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

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

, 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 ...

History

Sky Sports first started broadcasting sports news bulletins when it began broadcasting 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 the autumn of 1992. Initially, they took the form of a brief ''Football Update'' before being expanded into a 30-minute programme called '' Sky Sports Centre''. These programmes were generally broadcast on weekdays at 6pm and 10pm. Sky Sports News began broadcasting internal test runs on 10 August 1998 with Mike Wedderburn and Kelly Cates launching the channel with the first edition of '' Good Morning Sports Fans''. The service became officially available to the public on 1 October, 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 English club Coventry City. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, one of Chelsea's greates ...

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

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (; born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, sports broadcaster and former player. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time and widely regarded as the greatest player in Premi ...

and

Ryan Giggs Ryan Joseph Giggs (né Wilson; born 29 November 1973) is a Welsh football coach, former player and co-owner of Salford City. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, and one of the best wingers in the history of footba ...

passing the football to each other and unveiling the Sky Sports News logo. Programmes such as ''Sky Sports Centre'' were dropped, and replaced with shows such as ''Sky Sports Now'', ''Sky Sports Today'', ''Sports Saturday'', ''Sports Sunday'', 'Through the Night'', ''News HQ at 5'', ''News HQ at 6'', ''Goals Express'', ''Today's Goals Now'' and ''Sky Sports News at Ten, with the exception of ''Good Morning Sports Fans'', '' Gillette Soccer Special'' and ''Sky Sports News at Ten'', some of these programme titles have been retired or renamed. On 20 May 2007, SSN broadcast the

Conference National The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National League (English football), National Le ...

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 level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

and

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

. 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), a ...

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

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

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 ...

on 26 May 2007 and the

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 ...

tie between Espanyol and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

in December 2007.

Virgin Media dispute

On 1 March 2007,

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 ...

removed

's basic channels including

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, ...

, Sky Two,

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

, Sky Sports News,

Sky Travel Sky Travel was a channel operated by Sky Group broadcasting travel and reality television programming. History Sky Travel launched as a weekday channel on 3 October 1994, as part of the Sky Multichannels package.It originally broadcast betwe ...

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 Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

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 The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

, 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. They reached the height of their popularity from 1996 to 1999. The band went on hiatus in 2001 and reunited in 2008. The Republica sound was described by the band as " technopop p ...

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

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

, " Surface to Air" by

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1992. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture. Originally known as The Dust Brothers, th ...

, " 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 40, Top 10 hit singles, "Deepest Blue (song), Deepest Blue" (2003) and "Give It Away (Deepest Blue song), Give It A ...

, and "

Club Foot Clubfoot is a congenital or acquired defect where one or both feet are supinated, rotated inward and plantar flexion, downward. Congenital clubfoot is the most common congenital malformation of the foot with an incidence of 1 per 1000 births. ...

" by

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

. 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 new features, overhauled graphics and a new theme. Following the rebrand of the Sky Sports channels in July 2017, the channel returned to its original name: 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 presenting a regular live Sunday afternoon sports update. Sky backed the launch of the channel with an extensive advertising campaign.

Simulcasts

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

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 ...

'' 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

and this portion of the programme is also aired on

Sky Showcase Sky Showcase is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a division of American media company Comcast. Sky Showcase was announced on 28 July 2021, along with Sky Max, as a rep ...

. 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 21st Century Fox, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian ...

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

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

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

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

s and coverage of qualifying draws for Euro tournaments. The American simulcasts were discontinued on that date as Fox Cable Networks wound down Fox Soccer's operations for the 2 September 2013 launch of FX sister channel FXX on its channel space for the launch of

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (branded on-air as FS1) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 airs an array of live sporting events, including Majo ...

and

Fox Sports 2 Fox Sports 2 (branded on-air as 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 ...

. 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 owned by 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 series). Unlike the BBC's ...

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

England cricket team 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 ...

ONE World Sports One World Sports (stylized ONE World Sports) was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television channel. Owned by One Media Corporation, which was led by Seamus O'Brien, the network was primarily devoted to international sports, i ...

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

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

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 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) ...

(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 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 ...

, 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 inde ...

''). 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 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 ...

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 v ...

in April. NBCSN began re-airing Sky Sports News from August 2020 until the network's demise on 31 December 2021. On 2 October 2023 Sky Sports News was free to air for one day only to celebrate its 25th anniversary, with a livestream of the channel available to watch on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Presenters

Current presenters

* Pete Graves * Bela Shah * Hayley McQueen * Vicky Gomersall * Mike Wedderburn * Jo Wilson * Tom White *Rob Jones *Hannah Wilkes">Rob_Jones.html" ;"title="Tom White * Tom White * David Fulton *Chris Latchem">Rob Jones">Tom White *Rob Jones *Hannah Wilkes *David Fulton (England Cricketer)">David Fulton *Chris Latchem *Simon Thomas (presenter)">Simon Thomas (presents Soccer Saturday, Soccer Special weekend editions) *Clare Tomlinson *Adam Leventhal *Ed Draper *Jasper Taylor

Former presenters

*Kate Abdo *Ally Begg *Georgie Bingham *Paul Boardman *David Bobin * Kelly Cates * Ed Chamberlin * Dave Clark * Millie Clode * Ali Douglas * Jill Douglas * Sean Fletcher * Kirsty Gallacher * Steve Gaisford * Alex Hyndman * Charlotte Jackson * David Jones * Graham Little *

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. Between 2015 and 2016, he co-presented ''Cowbo ...

Gabby Logan Gabrielle Nicole Logan (''née'' Yorath; born 24 April 1973) is a Welsh television and radio presenter, and a former rhythmic gymnast who represented Wales and Great Britain. She hosted '' Final Score'' for BBC Sport from 2009 until 2013. She h ...

* Matthew Lorenzo * Sam Matterface * Kate Mason * Rob McCaffrey * Sarah-Jane Mee * Lee McKenzie * Alex Payne * Ian Payne * Natalie Sawyer * Isha Sesay * Andy Steggall * Di Stewart * Georgie Thompson * Rachel Wyse * Charlie Webster * Jim White * Rhodri Williams * Rob Wotton * Tony Wrighton

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