Sky Sports


Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group, 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.
Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1, Action, Tennis and + 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.

History

1989–1991: Predecessors

Sky Television launched on 5 February 1989 and one of its four channels was Eurosport, which it co-founded with the European Broadcasting Union. However, in 1991, Eurosport was the subject of a complaint by the competitor Screensport, who argued the effect of restricting and distorting competition in the sports market and Sky pulled out of the venture. Also in the same year, it was sold to the TF1 Group and merged with Screensport two years later.
British Satellite Broadcasting operated The Sports Channel, which launched on 27 March 1990. It broadcast part-time hours, especially during the week, and it therefore timeshared with The Computer Channel, which broadcast in the early mornings when it was off-air. That same year, BSB merged with Sky Television to form British Sky Broadcasting.

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. It continued to transmit 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. The channel was initially encrypted. It was broadcast free-to-view but an analogue VideoCrypt decoder was required to watch the channel. 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 £304 million, BSkyB beat ITV to acquire the exclusive live Premier League football broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom and 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. At this point, from 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, although it initially only aired at weekends. On 1 November 1995, Sky launched a classic sports service called Sky Sports Gold, however it was ceased broadcasting after only a year on the air. On 16 August 1996, Sky launched Sky Sports 3, and soon after on 1 September the original channel was renamed to Sky Sports 1. This meant that Sky could accommodate a substantial new set of rights that it had recent acquired, which included the English Football League, the League Cup and Scottish football. 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 Xtra in August 1999.
During a Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester United 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 also expected to extend the interactive services to other sports for the following year.
On 25 January 2011, Sky Sports' Premier League football coverage was at the centre of controversy when footage emerged of long serving presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys making comments perceived as sexist where Gray was sacked over the comments, and 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.
On 29 July 2011, it was announced that Sky Sports had acquired rights to Formula One racing from 2012 through 2018, 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 service was made available at no extra charge to all Sky high-definition subscribers, regardless of whether they were a Sky Sports subscriber. Sky extended its contract from 2016 to last through 2024; beginning in 2019, Sky became the exclusive broadcaster of all F1 races excluding the British GP which will also be broadcast on the free-to-air 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 and Eredivisie.
On 24 August 2016, Sky launched Sky Sports Mix, a new channel designed to offer a shop-window of content from the full range of Sky Sports networks to those who are not subscribers. On Sky, the channel is included as a basic service with all plans, and was also available on certain Virgin Media packages.

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 cricket, Formula One, golf, and two football channels, and three channels dedicated to general sports coverage. 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 three of the channels on an a la carte basis, or the entire bundle. Sky Sports Mix continued to air selected programming from across the channels as part of 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.
The American NBC Sports division became a sibling of Sky Sports following Comcast's acquisition of Sky plc and on 29 January 2019, Sky and sister American pay television network NBCSN partnered on coverage of the transfer deadline, and the network later announced that it would add an hour-long simulcast of the Sky Sports News channel to its weekday morning line-up beginning 4 March. For the PGA Tour's 2019 Players Championship, Sky Sports Golf trialled similar synergies with its new sister Golf Channel. For the 2019–20 season, NBC began more extensive on-air integration of Sky Sports resources into its American coverage of the Premier League, including adding Sky's studio programmes to its "Premier League Pass" subscription service, adoption of on-air presentation reminiscent of Sky, and originating coverage from Sky's studio during the opening weekend.
In May 2021, Jonathan Licht became the managing director of Sky Sports.
In May 2023, Sky renewed its rights to the EFL through 2028–29 for £935 million, announcing that it planned to televise over a thousand matches per-season via linear television and streaming.
In May 2024, Sky announced "Sky Sports+", a new streaming platform that will house its expanded EFL and tennis rights, among other properties; the platform will be capable of streaming up to 100 concurrent programmes. Sky also announced that one of its channels would also be rebranded under the Sky Sports+ name. The new service launched on 8 August and the channel which was rebranded was Sky Sports Arena.
In November 2025 Sky Sports launched a new TikTok channel called Sky Halo, intended to promote women’s sport to younger audiences. Within a few days of its launch the channel was taken down following widespread criticism. Coverage in outlets including BBC News, CNN and The Guardian reported that viewers had condemned some of the content as sexist and out of touch with the way women’s sport is usually presented. Marketing Week later described the project as a failed brand launch and argued that the tone and creative execution of the channel had been badly misjudged.

Channels

The Sky Sports network has thirteen main channels :

Temporary services

Sky occasionally gives one of their channels a temporary rebrand to coincide with a sports event. Examples of this include:
  • Sky Sports Ashes: To coincide with the 2013 Ashes series, Sky Sports 2 was renamed as Sky Sports Ashes on 30 June until 31 August 2013. As well as covering the Ashes, the dedicated cricket channel also featured the Women's Ashes, domestic cricket, various magazine and review shows. The practice was repeated for the 2015 Ashes series and also for the 2019 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 2014 Ryder Cup 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.
  • Sky Sports Darts: In recent years, Sky Sports has launched Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the PDC World Darts Championship. 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. It returned for the 2016 event when Sky Sports F1 was temporarily renamed Sky Sports Darts instead, 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, until the 2025 Championship when it returned to Sky Sports F1.
  • 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 2015 Cricket World Cup, from Australia and New Zealand.
  • Sky Sports The Open: During their first live broadcast of golf's Open Championship 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. Sky Sports The Open returned in 2018, 2019 and 2021 during the week in which the Open was held.
  • 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 2017 Players Championship. 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 Coronavirus pandemic.
  • 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 2018 US Open golf tournament.
  • Sky Sports USA: From 3 January to 5 February 2019, Sky Sports Action was rebranded as Sky Sports USA, with a focus on the National Football League and National Basketball Association coverage, as well as shoulder and archive programmes.
  • 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 2019 Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.
  • 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 NFL, 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. This has been repeated in subsequent years.
  • 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. It returned again from 28 June to 2 August 2025 for the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia.
  • 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 2021 season of The Hundred. This returned since the 2022 season.
  • 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 2023 US Open. The channel was launched as a 24-hour channel on 11 February 2024.