Advanced Television

Sky Sports News becomes pay channel

June 18, 2010

Sky has revealed plans to develop its Sky Sports News channel through increased editorial investment and the launch of Europe's first HD sports news service.

The investment plans will be supported by a move later this year for Sky Sports News to become exclusively a pay-TV channel. From that point, Sky Sports News will be available to Sky, Virgin Media and Talk Talk TV customers, as well as online and on mobile. Sky Sports News will be replaced on Freeview by Sky3+1, a time-shifted version of the existing Freeview channel, Sky3.

Ofcom has approved requests from Arqiva Services Limited and British Sky Broadcasting Limited for licence changes to replace Sky Sports News with Sky 3+ 1. Ofcom found that the change to Arqiva's multiplex licence would not unacceptably diminish the capacity of the services broadcast to appeal to a variety of tastes and interests. This seems a very sympathetic assessment given a unique sports news service is being replaced by more of the kind of recycled material found on most channels.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Pay TV