SKY SPORTS NEWS

'Sky Sports News' (SSN) is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports ''1'', ''2'', ''3'', and ''Xtra'', as well as ''Sky Sports HD1'' and ''HD2''.
One hour of live feed (weekdays at 5pm BST) and one hour of delayed feed (daily at 11pm BST) are picked up Fox Soccer Channel in the United States and Fox Sports World Canada; both FSC and Sky are News Corporation companies, and the company has a minority stake in FSW Canada.

Contents

Overview

2007 Revamp

Current Presenters

Former Presenters

Reporters

Music

Virgin Media Dispute

References

External links

Overview

Sky Sports News launched on the 1st of October 1998, the launch date of BSkyB's Digital Satellite service, and was BSkyB's first digital only channel. On April 10th 2000 SSN relaunched as 'Sky Sports.com TV', a move to bring it tie in to the launch of the skysports.com website. Despite criticism of the channel's style and content Sky Sports News was a success.

Due to the main success of Sky Sports News, the Channel had soon scrapped it's ".com TV" look, and on the 1st 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. This was clearly a success for Sky Sports News, and the channel continued its services to its viewers.
From April 2002, Sky Sports News launched yet another face-lift to its channel, and it was the biggest yet. 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 features players such as Frank Lampard, Tim Cahill, Thierry Henry and Ryan Giggs pass the football to each other and unveil the Sky Sports News Logo. Programmes such as "Ford Sports Centre" were dropped, and replaced with shows such as Afternoon Report, Evening Update, Good Morning Sports Fans, Through the Night, and Sky Sports News at Ten.
The Channel also has a different piece of Music for each news programme, rather than keeping just one music piece, the most well-known of these being Republica's "Ready to Go" and "Shooting Star" by Deepest Blue.
In terms of focus, the channel predominantly centres on football almost constantly. Other sports only tend to be given airtime if they are featured on Sky Sports.
On 20 May 2007, SSN broadcast the Conference Play Off Final between Exeter and Morecambe. This was the first live match to be shown on the channel since certain European games involving British teams where 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 viewers to watch a live match on Sky Sports. The second live game broadcast on SSN was Wales v New Zealand on 26 May 2007.

2007 Revamp

A new look for the channel was introduced at 7am on 5 August 2007, in time for the new football season. The revamp is part of a wider reimaging of the Sky Sports brand across all channels.

The main presentation structure was retained, including the right hand information box displaying transfers and league table. The ticker at the bottom of the screen was also retained, however changed from white to red, with the yellow and black breaking news ticker being slightly tweaked but is largely similar to before. One of the largest changes occurred with the headline ticker, which has changed from blue to white, and which now has a tabbed effect showing the viewer what headlines are coming next.
Along with the changes to on-screen presentation, the revamp also included a new studio, new title sequences and a new theme tune. However, the channel did not change to a 16:9 Widescreen broadcasting format, instead it remained in a 4:3 format as it was before the revamp.
All of the old music has now been replaced and now every show uses the music Requiem for a Dream by Clint Mansell.

Current Presenters

★ Alison Bender

★ Paul Boardman

★ David Bobin

★ Mike Cattermole (also a regular host on At The Races and Channel 4 Racing)

★ Dave Clark

★ Millie Clode

★ Ed Chamberlin

★ Vicky Gomersall

★ Alex Hyndman

★ David Jones

★ Bill Leslie

★ Dan Lobb

★ Lee McKenzie

★ Sam Matterface

★ Alex Payne

★ Ian Payne (Soccer Special)

★ Alex Quinn

★ Natalie Sawyer

★ Andy Steggall

★ Jeff Stelling (Soccer Saturday)

★ Di Stewart

★ Simon Thomas

★ Georgie Thompson

★ Claire Tomlinson

★ Julian Waters

★ Mike Wedderburn

★ Jim White

★ Rob Wotton

★ Tony Wrighton

Former Presenters

★ Georgie Bingham

★ Kelly Dalglish (now with Virgin Media)

★ Steve Gaisford (now with ITN)

★ Kirsty Gallacher

★ Matthew Lorenzo

★ Rob McCaffrey

★ Hayley McQueen

★ Isha Sesay

★ Rhodri Williams (now with S4C)

★ Gabby Yorath (now with BBC Sport)

Reporters

★ Ian Bolton (Often Presenter)

★ Rachel Brookes

★ Andy Burton

★ Roger Clarke (Often Presenter)

★ Ben Coles

★ Pete Colley

★ Nick Collins (Chief Football Correspondent)

★ James Cooper

★ Gary Cotterill

★ David Craig

★ Ian Darke (only before big boxing matches that he is due to commentate on)

★ Gail Davis

★ Rob Dorset

★ Jon Driscoll

★ Phil Edwards

★ Richard Graves

★ James Haddock

★ Jeremy Langdon

★ Bryn Law

★ Steve Lee

★ Adam Leventhal

★ Graham Miller

★ Vinny O'Connor

★ Davie Proven

★ Dan Roan

★ Fraser Robertson

★ Ed Robinson

★ Dharmesh Sheth

★ Craig Slater

★ Peter Staunton

★ Bryan Swanson

★ David Tanner (Often Presenter)

Music

★ ''Good Morning Sports Fans'' – Surface to Air by Chemical Brothers

★ ''Football Today'' – Shooting Star by Deepest Blue

★ Evening Update & News At Ten'' – Ready to Go by Republica

★ ''Through the Night'' – Artisan by Deadly Avenger

★ '' Various Shows'' – Sing Song Sung by La Rocca

★ '' Carling Cup Football'' – Inner Smile Sung by Texas [2]

★ '' Premiership Football'' – The Time Is Now Sung by Moloko
Following the revamp on 5 August 2007, a theme song has been played throughout the day on all Sky Sports News programs which seems to replace all the above pieces. This is Lux Aeterna (Requiem For A Dream) by Clint Mansell.

Virgin Media Dispute

On Thursday 1 March 2007, Virgin Media removed Sky's basic channels including Sky One, Sky Two, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Sky Travel 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 [3], but attempts are being reach an agreement. At Midnight, Sky Sports News was removed, and the name of the station in the electronic programming guide was changed to "OLD SKY SPORTS SNOOZE".

References

External links

★ Sky Sports at sky.com