Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

company

Sky Group Sky Group Limited is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate owned by Comcast and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media co ...

(a division of

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

), 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 The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

to form the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

in 1992. Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1, Action 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 Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

and

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

broadcasting system in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Sky Sports News Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British pay television, paid television sports news channel run by Sky Group, Sky, a division of Comcast. History Sky Sports first started broadcasting sports news bulletins when it began broadcasting the Premi ...

Sky Sports Racing Sky Sports Racing (formerly At The Races) is a British pay television channel devoted primarily to horse racing. The channel is operated by ATTHERACES Limited, a joint venture between Sky Group, Arena Racing Company and various racecourses. ...

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 Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

, which it co-founded with the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

. However, in 1991, Eurosport was the subject of a complaint by the competitor

Screensport Screensport was a pan-European cable and satellite sports television network that was on air from 1984 until 1993 before merging with Eurosport. History 1984–1986: Early years Screensport was founded in 1981 by Bob Kennedy — who had start ...

, 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 TF1 Group () is a French media holding company. Its best-known property is the broadcast network TF1. The group was formed after TF1 was privatized in April 1987 in which the channel was launched back on January 6 1975 twelve years prior. It is ...

and merged with Screensport two years later.

British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided satellite television, direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company ...

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 (2 November), BSB merged with Sky Television to form

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers a ...

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 Astra 1B was the second of the Astra communications satellites launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites) to add extra capacity to the satellite television (direct broadcasting) services from 19.2° East, serving Germ ...

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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and Italian league football (both previously carried over from the Sports Channel). The channel was initially

encrypted In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plain ...

. It was broadcast free-to-view but an analogue

VideoCrypt VideoCrypt is a cryptographic, smartcard-based conditional access television encryption system that scrambles analogue pay-TV signals. It was introduced in 1989 by News Datacom and was used initially by Sky TV and subsequently by several other ...

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

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 Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

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 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 English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

, 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

, a channel carrying rolling sports news coverage, followed by Sky Sports Xtra (later branded as Sky Sports 4 since 2010, then Sky Sports Golf since 2017) in August 1999. During a Premier League match between

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

on 22 August 1999, Sky Sports launched an

interactive television Interactive television is a form of Technological convergence#Media, media convergence, adding data services to traditional television technology. It has included on-demand delivery of content, online shopping, and viewer polls. Interactive TV i ...

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 Richard Keys (born 23 April 1957) is an English sports presenter who has worked for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Talksport, Al Jazeera, Fox Sports, ESPN Star Sports and BeIN Sports; he has presented many top-level football matches. Career His ...

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 Sian Louise Massey-Ellis (née Massey; born 5 October 1985) is an English football match official who officiates generally in the role of assistant referee in the Premier League and the Football League. She has also been appointed to matches in ...

, 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 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

racing from 2012 through 2018, with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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 Sky Sports F1 is a British pay television sports channel owned by Sky Group. Part of the Sky Sports networks, it broadcasts motorsport coverage, with a particular focus on Formula One, including live coverage of all practices, qualifying sessio ...

, 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 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

(who also hold rights for all the highlights races). 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 The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

qualifiers,

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

and

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

. 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 Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

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 (with one specifically dedicated to the Premier League), 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 A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

'' 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 NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

division became a sibling of Sky Sports following

's acquisition of Sky plc and on 29 January 2019, Sky and sister American pay television network

NBCSN NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Lif ...

partnered on coverage of the

transfer deadline In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new cl ...

(

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

holds the Premier League rights in America), 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 Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply "Golf" or "NBC Golf") is an American sports television network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently ba ...

. 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.

Channels

The Sky Sports network has twelve main channels (with a thirteenth channel for

BT TV EE TV (formerly BT Vision and then BT TV until 2023) is a subscription IPTV service offered by EE; a brand of British telecommunications company BT Group. It requires the signing up to and use of the EE Broadband internet and phone service, w ...

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 The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in Women's cricket, women's international cricket series between English women's cricket team, England and Australian women's cricket team, Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the ...

