAW" is now shown live on Sky Sports 3 early Tuesday morning because of the time difference. "SmackDown!" is broadcast in Britain before it is aired in America: on Friday nights. Sky Sports 1 shows 6 WWE PPV's live a year.

Sky also broadcasts WWE's third brand, "Extreme Championship Wrestling". For a couple of months it replaced "WWE Velocity" on Sunday mornings. It is now shown two nights after the US broadcast after a viewer complained to Ofcom in August 2006 about an image in the opening credits, and Sky agreed to air the program after the watershed.

The deal of 14 Pay-Per-Views did not account for WWE's extra pay-per-views which have been added subsequently, and therefore WWE Cyber Sunday would not have been picked up by Sky. However, a last-minute deal was struck between Sky and WWE, that allowed the PPV to be shown live on Sky Sports 1. [ [http://www.skysports.com/skysports/article/0,,17-1239330,00.html Sky to show 2 major WWE PPV's on "Sky Sports." URL accessed on November 12006]

Numerous people dub WWE on Sky Sports as the "uncensored" version of the sport, as many wardrobe malfunctions and mistakes are left uncensored.

The first WWE event to be shown in wide-screen (16:9) format on Sky Sports was No Way Out 2008 on Monday 18th February 2008 at 1am on Sky Sports 1. Although after this, other WWE programming were still in standard (4:3) format however due to complaints all WWE programming will now be airing in Wide-screen from a down-scaled HD feed.

When WWE Heat ended in June 2008 it was replaced with WWE Vintage Collection, a programme which showcases classic archive matches from the extensive WWE Video Library.

Motor Racing

Sky Sports also broadcasts major motorsport events. This includes:
* A1 Grand Prix - In addition, Sky Sports had their logo branded on the A1 Team Great Britain car during the 2005-06 season.
* Indy Racing League (including the Indianapolis 500)
* British Superbikes (Highlights)
* Speedway
** Elite League Speedway
** Speedway World Cup
** Speedway Grand Prix
* NASCAR Sprint Cup

National Football League

Sky Sports also broadcasts a variety of live NFL games and NFL Network programming. For the 2007 and 2008 seasons this comprises live coverage of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game and five other Preseason games, 125 Regular Season games, including Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football and NFL Network's Run to the Playoffs. The package also includes the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl, plus the Pro Bowl. Sky shares coverage of the Sunday and Monday night games, as well as the playoffs, with terrestrial broadcasters Five and the BBC.

The complementary coverage from NFL Network includes:
* NFL Total Access
* America's Game
* Playbook
* Who is?
* NFL Draft
* NFL Gameday

The main studio presenters for Sky's live NFL coverage are Kevin Cadle and Nick Halling. Regular in-studio pundits include former New England Patriots wide receiver Scott McCready, former Chicago Bears safety Shaun Gayle and former New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals Tackle Ian Allen. [ [http://www.nfluk.com/news-display.php?id=2517 Sky confirms NFL programming] from "nfluk.com", accessed on 5 September 2007] Booth commentary is taken from the original U.S. feed.

Rivals

Sky Sports have a number of rivals such as the sport services provided by the BBC, ITV and Setanta Sports.

References

External links

* [http://www.sky.com/sports Sky Sports] at sky.com
* [http://www.skysports.ie Irish tailored version of the Sky Sports website]
* [http://www.radiofeeds.co.uk/wide Pub Widescreen Campaign] encourages and educates British pubs in how to show Sky Sports in true widescreen.

News Articles

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4953846.stm Football rights hat-trick for Sky]
* [http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/index?region=global&news_item_id=159504 Sky Sports Boost for Speedway]
* [http://www.secondsout.com/UK/news.cfm?ccs=228&cs=18924 Sky Sports snub sees three Brits get stripped of titles]
* [http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/media/article/541184/sky-sports-drafts-flintoff-cricket-coverage-promotion/ Sky Sports drafts in Flintoff for cricket coverage promotion]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4156138.stm EU tackles Premier League TV deals]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4459868.stm Sky unveils high-definition shows]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2187382.stm ITV and Sky rapped over World Cup]