Sky Television has announced plans to extend its sports coverage, with new programme acquisitions and new support shows as well as the launch of Sky Sports 2.
Sky Sports 2 launches on 19 August. Initially it will be a weekend service, running from 6pm on Friday night to the early hours of Monday morning. It will be free to existing Sky Sports subscribers. The new channel is intended to supplement the current channel, giving viewers a choice of live sporting events to watch.
Vic Wakeling, Head of Sport at Sky said, “Sometimes difficult scheduling decisions have had to be made … I don’t want to be in a position where I have to decide whether to show live tennis or live cricket; I want both available for the viewer to choose”. New programming includes football phone-ins, Sports Extra every Sunday morning and Hold the Back Page on Saturday nights. Presenters to join include Russ Williams of Virgin 1215 and Neil Fox of Capital. The new sports service will give schedulers an extra 50 hours of airtime.
A report in the Financial Times today says that Sky is planning to launch up to five new services this year. A spokesperson for Sky refused to deny or confirm the story. Under consideration besides the second sports channel is a travel channel, an education channel and a science fiction channel. The aim is to take a number of programme services from cable television to strengthen Sky’s Multi-Channel package.
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