, domestic cricket, various magazine and review shows. The practice was repeated for the 2015 Ashes series and also for the

2019 Ashes series The 2019 Ashes series (officially the Specsavers Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was a series of Test cricket matches played between England and Australia for The Ashes in August and September 2019. The venues were Edgbaston, Lord's, Hea ...

. * 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 PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the Paddy Power World Darts Championship is a world championship competition held annually in the sport of darts. The championship begins in December and ends in January and has ...

. 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 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

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 The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...

, from Australia and New Zealand. * Sky Sports The Open: During their first live broadcast of golf's

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. * 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 The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(highlighted by the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

leading up to

Super Bowl LIII Super Bowl LIII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2018 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Confe ...

) and

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

coverage (highlighted by the NBA Global Games series at

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as The O2, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of The O2 entertainment district on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London, England. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the third-highest seat ...

in London), 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 The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament was hosted bet ...

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

. *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 The 2019 Netball World Cup (also known as the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the INF Netball World Cup. It was held from 12–21 July 2019 at the Liverpool Arena in Liverpool, England with matches ...

. *Sky Sports NFL: In August 2020, to mark its 25th season of its broadcast rights to the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

, it was announced that Sky Sports Action would be rebranded annually as Sky Sports NFL, lasting from early September through the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

in February. It was stated that at least five games per-week would air on the channel, including all ''

Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...

'' and ''

Thursday Night Football ''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to ...

'' 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 The 2021 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa was an international rugby union tour that took place in South Africa in July and August 2021. The British & Irish Lions, a team selected from players eligible to represent England national rugb ...

. *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.

Sky Sports Racing

Sky Sports Racing is the only channel not wholly owned by Sky, although purchased majority control of it in 2017. The channel was founded in 2000 as At the Races by the Go Racing consortium, a partnership of

, Sky and Arena Leisure plc (owner of

Ascot Racecourse Ascot Racecourse is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, about 25 miles west of London. Ascot is used for thoroughbred horse racing, and it hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 races and three Grade ...

, and acting on behalf of a further 27 out of the 59 British racecourses) in July 2004. Following its high-profile collapse (and Channel 4 removing itself from the consortium) the network – now purely a joint venture between Sky plc and Arena Leisure – focuses on

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

from the United Kingdom, Ireland, North America and Germany, showing many live races and related shows. The station is "affiliated" with various

betting Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...

companies, since gamblers are generally the sport's main audience, and its pictures, provided by satellite link provider

SIS Sis or SIS may refer to: People *Michael Sis (born 1960), American Catholic bishop Places * Sis (ancient city), historical town in modern-day Turkey, served as the capital of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. * Kozan, Adana, the current name ...

, are also commercially distributed to betting shops across the country. On 1 January 2019, At the Races relaunched as Sky Sports Racing; the relaunch includes wider availability and heavier integration with the remaining Sky Sports channels, the relocation of production facilities to

Sky Campus Sky Studios (also known as Sky Campus) is the headquarters of satellite broadcaster Sky Group, Sky, and home to much of its programming output. The Isleworth campus consists of nine buildings plus ancillary structures, with three of those bui ...

in Isleworth from their former base at SIS's facilities in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

, and availability in high-definition. The network also acquired rights to fixtures from the Ascot Racecourse.

Defunct channels

PremPlus

PremPlus was a

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

channel dedicated to airing live Premier League football. It was launched on 18 August 2001, showing 40 pay-per-view Premier League matches. The main presenter on PremPlus was Marcus Buckland with former Arsenal manager

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Stroller", he made 455 appearances in England's Football League as a midfielder or forward for Aston Villa, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester Unite ...

providing punditry. The channel was called ''Premiership Plus'' from 2001 to 2004, before being shortened to the later PremPlus for the beginning of the 2004–05 season. PremPlus closed down after the last match of the 2006–07 season after

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Iris ...

obtained a third of the Premier League rights for 2007–10. This left Sky with only 92 live matches, meaning a pay-per-view service was unsustainable. An internet television service named Now TV was launched in 2012, offering a non-contract subscription to Sky Sports thus making the service a part spiritual successor to PremPlus.

