Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British paid television sports news channel run by

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

, a division of Comcast.

History

Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and later this was expanded into a 30-minute programme called '' Sky Sports Centre''. These programmes were generally broadcast on weekdays at 6pm and 10pm. Sky Sports News launched on 1 October 1998, the launch date of BSkyB's Digital Satellite service, and was BSkyB's first digital only channel. On 10 April 2000, Sky Sports News relaunched as Sky Sports.com TV, to tie with the launch of the SkySports.com website. The channel scrapped its ".com TV" look, and on 1 July 2001, Sky Sports News launched another graphics change. A major part of this was the standardisation, i.e. a more corporate look across the Sky channels. The channel also scrapped its slogan and just paid attention to the fact of the news. From 2002, Sky Sports News was available free to view on digital terrestrial TV. From April 2002, Sky Sports News had another face-lift. The channel stayed in the same studio, but with a silver look replacing the old wooden bench, and there was a promise of being first for breaking news, along with much more useful information. In 2004, Sky Sports News changed its image, with a more open blue look to the channel. The titles featured players such as

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Everton. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players, and one of the greatest midfielder ...

Tim Cahill Timothy Filiga Cahill (; born 6 December 1979) is an Australian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder but also played as a striker on many occasions. A box-to-box midfielder, Cahill became recognised for "his a ...

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best player ...

and Ryan Giggs passing the football to each other and unveiling the Sky Sports News logo. Programmes such as ''Sky Sports Centre'' which was sponsored previously by Strongbow in 1996 and Ford in 1998 to 2004 - were dropped, and replaced with shows such as ''Sky Sports Now'', ''Sky Sports Today'', ''Sports Saturday'', ''Sports Sunday'', ''Good Morning Sports Fans'', ''Through the Night'', ''News HQ at 5'', ''News HQ at 6'', ''Gillette Soccer Special'', ''Goals Express'', ''Today's Goals Now'' and ''Sky Sports News at Ten''. On 20 May 2007, SSN broadcast the Conference National play-off Final between

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

and Morecambe. This was the first live match to be shown on the channel since certain European games involving British teams were shown to provide exclusivity when competing with the then operational ''OnSports'' (owned by ITV) as Sky Sports News was not available at that time via digital terrestrial platforms. This was due to all other Sky Sports channels being occupied by live sport. This enabled

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

viewers to watch a live match on Sky Sports. The station also had live coverage of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

on 26 May 2007 and the

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

tie between

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in December 2007.

Virgin Media dispute

On 1 March 2007,

Virgin Media Virgin Media 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 joint ventu ...

removed

's basic channels including Sky One,

Sky Two Sky Replay is a British pay television channel operated by Sky as a sister channel to Sky Max and Sky Witness. The current channel began broadcasting (as Sky One Mix) in December 2002. The 'Sky 2' name and format had earlier been used for a si ...

, Sky News, Sky Sports News,

Sky Travel Sky Travel was first launched on 3 October 1994 (and later in 2003 relaunched as Sky Travel Shop) and showed extensive programmes about travel, adverts for travel agencies, and documentaries, with Sky Travel Shop being the adverts for travel ag ...

and

Extra, from their Television Services after a dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB caused by the expiry of their carriage agreement and their inability to reach a new deal, after attempts were made to reach an agreement. At Midnight, Sky Sports News was removed, with its EPG slot being renamed derisively as "OLD SKY SPORTS SNOOZE" (it was removed with a public apology by Richard Branson hours later). As a direct rival to Sky Sports News, Virgin Media and Setanta Sports launched

Setanta Sports News Setanta Sports News was a television channel from Virgin Media Television and Setanta Sports. The channel launched on 29 November 2007.

on 30 November 2007. A deal was eventually reached between Virgin and Sky resulting in Sky Sports News returning to the Cable platform on 13 November 2008 on channel number 517. From 1 September 2009, the channel was made available to subscribers of the Sports Pack, in addition to being available in the News & Events Pack.

