Sky And News Group Launch Mobile Football Highlights
Sky has teamed up with News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of the Sun and News Of The World, to launch 24-7 Football, a new on-demand service that offers video highlights and goal clips from the Barclays Premier League and UEFA Champions League on mobile phones.
In addition, each of the 92 Barclays Premier League matches broadcast live by Sky Sports this season will be available simultaneously on mobile as part of the Sky Mobile TV service.
The 24-7 Football service will offer unlimited access for £5 a month, or viewers can choose to pay flexibly for goals and highlights for 50p per-clip (or €7 and 50c respectively for Republic of Ireland customers).
Viewers will have access to “in game” goal clips (except on Saturday afternoons), highlights packages of all 380 Premiership games once they finish and a video archive.
Sky and NGN will jointly market and promote the new on-demand service, with NGN using its sports editorials to promote the service in print, online and on its own mobile properties.
The service will be available to customers on the T-Mobile, O2 and 3 networks in the UK and the O2 and 3 networks in the Republic of Ireland.
From August 11, Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 will be available via Sky Mobile TV as simulcast channels. As well as all 92 Premier League matches, Sky Sports’ live coverage will show a range of additional domestic and international sports.
Customers will be able to subscribe to the Sports package for £5 a month, offering unlimited access to the channels.
Vic Wakeling, managing director, Sky Sports, said: “We know there is strong demand for sports content from mobile users, so we’re delighted to simulcast our premium channels on Sky Mobile TV for the first time. Over seven million people access Sky Sports content on their mobiles each month and live sport has already proved extremely popular on Sky Mobile TV.
“This coming football season, on TV, online and on mobile, we will give customers even more flexibility in keeping up with all the action.”
Last week, it was revealed that Virgin Mobile will be dropping its mobile TV service, with its partner, BT, disbanding its BT Movio business (see Virgin Mobile To Drop TV Service).
The move came after European telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding named DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds) as the single standard for mobile TV in Europe (see EU Names Mobile TV Standard).
Sky: 08702 40 40 40 www.sky.com