Sky Sports News Radio

Sky Sports News Radio was a British online radio station broadcasting sports news, results and information 24 hours a day. It was a sister service to the television channel Sky Sports News HQ. The station was launched in June 2010 and broadcasts online and via digital platforms from the Teamtalk studios in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. It originally broadcast from 8.00am to 6.00pm, expanding to a full 24-hour schedule in August 2010 to coincide with the start of the 2010–11 football season. The station was initially only available to Sky Sports subscribers, but became free to all listeners when its sister television channel was removed from Freeview. The station can also be listened to via the Sky Sports apps and third party platforms such as TuneIn Radio and The Pure Lounge. News reports were sourced from the Sky Sports News newsroom, Sky News Radio and information was shared with SkySports.com, based in the same office. The station's managing editor was Mark Chesworth. The station closed in September 2014.

Technological advances

Sky Sports channels in HD

Sky Sports Main Event HD launched on 22 May 2006 as Sky Sports HD, and airs live all sports screened in HD like

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, Premier League and

as well as English Premiership,

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

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 Super Bowl XLI was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 2006 Indianapolis Colts season, Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 2006 Chicago Bears season, Chicag ...

marked the first NFL broadcast in HD in the UK; additional NFL games in HD have since been phased in. ''

'', ''

'', '' 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 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

's first UK HD broadcast. The channel broadcast a large quantity of WWE and golf. Sky Sports HD4 launched on 29 April 2010. 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 Smallworld Fibre (previously Smallworld Cable, Wightcable North and OMNE) was a British telecommunications company based in Irvine, North Ayrshire. Their coverage area used to be Irvine, Dreghorn, Troon, and Kilmarnock in the west of Scotlan ...

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. 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. 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. 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.

Sky 3D

Sky Sports has made a number of high-profile broadcasts available on its 3D television service. The first sports broadcast on

Sky 3D Sky 3D was a 3D television on-demand service and a former channel on the Sky platform, that launched on 3 April 2010 with the Manchester United vs Chelsea football match being broadcast to over a thousand pubs in the UK and Ireland in 3D. His ...

was the

vs. Chelsea Premier League game on 3 April 2010. But as of 25 September 2014, the future of Sky 3D looked in serious doubt as Sky announced they will not be airing a Premier League game for the 2014–15 season. The channel closed on 9 June 2015.

3D broadcasting tests

On 31 January 2010, the match between

and Manchester United was shown in 3D in around 30 pubs around the United Kingdom. The special glasses were seen being tried by

Sir Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former professional football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as the greatest manager of all time and ...

and

Arsène Wenger Arsène Charles Ernest Wenger (born 22 October 1949) is a French former association football, football Manager (association football), manager and football player, player who is currently serving as FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development. ...

, and the commentators and the studio presenters mentioned of this being a world premiere live sports 3D presentation several times.

4K UHD

On 13 August 2016, selected Sky Sports events became available to watch in

UHD UHD may refer to: Technology * Ultra-high-definition television * Ultra HD, any of several high-definition graphics display resolutions * USRP hardware driver, used with Universal Software Radio Peripherals * Ultra HD Blu-ray, an enhanced varian ...

for the first time. 124 Premier League matches were broadcast in the 2016–17 season along with every race, qualifying session and practice in the 2017 Formula One season and

England cricket The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

's Test match series against South Africa in summer 2017. Customers need to be Sky Q 2TB multiscreen customers who subscribe to Sky Sports pack in order to receive UHD broadcasts.

4K broadcasting tests

It was widely reported that Sky used the West Ham United v Stoke City Premier League game on 31 August 2013 as an internal production test for broadcasting 4K/Ultra HD picture. In the "Sky Views Blog", Barney Francis as the managing director stated that, although it was only viewed internally, the test has been key in helping Sky evaluate whether it will start broadcasting in 4K: Sky later tested 4K by broadcasting a whole week of

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

in 4K format. It was later reported that Sky would launch their own 4K set top box to broadcast sporting events in mid-end of 2015.

Permanent UHD channel

On 27 July 2022, Sky Sports launched a UHD channel for Sky Sports Main Event. In March 2023 The Sky Sports F1 UHD channel was launched in time for the start of the 2023 season. The channel is also available on Virgin Media as one channel, which usually only broadcasts when certain events, such as the Premier League, are being shown.

