Timeline of other British sports channels

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a timeline of sports channels in the UK other than Sky Sports, BT Sport and Premier Sports/FreeSports. The timeline also includes sports events which were shown on non-sports non-terrestrial channels. The timeline also includes sports coverage broadcast on streaming services.

1980s

  • 1981
    • Screensport is by founded Bob Kennedy. This is the first proposal for a sports channel to operate in the UK.[1][2]
  • 1982
    • No events.
  • 1983
    • No events.
  • 1984
    • February – Ahead of its launch, Screensport completes a programming deal with Trans World International, giving the channel access to events taking place around the world.[3][4]
    • 29 March – Screensport launches.[5] Initially all coverage is pre-recorded and the channel broadcasts for just a few hours each day.
    • 31 August – Screensport shows its first live event - greyhound racing.
  • 1985
    • 17 May – Screensport covers the Football League Trophy Southern Area Final between Brentford and Newport County. This is the first time a match in an English senior football competition is shown exclusively on a satellite channel.[6] The Northern equivalent and the Wembley final would also be shown.
    • 17 September – Screensport covers, and sponsors, the Football League Super Cup, a competition designed to compensate clubs banned from European competition following the Heysel Stadium disaster. This is the only English club competition shown on television in the UK in the first half of the 1985/86 season.[7]
  • 1987
    • July – Screensport signs a deal with Thames Television, who were the Football League's agent for international distribution, to transmit 34 recorded matches via cable and satellite.[9] Thames produced its programme, called the Big League Soccer.[10] This resulted in Screensport being the only place where viewers could get extended highlights of the league during the 1987/88 season.
  • 1988
    • 8 June – Rupert Murdoch announces plans to launch a four-channel service on the soon to be launched Astra satellite. One of these channels will be a sports service.[11]
    • August - Weekly highlights of First Division matches in the 1988-89 season are shown on satellite and cable via Super Channel.[12][13][14] The channel relays the Chrysalis Television produced English Soccer programme, whilst also becoming the home of Dutch football during the campaign.[15][16]
    • 5 September – S4C launches a sports programme called Sgorio.[17] The programme is set up to provide highlights of European football, including highlights of games from La Liga and Serie A, although other sports are also included within the programme.
    • 7 December – ESPN increases its stake in Screensport from 3.5% to 25.5% after purchasing shares from WHSmith for £4.4 million.[18] By then, Screensport had increased its sports content, allowing the channel to broadcast for 18.5 hours each day. The schedule includes ice hockey, skiing, golf, tennis, and yachting.
    • 3 October - Screensport gains the rights to the Spanish League, and begins weekly full match coverage.[19][20]
  • 1989
    • 5 February – Sky Television launches at 6 pm. They include a pan-European sports channel, Eurosport which Sky co-founds with the European Broadcasting Union. The channel's first night is dominated by winter sports, which Eurosport has broadcast live and in depth ever since.
    • February – Screensport begins broadcasting on the Astra 1A satellite, thereby massively extending its reach across the UK.[21]

1990s

  • 1990
  • 1991
    • 20 April – Following the merger between Sky TV and BSB, BSB's Sport Channel closes and is replaced the next day by Sky Sports.
    • 6–22 May – Eurosport briefly closes after the competing Screensport channel had filed a complaint to the European Commission over its corporate structure.[22] TF1 Group subsequently steps in and replaces BSkyB as Eurosport's joint owners.
  • 1992
    • No events.
  • 1993
    • 1 March – Screensport closes following its merger with Eurosport in the hope that one would become financially profitable.[23]
  • 1994
  • 1995
    • January – Eurosport replaces Sky Sports as the broadcaster of tennis' Australian Open and has broadcast the event in full ever since.
    • June – TCI (owners of Telewest) and NYNEX do a deal with BSkyB which includes a clause that the cable operators do not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky. This causes the collapse of Sportswire, days before its launch as a full-time channel.
    • 7–28 October – L!VE TV broadcasts many of the matches from the 1995 Rugby League World Cup. It shows many of them exclusively as the main broadcaster, BBC Sport, only shows four matches live from the entire tournament although Wales' three matches are shown on S4C.
    • L!VE TV also shows coverage of that year's World Masters darts tournament - its predecessor Wire TV had shown the event for the previous two years. However, L!VE would only show the event once as from the following year, the event moved to Eurosport where it stayed until 2000.
    • The Racing Channel launches, thereby becoming the UK's first channel devoted to a single sport.
  • 1996
    • 13 October – Formula One coverage on Eurosport ends. It had shown full race weekend coverage of the event since the early days of the channel and had been the only place to see the practice and qualifying sessions as the BBC had only shown the actual race prior to the 1996 Formula One World Championship.
  • 1998
    • 10 September – MUTV launches, becoming the first football club channel to start broadcasting in the UK.[25]

