Sky Sports News

Sky Sports News is the only BSkyB channel I have watched on a regular basis as it is available for free if you have a Freeview digital box. I do not subscribe to any of the Sky subscription packages.

==Who Owns The Company==Sky Sports News is part of the BSkyB (British Sky Broadcasting) network. BSkyB is a company that operates Sky Digital, a subscription television service that operates in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Its other ...
...it cannot be denied that Sky Sports News has been considerably successful at tapping into a gap that was clearly there in the market. It can be claimed that BSkyB, owned by Rupert Murdoch, created the market demand in the first place by purchasing the TV rights to show live premiership football (along with a number of other sports) and deny to terrestrial viewers free live TV coverage of many international matches involving British teams. Although ... more

Sky Sports News is the only BSkyB channel I have watched on a regular basis as it is available for free if you have a Freeview digital box. I do not subscribe to any of the Sky subscription packages.

Who Owns The Company

Sky Sports News is part of the BSkyB (British Sky Broadcasting) network. BSkyB is a company that operates Sky Digital, a subscription television service that operates in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Its other sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, and Xtra. Over a third of the company is owned by News Corporation, one of the world's largest media conglomerates run by the Murdoch family. In the UK News Corporation owns News International Ltd; a newspaper publisher that owns and runs a number of British newspapers; The Sun, The Times, News of the World, The Sunday Times and the Times Literary Supplement. BSkyB's acquired also owns shares in ITV.

The Channel - An Overview

Sky Sports News is a twenty-four hour TV channel that will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on the 1st October 2008. Although the channel initially drew criticism because of its unique style of presentation and one dimensional content it cannot be denied that Sky Sports News has been considerably successful at tapping into a gap that was clearly there in the market. It can be claimed that BSkyB, owned by Rupert Murdoch, created the market demand in the first place by purchasing the TV rights to show live premiership football (along with a number of other sports) and deny to terrestrial viewers free live TV coverage of many international matches involving British teams. Although it is presented as a sports news channel where a number of sports are covered, the overwhelming emphasis is on football and in particular Premier League football. Although cricket, tennis and rugby tend to get more attention during the summer months. The focus on Premier League football is perhaps not surprising given that BSkyB basically owns the brand. More live BSkyB football matches are watched from comfy armchairs than from windswept terraces. Therefore Sky Sports News can be seen as a propaganda machine that promotes its own product. It is also clearly a vehicle that promotes the other BSkyB sports subscription channels. Regular viewers may have noticed how the presenters will rarely mention or display the score of a football match it's being shown live on one of the other BSkyB channels. It's as if they're saying, "if you want to know the score you should subscribe to the full sky sports package".

Format and Presentation

As a portal for sports news information the layout of Sky Sports News on the TV screen is a highly effective one in that a lot of information is available at any one time. The only downside for some is that there is too much information at any one time which can be confusing. It's possible you will often find yourself reading the rolling text at the bottom of the screen whilst ignoring the information that the presenters are giving you.

The look of Sky Sports News sometimes appears like an online web page. There is a main presentation area enveloped by textual information. The main presentation area is where news readers present news and information in the traditional fashion with either one or two news readers reading the news. At the very bottom of the screen is a red rolling text bar or ticker containing recent sports news events. Just above this is another band in white with black text that also contains recent sports up dates. More written information is often listed down the right hand side of the screen in an information box. Here you will often find the current league table positions or the latest transfers. Also on the main presentation screen is often listed a text number so viewers can text into the show with there own opinions on current sports news events as they are presented on the channel.

For the most part Sky Sports News consists merely of newsreaders in a studio reading the latest sporting headlines. Sometimes these will be interrupted by live reports from on-the-spot reporters located at the various sporting venues. The only major departure from this general news presentation format takes place on Saturdays or other major sports days during the football season when there is a live match day analysis with four or five studio guests who comment on live football games whilst they happen. 'Soccer Saturday' or 'Soccer Special' is accompanied by a live feed at the bottom of the screen that also provides match updates and goals scored as they come in. The studio guests are able to give their own reactions to football matches they are watching. I always find it somewhat irritating though, watching someone else commentating on a football match that they are watching but which you cannot see and they only way you can see it is to subscribe to a Sky Sports package. You may as well switch the TV off and turn on the radio.