2010–present

Sky Sports News was removed from Freeview on 23 August 2010 and replaced with Sky3+1, a one-hour timeshift Sky3. Approval for the DTT change was needed from the regulator Ofcom, which told Sky and multiplex licence holder

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

that the move "would not unacceptably diminish the capacity of the services broadcast to appeal to a variety of tastes and interests." Sky claimed that the move back to pay TV allowed them to improve the channel through increased editorial investment.Bigger and better!
Sky Sports, 24 August 2010 The channel also previously used a different piece of music for each news programme, the most well-known of these being

Republica Republica are an English alternative rock band formed in 1994. The height of their popularity spanned from 1996 to 1999. The current line-up consists of Saffron (vocals), Tim Dorney (keyboards), Johnny Male (guitar), Conor Lawrence (drums). T ...

's " Ready to Go", " The Time Is Now" by

Moloko Moloko () were an Irish-English electronic music duo formed in Sheffield, England, consisting of vocalist Róisín Murphy and producer Mark Brydon. Blending elements of electronica and dance music, they are best known for their UK top 10 sin ...

, " Surface to Air" by

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat gen ...

, " Shooting Star" by

Deepest Blue Deepest Blue are a British electronic music duo comprising Matt Schwartz and Joel Edwards. They are best known for their UK Top 10 hit singles, " Deepest Blue" (2003) and " Give It Away" (2004). History Deepest Blue consists of Joel Edwa ...

, and "

Club Foot Clubfoot is a birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. Congenital clubfoot is the most common congenital malformation of the foot with an incidence of 1 per 1000 births. In approximately 50% of cases, clubfoot aff ...

" by

Kasabian Kasabian ( ) are an English rock band formed in Leicester in 1997 by lead vocalist Tom Meighan, guitarist and occasional vocalist Sergio Pizzorno, guitarist Chris Karloff, and bassist Chris Edwards. Drummer Ian Matthews joined in 2004. Karl ...

. Sky Sports News was rebranded as Sky Sports News HQ on 12 August 2014. As part of the change the channel moved to Sky channel 401. At the same time the channel introduced an updated studio including brand new features, overhauled graphics and a new theme. Following the rebrand of the Sky Sports channels in July 2017, the channel was once again renamed to its original title Sky Sports News.

Sky Sports News HD

Sky Sports News HD launched on 23 August 2010 on Sky channel 455, transferring to channel 405 several months later. The HD channel offered enhancements such as widescreen viewing and sharper graphics. A range of new programmes, such as ''First Fast Now'' and ''Sky Sports News at Seven'' were launched plus new presenters, as well as the extension of existing offerings, such as

Ed Chamberlin Edward Alan Chamberlin (born 6 February 1974) is an English sports broadcaster who has been working for ITV since January 2017. Presenting career Chamberlin was born in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. As a boy he attended Ludgrove School, where he ...

presenting a regular live Sunday afternoon sports update. Sky backed the launch of the channel with an extensive advertising campaign.

Programmes

* Good Morning Sports Fans * Soccer Saturday * Soccer Special * Soccer Sunday *Super Sunday Matchday * Goals on Sunday * Total Football * The Football Show * The Transfer Show * Transfer Talk * Good Morning Transfers

Simulcasts

A number of programmes are simulcast on other Sky Sports channels, including ''

Soccer Saturday ''Gillette Labs Soccer Saturday'' is a weekly television programme broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland during the football season. The programme updates viewers on the progress of association football games in the United ...

'' and many of the midweek ''Soccer Specials''. Also, Sky Sports News airs on Sky Sports Main Event when that channel is not showing live sport. ''Soccer Saturday'' has been simulcast on other Sky Sports channels for many years. Until the 2007/08 season most or all of the programme was broadcast on Sky Sports 1. This was cut back in August 2007 to just the live scores section of the programme i.e. between 15:00 and 17:15. Simulcasting of ''Soccer Saturday'' on Sky Sports 1 stopped altogether in August 2010 but returned to Sky Sports 1 for the 2013–14 season as part of Sky Sports 1 devoting all of Saturdays to football. The simulcast ran between 15:00 and 16:55. For the 2014–15 season the simulcasts switched to the newly launched Sky Sports 5. Since the rebranding of the Sky Sports channels in 2017, ''Soccer Saturday'' has been shown on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Football, and more recently, the 3pm to 5pm portion of the programme has also been broadcast on Sky One. Until 1 July 2013, two hours of live feed (daily at 07:00 BST, weekdays at 17:00 BST) and one hour of delayed feed (daily at 23:00 BST) were picked up by