2000s

  • 2000
    • September – ONsport launches. It replaces Champions on 28 and Champions on 99, which had reflected the channel numbers these were broadcast on. These channels were re-branded respectively as ONsport 1 and ONsport 2, after ONdigital had purchased rights to the ATP Masters Series tennis. Whilst ONsport 1 broadcast 24 hours a day, ONsport 2 timeshared with Carlton Cinema and was only on air to provide coverage of an alternate Champions League match.
  • 2002
    • 1 March – F1 Digital+ launches. It offers enhanced multi-screen coverage of Formula One on a pay-per-view basis.
    • 1 May – At The Races launches.[28]
    • 13 August – Chelsea TV launches.
    • 5 December – NASN launches to show live and recorded coverage of North American sports.
    • 12 December – After just one season, F1 Digital+ closes.[29]
  • 2003
    • January –
      • Eurosport takes over as broadcaster of Serie A, opting to show a match at peak-time whereas Channel 4 had shown its live coverage in the afternoon.
      • The Racing Channel closes. It had been on air since 1995.[30]
    • Eurosport broadcasts snooker for the first time.[31] The channel goes on to provide extensive coverage of the sport both in the UK and across Europe.
  • 2006
    • 8 March – Racing TV launches an international racing channel Racing World. Consequently, racing TV concentrates on UK horse racing.[40]
    • 13 March –
    • 17–18 June – Motors TV broadcasts the Le Mans 24 Hours race in its entirety. It also shows the 2007 race.
    • 25 August – Setanta Sports brings regular non league football to television when it acquires the rights to the Football Conference. The deal also sees the Conference Cup renamed the Setanta Cup.[42]
    • 4 December – The Wrestling Channel relaunches as TWC Fight!
    • 23 December – Bravo decides to drop its coverage of Serie A due to poor viewing figures. The league does continue to be shown by Setanta Sports.
  • 2007
    • 11 January – Following Setanta Sports’ purchase of rights to the PGA Tour,[43] the company launches a dedicated golf channel Setanta Golf.
    • March – ESPN buys NASN[44] and the purchase sees the return of ESPN's flagship magazine shows, such as Baseball Tonight, Around the Horn, The Sports Reporters and Pardon the Interruption, which had not been shown since the previous year after the contract between NASN and ESPN ended.[45]
    • 9 June – S4C shows the first of four Celtic Crusaders rugby league matches live.[46] The following season, S4C shows five more Celtic Crusaders games.
    • 11 August – Setanta Sports shows the first of its 46 matches from the Premier League.[47]
    • September – Frank Warren's Sports Network promotions moves, for the most part, to Setanta Sports although fights involving Amir Khan continue to be shown on ITV.
    • 20 September – LFC TV, a dedicated official channel for English football club Liverpool F.C., launches.[48]
    • 29 November – Setanta Sports News launches. The channel launches following a dispute which saw Sky Sports News and the other Sky basics channels removed from Virgin Media and this launch is seen by the cable company as a replacement sports news channel. The channel is jointly owned by both companies with ITN producing the channel's content.[49]
    • 31 December – The Golf Channel UK closes due to it not being able to attract a viable audience due to not broadcasting enough live tournaments.
  • 2009
    • 1 February – NASN is renamed ESPN America following the sale in late 2006 of the channel to ESPN.[55]
    • 22 June – It is announced that ESPN will take over the 46 games per season that were shown on Setanta Sports[56] after Setanta failed to make a £10m payment to the rights holder which meant that the rights returned to the Premier League which allowed it to sell those rights to another broadcaster.[57]
    • 23 June – Setanta Sports ceases broadcasting in the UK after going into administration.[58] The closure means that sister channels Setanta Golf and Setanta Sports News also stop broadcasting and from this date, football club channels Celtic TV and Rangers TV, which were sold as part of the Setanta package, close although both later relaunch as online only channels. Arsenal TV does continue but closes just over a month later.
    • 25 June – Eurosport picks up the television rights to golf's PGA Tour for the remainder of the 2009 season.[59] However the coverage only lasts for six months as the rights return to Sky Sports at the start of 2010.[60]
    • 3 August – ESPN launches in the UK, picking up many of the rights previously held by Setanta Sports. These include the rights to the Premier League that Setanta had held.[61][62] It later adds many other football rights to its portfolio, including the Scottish Premier League, FA Cup,[63] European club football and the Europa League[64]
    • 8 August – ESPN becomes the exclusive broadcaster of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.[65]
    • 24 August – Racing World closes after just over three years on air.
    • 25 September – ESPN beings National Rugby League to the UK when it broadcasts the first Preliminary Final live on 25 September, the second Preliminary Final and on 4 October it shows the Grand Final.[66]
    • 17 October – Pay-per-view channel Primetime launches when it shows pay-per-view coverage of the Super Six World Boxing Classic.[67]