Programming

Sky owns exclusively United Kingdom and Ireland or rights to a number of sports, most notably the ones listed below. They also transmit a large range of other sports. Some of the BSB's Sports Channel programming were the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

, US Open tennis, and American football from the

. Many of the BSB Sports Channel's rights packages, such as those for the FA Cup, Wimbledon and Test cricket, were acquired in tandem with the BBC.

Football

Premier League

Sky Sports will show 128 live Premier League matches each season until 2024–25. These games are played on Friday nights, Saturday evenings and nights, Sundays and Monday nights, for which Sky broadcasts the dedicated programmes ''Friday Night Football'' (FNF), ''Saturday Night Football'' (SNF), '' Super Sunday'' and ''

'' (MNF). Games that Sky Sports broadcast outside these time slots have the programme title, ''Premier League Live''. David Jones is the presenter of ''Super Sunday'' and ''Monday Night Football'' and

Kelly Cates Kelly Cates (née Dalglish; born 28 September 1975) is a Scottish presenter, currently working for Sky Sports, BBC Radio 5 Live and ESPN. Early life Born in Glasgow, Kelly is the eldest of four children of former Celtic and Liverpool player a ...

is the presenter of ''Friday Night Football'' and ''Saturday Night Football''. Both presenters take it in turns to present ''Premier League Live''. The later (16:30) ''Super Sunday'' game, is usually billed as the "main event" of that Premier League matchweek. The main studio pundits include

Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit, former coach and player, and co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. As a player, Neville was a right-back and spent his entire career with Manches ...

, Jamie Carragher,

Jamie Redknapp Jamie Frank Redknapp (born 25 June 1973) is an English former professional footballer who was active from 1989 until 2005. He is a pundit at Sky Sports and an editorial sports columnist at the ''Daily Mail''. A technically skillful and creativ ...

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, former coach, and former professional player. He is best known for his career in the Premier League, in particular his captaincy of Manchester United. He is the joint most ...

Micah Richards Micah Lincoln Richards (born 24 June 1988) is an English Association football, football pundit and former professional player who played as a right-back. Richards began his senior career with Manchester City F.C., Manchester City and made 245 a ...

, Karen Carney, Daniel Sturridge,

Shay Given Séamus John James Given (born 20 April 1976) is an Irish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish goalkeepers of all time ...

and Michael Dawson. Sky Sports' lead commentators include

Peter Drury Peter Donald Drury (born 24 September 1967) is a British sports commentator who currently works for Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and NBC Sports in the United States as the lead commentator for their Premier League coverage. Drury was former ...

, Rob Hawthorne and Bill Leslie with

Ian Crocker Ian Lowell Crocker (born August 31, 1982) is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. During his career, he set world records in the 50- and 100-meter butterfly (long course and short ...

, Daniel Mann, Gary Weaver and Seb Hutchinson appearing occasionally, while co-commentary is regularly provided by Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Alan Smith, Andy Hinchcliffe and occasionally, Don Goodman and

Lee Hendrie Lee Andrew Hendrie (born 18 May 1977) is an English former professional footballer and pundit for Sky Sports. As a player, he was a midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Aston Villa where he spent fourteen years. He also play ...

. Sky Sports usually utilise a standard two-person commentary team across the Premier League coverage, however, on bigger games, a three-person commentary team of Peter Drury, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher is used. Patrick Davison, David Craig and Emma Saunders are the main reporters on the Premier League coverage. Saunders also presents from pitch-side from the ground at which the earlier game is held on Super Sunday coverage. It was announced in December 2023 that the number of matches that Sky will televise from the start of the 2025–26 season will almost double, increasing to a minimum of 215 games per season. The increase is partly due to Sky taking over the midweek rounds previously shown by Amazon and by showing all ten fixtures from the final day of the season. This arrangement will be in place until the end of the 2028/29 season.

=''Game of the Day''/''Premier League Replay''

= * ''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

TNT Sports TNT Sports is the brand name for sports television channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The name originates from the American cable television ...

. Viewers on the Sky Digital and

Virgin TV Virgin TV is a digital pay cable television service in the United Kingdom, owned by Liberty Global (50%) and Telefónica (50%) after the merger its UK businesses to form Virgin Media O2. Its origins date from NTL and Telewest, formerly t ...

