Sky Sports’ record year of firsts
Friday 30 December 2016
Sky Sports viewers can look forward to another sensational year of sport following a record-breaking 2016, which offered several firsts across rights, channels, and innovation.
Sky Sports will show the British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand as part of twelve-months of sport that includes unrivalled coverage of the Premier League, every F1 Grand Prix weekend, England’s home Test matches and the biggest competitions in golf.
The busy schedule of sport follows twelve months of firsts, strengthening Sky’s position as the home of sport, offering nearly 65,000 hours of sport across eight channels – more than ever before.
Highlights of Sky’s investment in unrivalled choice and quality over the past year include:
Rights
Sky strengthened its service by adding several key rights for the first time.
•The Open Championship live from the first tee shot to the final putt.
•Friday Night Football as part of the biggest ever season of Premier League football.
•Drone Racing one of more than 25 different sports shown on Sky Sports Mix.
Channels
•Sky Sports Mix, a brand new channel bringing sport to every Sky home.
•Dedicated channels, including Sky Sports The Open and Sky Sports Darts.
•Revamped Football Score Centre app with goals from every Premier League game.
Innovation
•Premier League football live in Ultra HD on Sky Q.
•Launch of Sky VR app.
•Over a billion video views on Sky Sports’ social media platforms.
Sky Sports Managing Director Barney Francis said: “As our service continues to grow, so does our passion for offering Sky Sports viewers the best choice and quality. The last twelve months have been a stand-out year for Sky Sports as we celebrated our 25th anniversary. However, we never stand still and as we look forward to 2017, the schedule looks as busy as ever with some mouth-watering sport to look forward to. We can’t wait.”
Sky Sports delivered a record number of unique browsers, more than 43 million, across its owned platforms in August* showing the huge popularity around the launch of the biggest ever Premier League season.
On Demand numbers continued to rise with a 15% jump in downloads compared to 2015, Sky Sports viewers downloaded almost 23 million videos across the spectrum of sporting action on offer.
Sky Sports' ground-breaking coverage also continued to collect numerous awards, the highlight being back-to-back BAFTAs for the cricket department’s coverage of the Ashes.
Across all platforms, Sky Sports took viewers closer as the sporting world enjoyed a memorable year of firsts. Leicester City won their first ever Premier League title; England's rugby team won a record 14 matches in a row; Danny Willett won his first Major at the Masters and Andy Murray ended a memorable year as the world number one for the very first time.
For 2017, viewers can look forward to another sensational year on Sky Sports including:
•Premier League, EFL, SPFL, La Liga and 2018 World Cup Qualifier football
•British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand
•Every Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, in UHD
•England cricket and ICC Champions Trophy
•Joshua v Klitschko and the biggest fights from the world of boxing
•Golf’s biggest tournaments from the European and PGA Tours
•Women’s Cricket World Cup, Super League and The British Open for the first time.
*ComScore multi-platform data (August 2016)
For more information:
Sky Sports PR
020 7032 1445
Follow us on twitter @SkySports
About Sky
Sky is Europe's leading entertainment company, serving 22 million customers across five countries: UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy. We offer the best and broadest range of content, deliver market-leading customer service and use innovative new technology to give customers a better TV experience, whenever and wherever they choose.
Sky has annual revenues of £12 billion and is Europe's leading investor in television content with a combined programming budget of £5.2 billion. The group employs 30,000 people and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SKY).
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