2010s

  • 2012
    • 7 January – ESPN breaks the BBC's monopoly on covering the BDO World Darts Championship. This begins a pattern which continues with BT Sport from 2014 whereby two broadcasters share the rights with ESPN (and from 2014 BT Sport) showing the weeknight evening coverage exclusively live with all other coverage shared between both broadcasters.[80]
    • April – ESPN America stops broadcasting a European version of SportsCentre, instead opting to broadcast an edited version of the 2am show produced in Los Angeles.
    • 12 June – The announcement of the rights to the Premier League for the next three seasons reveals that BT has won the rights to 38 matches each season. These rights are currently held by ESPN UK.[81] The news followed speculation that ESPN was reconsidering its position in the UK.[82]
    • 11–31 August – ESPN shows the first edition of cricket's Sri Lanka Premier League.
    • September – ESPN starts showing one game per round from the UEFA Europa League after it acquired secondary rights to the competition with ITV being the primary rights holder.[83]
    • 20–23 September – ESPN shows the 2012 Darts European Championship,[84] thereby becoming the first broadcaster in Britain to show both BDO and PDC tournaments at the same time.
  • 2013
    • 25 February – BT agrees to acquire ESPN's UK and Ireland TV channels business, consisting of ESPN and ESPN America. BT will continue to broadcast at least one ESPN branded channel as part of its BT Sport package of services.[85]
    • March – British Eurosport begins to show FIM World Speedway.[86] Eurosport replaces Sky Sports, who had been the rights holder for over a decade.
    • 1 August – At midnight, and ahead of the launch of BT Sport, ESPN UK, ESPN America and ESPN Classic close - the latter was not part of the BT/ESPN deal.
    • 9 September – Eurosport becomes the new broadcast of the NFL's Monday Night Football.[87] Eurosport broadcasts the weekly American football game for the next two seasons.
    • 26 October – The British Basketball League decides to create its own internet-based channel to show its matches rather than selling the rights to traditional television stations although it does do a deal with British Eurosport to show weekly highlights.[88]
    • 21 December – Pay-per-view channel Primetime closes.
  • 2015
    • 9 June – ESPN is rebranded as BT Sport ESPN.
    • September – S4C begins showing one live match from each round of rugby union's Pro 12 competition. It had previously shown coverage in highlights form since the league's conception as the Celtic League in 2001.
    • 13 November – British Eurosport changes its names to Eurosport 1.
    • 10 December – Bike launches in the UK.
  • 2016
    • 6 January – UKTV announces that Dave will show its first live sporting event – a boxing match between David Haye and Mark de Mori at the O2 Arena on 16 January 2016.[92] Later in the year Dave broadcasts the 2016 BDO World Trophy darts tournament and cricket's Caribbean Premier League.
    • 14 March – Racing UK begins broadcasting in high-definition.[93]
    • 28–30 May – UKTV channel Dave makes a one-off return to darts when it shows the 2016 BDO World Trophy.[94]
    • 27 June – Eurosport shows live and recorded coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships for the first time, thereby becoming the first commercial pay-TV broadcaster to air live UK coverage from the All England Club. Its live coverage is restricted to the finals weekend. This is the first time since 1968 that the BBC has not been the exclusive broadcaster of Wimbledon in the UK.[95]
    • Eurosport makes some of its snooker coverage available on free-to-air television when it begins simulcasting coverage on free-to-air channel Quest.[96]
    • October – A free-to-air sports channel Front Runner launches.
    • 31 December – Extreme Sports Channel stops broadcasting in the UK after 14 years on air.
  • 2017
    • 1 March – Motors TV relaunches itself as Motorsport.tv. The change also sees the channel start to broadcast in high definition.[97]
    • Front Runner shows the 2017 British GT Championship.[98]
    • 26–29 May – The 2017 BDO World Trophy is broadcast by Front Runner. The channel also shows the England Open the following month.[99]
    • May – Dave replaces Sky Sports as broadcaster of tennis' Tie Break Tens tournament.[100]
    • 28 August-10 September – Eurosport shows the US Open for the final time. It had held exclusive rights to the past two tournaments and prior to this it had obtained secondary rights to the event with Sky Sports being the main rights holder.
    • September – After less than two years on air, Bike closes.
  • 2018
    • 7 June – It is announced that Amazon Prime has been awarded the rights to livestream 20 Premier League matches a season for the next three seasons.[101]
    • 18 June – Amazon Prime shows its first live sport in the UK when it broadcasts live coverage of the Queen's Club tennis tournament.[102]
    • August – Eleven Sports UK and Ireland launches following deals with European football leagues, including Serie A[103] and La Liga.[104] The platform is a streaming service rather than a television channel.
    • 8 August – EFL on Quest is broadcast for the first time following the transfer of the highlights right to the English Football League to Quest.
    • 9–12 August – Eleven Sports broadcasts the 2018 PGA Championship, meaning that for the first time, a major golf event in the UK is only available on a streaming platform. However, the event returns to Sky Sports the following year.
    • 27 August – Amazon Prime broadcasts the US Open for the first time. This is the first time that a major sporting event has only been available via a streaming-only platform.[105]
    • 30 September – After more than 17 years on air, Motorsport.tv, previously known as Motors TV, closes its linear channel, switching to online-streaming only.[106]
    • 17 December – Racing UK rebrands itself as Racing TV.
  • 2019
    • January – Just four months after going on air, Eleven Sports relinquishes most of its football rights, passing many of them onto Premier Sports.
    • February – Amazon Prime takes over as the UK broadcaster of the tennis ATP World Tour.[107]
    • 30 June – After 18 seasons on air, Chelsea TV closes as a linear channel. It continues as an online-only service.
    • 3 December – Amazon Prime shows its first set of live Premier League football matches.