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. The lead commentators that appear on ''Game of the Day'' and ''Premier League Replay'', consist of a variety of freelancers including:

, Jim Proudfoot, Joe Speight, Ian Darke, Gary Taphouse, Nigel Adderley, Mark Scott and Jonathan Beck. Whilst the co-commentators include, Tony Gale, Keith Andrews, Andy Walker,

Garry Birtles Garry Birtles (born 27 July 1956) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a forward in the Football League between the 1970s and 1990s. He is best known for his time at Nottingham Forest, during which he won the 1979 and 19 ...

, Davie Provan, Don Goodman, David Phillips,

Danny Gabbidon Daniel Leon Gabbidon (born 8 August 1979) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a defender. He played for West Bromwich Albion, Cardiff City (two spells), West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace, and Panteg. He ...

, Terry Gibson, Iain Dowie and

Efan Ekoku Efangwu Goziem Ekoku (born 8 June 1967) is a Nigerian former professional footballer, and sports commentator. As a player, he was a striker who played in the Premier League for Norwich City and Wimbledon, and in Switzerland for Grasshoppers. H ...

. These are the same feeds as

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics *IMG (file format), file that stores a complete and uncompressed copy of the contents of a storage device * IMG, a prefix for camera ima ...

use for the

Premier League Productions Premier League Productions is an IMG (company), IMG-produced company with studio shows and commentators for worldwide viewers of Premier League association football. English-language broadcast team The company has a group of UK based commentators, ...

World Feed to broadcast to international audiences. Games that air on TNT Sports, that Sky Sports show highlights clips of, across their digital and interactive platforms, feature Premier League Productions World Feed commentary.

English Football League

From the start of the 2024–25 season, Sky broadcast over 1000 matches per season, including 328

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

, 248 League One, 248 League Two, all 15 play-off, all 93

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

, all 127

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

matches respectively. This included a live stream every match of the opening weekend of the 2024/25 season live, including games scheduled for 3pm. David Prutton, Michelle Owen and Julian Warren are the presenters of the EFL coverage. Gary Weaver, Daniel Mann, David Stowell, Pien Meulensteen, Ian Crocker, Seb Hutchinson, Rob Palmer and Gary Taphouse are the main commentators. The main studio pundits and co-commentators include Andy Hinchcliffe, Keith Andrews, Don Goodman and Lee Hendrie. Freelance pundits,

Clinton Morrison Clinton Hubert Morrison (''né'' Chambers; born 14 May 1979) is a former professional footballer and sports pundit. As a player, he was a forward. He notably played in the Premier League for both Crystal Palace and Birmingham City. He also pl ...

, Jobi McAnuff and Curtis Davies also occasionally appear in the studio and in co-commentary respectively. Jonathan Oakes, David Craig and Guy Havord are the reporters. As of the 2018/2019 season, Sky gained rights to show all midweek Championship fixtures across interactive and digital platforms. This means that whilst one game is being shown on the main channel, Sky Sports Football, alternative channel, Sky Sports Action, the

red button Red button may refer to: * Red Button (digital television), a button on the remote control for certain digital television set top boxes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and used to access interactive television services **BBC Red Button, a digi ...

and the Sky Sports app shows coverage of numerous other games on at the same time, with commentary. Commentators of these games include, Guy Havord, Andy Bishop, Rob Palmer, Ian Crocker, Gary Taphouse, David Stowell and Phil Blacker with former

commentators, Kevin Keatings, Jon Driscoll and Dominic Johnson also commentating. Tony Gale, Lee Hendrie and Danny Gabbidon work as summarisers.

EFL Cup

From the 2024–25 season, Sky Sports broadcast all Carabao Cup matches. Mark Chapman is the main host of EFL Cup games. Punditry is provided by select guests associated with the clubs involved, but in the latter stages of the competition, pundits from the Premier League output are used on coverage too. Rob Hawthorne, Bill Leslie, Gary Weaver, David Stowell, Ian Crocker, Pien Meulensteen, Daniel Mann, Seb Hutchinson and Rob Palmer are the lead commentators throughout the competition with the co-commentators including, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Alan Smith, Andy Hinchcliffe, Don Goodman and Lee Hendrie. The main reporter on EFL Cup games is Guy Havord however Jonathan Oakes and David Craig are occasionally called upon to cover.