Content

Although the channel's focus is on football, one might still argue that the most popular sports in the UK - cricket, rugby, tennis, golf and boxing are given decent coverage. However, there is definitely an emphasis given to those sports that are shown live on other Sky channels with the overriding focus on Premier League football. In fact there are times when you'd think the Premier League was the only football league in the UK as the lower leagues do seem to be neglected. From time to time news about sport in other countries does come in. There is some coverage of major sporting events in the USA for example and happenings in the major European football leagues. In terms of foreign coverage, there is a general bias towards sport in the USA. This is evident when you consider that there is very little general sports news coverage of Africa or South America.

The Strengths and Weaknesses

The channels strengths lie in its capacity to provide up to the minute sporting news as it happens. It is usually the first to get breaking news events such as football club takeovers, sackings of managers or of player transfers and it usually has reporters on the spot ready to give there input live from various sporting location. However, as with all 24 hour news channels whether they be on the TV or the radio, the channel suffers when nothing much is happening. Nothing much happens a lot and during such off peak news periods all you will get is the same information regurgitated over and over again. This is often worse when a major news event has taken place. Then all you will get is the same headlines and the same interviews constantly repeated until eventually through tedious boredom you are forced to switch channels in desperation. And like other 24 hour news channels Sky Sports News falls victim to too much gossip and over-speculation. Sometimes the "news as it happens" is based on rumour and turns out not to be news at all. For example on Tuesday night (1st September 2008) for over an hour the ex-Tottenham footballer Dimitar Berbatov was on his way to Manchester City. An hour later he was on his way to Manchester Utd. Then we had the Kevin Keegan fiasco a day later: one minute he's sacked; the next minute he's staying at Newcastle. Another irritating factor about the channel can be the frequent advertising breaks. There can sometimes be four or five per hour.

The News Presenters

Unlike many other news channels or news programmes it is difficult to associate Sky Sports News with a particular group of news presenters as there are quite a lot of different faces that present the news during different periods of the day. The only exception here might be Jeff Stelling who has become a familiar face of the Saturday Football live show. Studio guests on this programme such as Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and match reporter Chris Kamara have also become regular personalities.

One clear observation about the news presenters is that the women are all young and very attractive whilst the men tend to range across the age spectrum. There are a number of middle aged male presenters but I've yet to see a middle aged woman. I suppose this is a common discriminatory factor of a lot of news channels in the UK and the USA. Another strange factor with Sky Sports News though is that amongst the young female presenters there is a definite bias towards those with blonde hair.

Alternatives to Sky Sports News

In 2007 Setanta sports teamed up with Virgin Media to create its own dedicated sports news channel, but this so far is only available to Virgin Media and Setanta subscribers. Of course sports news is available on all the major TV networks and has always been a traditional feature of terrestrial television. As a challenge to the 'Soccer Saturday', in 2004 the BBC came up with Score Interactive hosted by Ray Stubbs accessed via the red button on Freeview and also shown on terrestrial BBC1 after the second half kick-offs. The format of 'Score Interactive' is clearly very similar to that of 'Soccer Saturday', but is presented in a more relaxed atmosphere and benefits from having no advertisement breaks.

Availability

As previously mentioned Sky Sports News is available for free with Freeview boxes, but you will also find it available with many Sky Subscription packages. It is no longer available on Virgin subscription packages.

Recommendation

Sky Sports News is clearly a special interests channel: if you're not a sports fan you're not going to watch it. But even if you're a sports fanatic this is not a channel for watching all the time. There is just far too much repetition unless there is a special sporting event such as the final day of the football transfer market, which took place this week. Some may find prolonged entertainment in live football commentary shows such as 'Soccer Saturday', but you can arguably receive better sports coverage on the radio such as on Radio 5 Live. So in essence it's a channel for sports fans to dip into now and again in order to get updates on the latest sporting information whilst perhaps watching another channel. In fact the whole concept of the channel was probably designed for that purpose. However, it remains highly debatable as to whether the channel adds substantial quality to the information that viewers can receive from other sources. 

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