Fox Soccer Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by Fox Corporation, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australi ...

in the United States; both Fox Soccer Channel and Sky Sports were

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

channels at the time. More hours of the channel were picked up in critical periods such as the end of

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer wi ...

s and coverage of qualifying draws for Euro tournaments. The American simulcasts were discontinued on that date as

Fox Cable Networks Fox Networks Group (FNG) is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that oversees international television assets that were acquired from 21st Century Fox. It produces and distributes more than 300 entertainment, film, sports and factual chan ...

wound down Fox Soccer's operations for the 2 September 2013 launch of FX sister channel

FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fe ...

on its channel space for the launch of

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports ...

and

Fox Sports 2 Fox Sports 2 (FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in the Century Cit ...

. Until March 2017, the only Sky output carried on American TV were darts coverage on

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary seri ...

and Sky Sports 2's coverage and related programming, such as ''The Verdict'', involving the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engl ...

on ONE World Sports. ONE World Sports closed in March 2017. Sky's English team coverage has since moved to

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

in the United States, including the pre-show and ''The Verdict''. Upon Comcast's acquisition of Sky, Sky Sports began to collaborate with the networks of its U.S. counterpart NBC Sports (which holds the U.S. media rights to the Premier League), beginning with Sky Sports News transfer window coverage being simulcast on its pay television channel NBCSN, and Sky reporters contributing to an NBCSN-produced transfer window programme hosted by its own Premier League pundits. In February 2019, it was announced that beginning 4 March 2019, an hour of programming from Sky Sports News would air daily on NBCSN at 11:00 a.m. ET (as part of a new daytime lineup resulting from its loss of rights to ''

The Dan Patrick Show ''The Dan Patrick Show'' is a syndicated radio and television sports talk show, hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by Patrick and is syndicated to radio stations by Premiere Radio Networks, within and indepe ...

''). The simulcast is dropped temporarily at times to facilitate other programming, such as the run-up to the American

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

in April. NBCSN began re-airing Sky Sports News from August 2020 until the network's demise on December 31, 2021.

Notable presenters

Current notable presenters

* David Garrido * Pete Graves * Hayley McQueen *

Nick Powell Nicholas Edward Powell (born 23 March 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or as a striker for EFL Championship club Stoke City. He began his career at Crewe Alexandra, initially as a forward, making his de ...

* Jasper Taylor * Simon Thomas * Clare Tomlinson * Mike Wedderburn * Tom White * Jo Wilson * Rob Wotton

Former presenters

Millie Clode Camilla Clode (born 1 September 1982) is an English television presenter. Since January 2006, she has worked for Sky Sports News and also providing statistical analysis on ITV's '' The Colour of Money'' in 2009. Education Clode attended St L ...

Kirsty Gallacher Kirsty Jane Gallacher (born 20 January 1976) is a Scottish television presenter and model. She began her career at Sky Sports News in 1998 and hosted '' Kirsty's Home Videos'', '' RI:SE'' and '' Simply the Best'' before returning to Sky Sports ...

Dan Lobb Daniel Jonathon Lobb (born 7 January 1972) is a British retired tennis player and television presenter, best known for co-presenting the ITV Breakfast programme '' Daybreak'' from 2010 until 2012. Since 2015, he co-presents ''Cowboy Builders'' ...

Natalie Sawyer Natalie Lorraine Sawyer (born 23 October 1979) is an English television and podcast presenter and Talksport radio presenter. Sawyer parted company with Sky Sports News in March 2018, after eighteen years of service having initially joined the ...

Sky shows Natalie Sawyer the door after 16 years
The Times, 29 March 2018 *

Georgie Thompson Georgina Jane Ainslie, Lady Ainslie (born 25 September 1977), better known as Georgie Thompson, is an English television presenter. Education Thompson was educated at Queenswood School, an independent boarding school for girls near Hatfield ...

* Rachel Gredley (née Wyse) * Charlie Webster * Jim White

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , list1 = {{Sky Ltd {{Sky Sports {{Media in the United Kingdom, television {{24 hour news channels in the United Kingdom Sky Sports 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom Fox Soccer original programming Sports television channels in the United Kingdom Sports television in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 1998