EFL Trophy

Sky Sports broadcast every EFL Trophy game since the 2024/2025 season. The same personnel that appear on Sky's EFL coverage, also appear on EFL Trophy coverage.

Scottish Professional Football League

Sky owns full exclusive live rights to the

Scottish Professional Football League The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As well ...

, showing 48 games per season. SPFL Coverage is presented by Eilidh Barbour, alongside regular studio pundits, Kris Boyd and

James McFadden James Henry McFadden (born 14 April 1983) is a Scottish football coach and former professional player who played as a forward who now works as a football pundit. McFadden started his playing career with Motherwell, where he came to prominence ...

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former association football, footballer who has since worked as a Manager (association football), manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Jo ...

and

John Hartson John Hartson (born 5 April 1975) is a Welsh former professional footballer, coach and sports television pundit for S4C, Sky Sports, Premier Sports TV and TNT Sports. As a player he was a striker, notably for Scottish club Celtic where his ti ...

also appear as non-regular studio pundits. The lead commentator on coverage is

, and he is regularly joined by co-commentator

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit, commentator and presenter of football coverage on television and radio. Sutton played from 1991 to 2007 for No ...

. If there is a SPFL double header, Gary Weaver would also appear as a lead commentator. Luke Shanley is the main match reporter or occasionally, ''

Soccer Saturday ''Gillette Labs Soccer Saturday'' is a British football-focused programme broadcast on Sky Sports. It delivers live score updates and commentary on football matches across various leagues, particularly the Premier League and English Football Le ...

'' reporter, Mark Benstead also reports.

NIFL Premiership

In February 2017, Sky Sports gained rights to show five

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

games per season until the end of the 2021/2022 season, as well as live coverage of the

Northern Ireland Football League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean Cup for sponsorship purposes, and commonly known as the Irish League Cup) is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the N ...

Final. Presentation comes from freelance presenter, Graham Little who hosts games, on-site, at the ground. Commentary comes from Northern Ireland national game reporter, Paul Gilmour.

Bundesliga

On 5 August 2021, Sky Sports acquired the rights to Germany's

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

and Supercup for the following four seasons.

Women's Super League

On 21 June 2021, Sky Sports won the live broadcast rights to the

FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

for the next three seasons through to 2024. As part of the deal, Sky Sports would broadcast 35 games per season. The presenter of the WSL on Sky Sports is

Caroline Barker Caroline Barker (born 1981) is a British sports journalist and broadcaster who works in television and radio. She currently presents mainly for BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, Sky Sports and Premier League Productions. Barker was the firs ...

, and the main studio pundits are Karen Carney and

Casey Stoney Casey Jean Stoney (born 13 May 1982) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who currently serves as the head coach of the Canada women's national soccer team. A versatile ...

. Lead commentators comes from Seb Hutchinson and

Jacqui Oatley Jacqueline Anne Oatley (born 28 December 1974) is an English broadcaster who works as a football commentator for TNT Sports UK and other broadcasters, calling games at the FIFA World Cup, Premier League, FA Women's Super League, UEFA Champions ...

alongside co-commentators Sue Smith and Siobhan Chamberlain. Lynsey Hooper is the pitchside reporter In October 2024 a new deal with Sky Sports and the BBC for the broadcast rights for the rest of the decade was announced, extending Sky Sports' coverage of the competition until 2030.

Supplementary programming

=''Soccer AM''

= Launched on 20 August 1994, ''

Soccer AM ''Soccer AM'' was a British football-based comedy talk show, produced by Sky Sports. It aired from 20 August 1994 to 27 May 2023 on Sky Showcase, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Football. From 2010, the programme was put on a short b ...

'', is a Saturday morning talk show presented by John "Fenners" Fendley and ex-footballer Jimmy Bullard, with a focus on humorous analysis of British football, largely but not exclusively based around the Premier League. The programme ended its run on 27 May 2023, the day before the end of the

2022–23 Premier League The 2022–23 Premier League was the 31st season of the Premier League and the 124th season of top-flight English football overall. Fulham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest were the three promoted clubs from the 2021–22 EFL Championship, re ...

season.

