Sky Sports heads into its 20th anniversary year on the back of a record 12 months - and 44,000 hours of sport!
3D, new HD channels and more sport than even before in 2010
Sky Sports will head into a landmark year following a record 12 months that included the first 3D coverage, the launch of two new HD channels and more hours of sport than ever before.
In 2010 viewers could choose from 44,000 hours of sport across five core
Sky Sports channels - a five per cent increase on 2009 - and saw England retain the Ashes and Europe regain the Ryder Cup.
There were two new HD channels for
Sky Sports - Sky Sports HD4 and
Sky Sports News HD - and viewers had the choice of more than 14,000 hours of HD coverage across 2010, an increase of 32% on the previous year. Sky also launched Europe's first residential 3D service with
Sky3D.
In 2011,
Sky Sports will mark its 20th birthday in a year that features:
THE MASTERS - Golf's first Major on
Sky Sports for the first time and covered like never before. All four days live in 3D and HD from Augusta, plus the annual Par 3 contest.
ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP - Exclusively live coverage of every match as 14 nations contest the World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL - Wembley Stadium will stage the event and, as host broadcaster,
Sky Sports will screen the match live in 3D and HD.
BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - A competitive title race reaches a climax in May at the end of a season that brings 115 live matches, with a number in 3D.
The most televised sports scheduled across the five core
Sky Sports channels, excluding interactive coverage and HD simulcasts, were:
Football - 6,226 hours
Golf - 4,430 hours
Cricket - 3,505 hours
Rugby Union - 1,739 hours
Tennis - 1,359 hours
Rugby League - 1,238 hours
FOOTBALL: Sky Sports had football programming every day of 2010. The schedule included 500 live matches from 18 different international, European and domestic competitions and featured nine live Finals. England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland all appeared live in Euro 2012 qualifying matches. An additional 1,700 hours were available to Sky viewers on the interactive service, including a choice of live matches on UEFA Champions League match nights.
GOLF: Sky Sports showed golf every week of 2010 with coverage of 218 tournaments from five continents. Viewers were able to enjoy 3D and HD coverage of Europe's Ryder Cup victory at Celtic Manor, Majors victories for Graeme McDowell at the US Open and Martin Kaymer at the US PGA Championship, plus all three World Golf Championship events. Live coverage also included the PGA European Tour's 'Race to Dubai', the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup, plus women's and senior tour events.
CRICKET: Scheduled across 12 months there were 223 live matches with over 3,500 hours of coverage. International fixtures included 30 Tests, 50 One-Day and 40 Twenty20 internationals, plus U-19 and women's games, featuring twelve countries. Live coverage of England's Test, One-Day and Twenty20 internationals included the victories at the ICC World Twenty20 and the winter Ashes tour. County coverage brought 70 live matches featuring every county plus the ECB Club Finals day.
RUGBY UNION: There were 239 matches with live rugby union every week of the year. The schedule featured international, European and domestic matches including coverage of England's Autumn Internationals in 3D, the Heineken Cup with the Final in 3D, Amlin Challenge Cup, Aviva Premiership and every match from the IRB Women's Rugby World Cup as England reached the Final. Southern Hemisphere rugby included the Tri Nations and Super 14s.
TENNIS: Viewers could see 122 days of tennis on
Sky Sports in 2010, featuring Roger Federer's victory at the Barclays World Tour Final at London's O2 in November and coverage from the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and Hopman Cup. The schedule included an extra 794 hours of coverage through Sky's interactive service, with a choice of matches from the US Open, plus all nine events from the ATP World Tour Masters 1000, available through Sky's interactive coverage.
RUGBY LEAGUE: There were 111 live matches screened across 12 months of programming. Live coverage included; Engage Super League, Internationals, the Four Nations, the World Club Challenge, NRL Grand Final, State of Origin, Varsity match, Co-operative Championship and Northern Rail Cup. In July 2010 Sky Sports broadcast the very first live rugby league match in 3D, with Wigan Warriors v Warrington Wolves.
Sky made another innovative step in broadcast TV in 2010 when Arsenal v Manchester United became the world's first live 3D sports broadcast, screened to pubs in the UK and Ireland on 31 January.
Sky 3D was subsequently launched to commercial subscribers in April and to residential customers, with the 2010 Ryder Cup, on 1 October. Eight sports have now been offered in 3D by Sky; football, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, golf, tennis, darts and boxing.
Sky's multi-platform services enjoyed record demand during 2010 as more subscribers enjoy the live coverage and 'catch up' services on Sky Player via skysports.com, Sky Mobile TV on mobile devices and Sky Anytime via the red button on the Sky digital remote.
The 20th anniversary of
Sky Sports will come on April 20, 2011 and the first recognition of the landmark comes with a series of documentaries showcasing the breadth of live coverage, choice of live sports and broadcast innovations on
Sky Sports since 1991, starting on New Year's Day.
