Sky Sport (New Zealand)

History

Sky Sport 1 is the original Sky Television sport channel in New Zealand. It was first introduced in 1990 as Sky Sport on the Sky UHF service. When Sky Sport began it operated between the hours of noon and around midnight, and occasionally screened live sports events outside these hours. By July 1991, Sky Sport commenced 24-hour transmission with a direct feed of ESPN at certain times during the week.

A sister channel, Sky Sport 2 was launched in 1997 when Sky introduced a nationwide analogue direct broadcasting via satellite (DBS) service, followed by a third channel, Sky Sport 3 in 2003 and Sky Sport 4 in 2013.

On 1 August 2019, Sky launched five more Sky Sport channels, numbered from 5 to 9. Additionally all the channels were re-aligned to be sport-specific, and a Sky Sport News channel was launched providing the latest news and updates from across all sports. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, the Sky Sport News channel was rebranded as Sky Sport Select, a combination of sports news and general sporting coverage.

Channels

Ten main channels comprise the Sky Sport service

All Sky Sport channels are broadcast in 1080i high definition.

Pop-up channels

Additional Sky Sport channels are launched in order to broadcast major events such as the Australian Tennis Open and the Olympic Games.

Outside Broadcasting

Sky owned Outside Broadcasting Limited from 2010 to 2021, providing outside broadcast facilities for Sky Sport coverage with eight broadcast trucks and fly away kits. These traveled the length of New Zealand and overseas to covered events for Sky Sport since its arrival into New Zealand in 2001. These trucks were also contracted out to other television networks like TVNZ and Māori Television. On 12 August 2020, Sky announced it had sold Outside Broadcasting to NEP New Zealand, part of American production company NEP Group. As part of the transaction, NEP will be Sky's outsourced technical production partner in New Zealand until at least 2030. The sale was cleared by the Commerce Commission on 5 February 2021.

Sky Sport Now

On 14 August 2019, Sky launched Sky Sport Now, featuring online live streams for all 10 Sky Sport channels, highlights, on demand, match statistics and points tables. Three passes are available for purchase: a week pass, a month pass and a 12-month Pass. Pay-Per-View events can be purchased separately when they become available. Sky Sport Now is available via web browsers as well as on iOS, Android and PlayStation 4 devices.

On 27 October 2020, Sky announced that its Sky Sport Now streaming service would be bundled with Spark Sport for a NZ$49.99 monthly subscription from 16 November 2020 onwards.

Sports

Association football

Football

From 2019 until 2023, matches aired on beIN Sports platforms were also available on Sky Sport due to a four-year partnership contract.

Leagues

• A-League Men
• A-League Women
• Premier League
• New Zealand Men's Football Championship (finals coverage only)
• New Zealand Women's National League (finals coverage only)
• All Whites (Men's national team)
• Football Ferns (Women's national team).

Domestic cups

• English FA Cup
• FA Community Shield
• Chatham Cup (final only)
• Kate Sheppard Cup (final only)

International club competitions

• FIFA Club World Cup (2019-2022)

International matches

• World Cup Qualifying
• European Championship qualifying
• Other International Matches

International tournaments

• FIFA World Cups (through 2022)
  • Men's:
    • FIFA World Cup
    • FIFA U-20 World Cup
    • FIFA U-17 World Cup
  • Women's:
    • FIFA Women's World Cup
    • FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
    • FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
• UEFA
  • UEFA Euro 2020
  • UEFA Nations League

Beach Soccer

• FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (2019 and 2021)

Futsal

International tournaments

• FIFA Futsal World Cup

Athletics

• IAAF Golden League
• World Athletics

American Football

• National Football League

Australian rules

• Australian Football League: One live game per week, plus weekly highlights.

Basketball

• National Basketball League
• National Basketball Association (via ESPN)
• Women's National Basketball Association

Baseball

• Major League Baseball

Cricket

• Overseas cricket:
  • International fixtures - Cricket Australia, BCCI (India), Cricket South Africa and Cricket West Indies
  • Australian domestic competitions: Sheffield Shield, One-Day Cup, Women's National Cricket League, Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League.
  • Caribbean Premier League, Indian Premier League, Super50 Cup and Pakistan Super League.
• ICC
  • All major ICC events: Men's Cricket World Cup, Women's Cricket World Cup, Men's T20 World Cup, Women's T20 World Cup, World Test Championship and Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

Cycling

• Tour de France

Golf

• Masters Tournament
• PGA Championship
• U.S. Open
• The Open Championship
• Ryder Cup
• European Tour
• PGA Tour
• New Zealand Open
• LPGA Tour

Ice Hockey

• National Hockey League

Motor racing

• Formula One
• IndyCar Series
• NextGen NZ Championship
• Formula E
• Australian Supercars Championship (Includes support categories)
• Dunlop Super2 Series
• Superbike World Championship
• D1NZ

Multi-discipline events

• Commonwealth Games (2022 and 2026)
• Summer Olympics (2020, free coverage is sublicensed with TVNZ)
• Winter Olympics

Netball

• ANZ Premiership
• 2019 Netball World Cup
• International Netball
• National Netball League
• Suncorp Super Netball

Rowing

• World Rowing Championships
• Rowing World Cup

Rugby league

• National Rugby League: Live coverage of all games
• NRL Women's Premiership: Live coverage of all games
• Knock-On Effect NSW Cup: All Warriors home games live, plus any games available from Fox League
• State of Origin
• Super League
• Challenge Cup
• Pacific Championships
• NZRL National Competition: Live coverage of all games

Rugby union

• All Blacks, Black Ferns and Maori All Blacks
• The Rugby Championship: Live coverage of all games
• Super Rugby: Live coverage of all games
• Super Rugby Pre-Season: Live coverage of most games
• Rugby World Cup
• World Rugby Sevens Series
• WXV
• College 1st XV coverage: Live and delayed coverage and highlights of televised matches during the week.
• National Provincial Championship: Live coverage of all games
• Heartland Championship
• Farah Palmer Cup: Live coverage of all games
• Super Rugby Aupiki: Live coverage of all games
• National Sevens
• Six Nations Championship
• Premiership Rugby
• United Rugby Championship
• Currie Cup
• Top 14

Swimming

• FINA World Aquatics Championships

Tennis

• Australian Open
• French Open
• ASB Classic
• Davis Cup
• Fed Cup

Former logos

Skysport1old.png| 2003–2008 (used for Sky Sport 1.) Sky Sport NZ logo.png| 2008–2017 MK SKYSport1 LogoSmall.png| 2017–2019

References

References

1. (25 July 2019). "Life needs more sport! SKY supercharges sport offering with 12 sport channels.". Sky Network Television.
2. (12 August 2020). "Sky TV sells its outside broadcast subsidiary to NEP".
3. (5 February 2021). "Commission grants clearance for NEP to acquire Sky's outside broadcasting assets".
4. (27 October 2020). "Surprise deal: Sky Sport Now to be bundled with Spark Sport". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
5. (3 September 2019). "Champions League and La Liga headline Sky NZ's co-branded BeIN channel - SportsPro Media".
6. "Watch ESPN live - Sky NZ".
7. "Watch Live Sport from Around the World with Sky Sport".