=''Soccer Saturday''

= Launched in 1992, ''Soccer Saturday'' is a live updates show, broadcast on Saturdays during the football season. The programme updates viewers on the progress of association football games in the United Kingdom on Saturday afternoons. The current host is Simon Thomas, who had replaced

Jeff Stelling Robert Jeffrey Stelling (born 18 March 1955) is an English television presenter. He presented '' Gillette Soccer Saturday'' for Sky Sports from 1994 until 2023 and hosted coverage of the Champions League between 2011 and 2015. He also present ...

at the start of the 2023–24 season. Stelling had hosted the programme since 1998. The lead studio pundit is,

Paul Merson Paul Charles Merson (born 20 March 1968) is an English former professional footballer, manager, commentator and sports television pundit for Sky Sports. Originally a forward, Merson found success as an attacking midfielder and playmaker late ...

. Other studio pundits include

Tony Cottee Antony Richard Cottee (born 11 July 1965) is an English former professional footballer and manager who now works as a television football commentator. As a player, he was a striker from 1982 until 2001, notably playing in the top flight of En ...

, Iain Dowie, Alan McInally, Matt Murray, Glen Johnson,

and Sue Smith. Regular reporters include Bianca Westwood, David Craig, Dickie Davies, Rob Palmer, Johnny Phillips,

Neil Mellor Neil Andrew Mellor (born 4 November 1982) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He began his career at Liverpool in the Premier League. He made his name in 2004 by scoring a stunning last-minute goal from long r ...

, Peter Smith, Peter Stevenson, Stuart Jarrold,

Paul Walsh Paul Anthony Walsh (born 1 October 1962) is an English former professional footballer who now works as a television pundit. A pacey and skilful forward, he scored a total of 127 goals in 521 league games in a 17-year career in the English Fo ...

, Simon Watts, Faye Carruthers, Tony Colliver, Jonathan Beales, Steve Jackson, Mike Jones, Russ Taylor, Mark Benstead, Charles Paterson, Frank Gilfeather, Andy Walker, Stuart Lovell, Davie Donaldson and John Temple. A midweek programme with the same format, fronted by Julian Warren, is also broadcast when there are a number of major games taking place, such as on

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

nights, and is called ''Soccer Special''. Warren also hosts ''Soccer Saturday'' when Thomas is unavailable.

=''Sunday Supplement''

= Launched in 1999, ''

Sunday Supplement ''Sunday Supplement'' (formerly ''Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement'') is a Sunday morning television programme in the United Kingdom about football which was broadcast between 1999 and 2020. The programme aired on Sunday mornings on Sky Sports Pr ...

'' was a Sunday morning magazine style pundit show, presented by Neil Ashton from 2012 to January 2020, when

took over until the show ceased to air in August 2020. Originally ''Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement'', but after a revamp in 2007, Hill was dropped.

=''Goals on Sunday''

= ''

Goals on Sunday ''Goals on Sunday'' is a British football discussion television programme on Sky Sports that shows highlights and analysis of the Premier League, Scottish Premiership and Football League Championship matches, broadcast between 2000 and 2020. T ...

'' was a Sunday morning highlights show, presented by Chris Kamara and Ben Shepherd. The show was axed in 2020.

Football presenters

Lead commentators

Studio pundits/co-commentators

Reporters

Cricket

Sky was the first broadcaster to show live coverage of a complete overseas tour involving

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

when they toured the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

in 1990. This was originally shown on

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

acquired the rights to show home international series involving England,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

at various times as well as showing almost every England overseas tour and ICC tournaments such as the

Cricket World Cup The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial world cup for cricket in One Day International (ODI) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is one of the world's most viewed sporting events and consid ...

Champions Trophy The ICC Champions Trophy, formerly known as the ICC Knock Out Trophy, is an international One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) contested by international men's teams. Inaugurat ...

and

T20 World Cup T20 World Cup refers to: * Men's T20 World Cup * Women's T20 World Cup {{Short pages monitor