2020s

  • 2020
    • 6 January – Amazon Prime Video expands its coverage of tennis when it takes over as the UK broadcaster of the WTA, showing 49 tournaments a year.[108]
    • March – Eurosport replaces BT Sport as rights holder to British Speedway.[109]
    • 16 June – Eurosport begins showing Norway's premier domestic football competition Eliteserien.[110]
    • 8 September – It is announced that all of September's Premier League fixtures will be shown on TV due to fans not being into stadiums due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a weekly 3pm Saturday afternoon match, shown on TV in the UK for the first time, one of which is shown on Amazon Prime.[111]
    • 14 November – Amazon Prime Video broadcasts rugby union for the first time when it begins showing the Autumn Nations Cup.[112] Ireland's matches are shown on Channel 4 and Wales' games are broadcast on S4C.[113]
  • 2021
    • 1 February – Coverage of UK greyhound racing moves to a new channel called Sporty Stuff HD, which broadcasts on satellite. The sport had previously been shown on Live 360 - an offshoot of Nigerian news channel Arise News - since the closure of Front Runner TV. Sporty Stuff also shows lesser-known motorsport events.[114]
    • 13 May – The Premier League announces that, for the first time, the next three-year broadcasting contact has been awarded without a bidding process. Consequently, Amazon Prime is paying the same amount for the same packages as it did for the 2019-2022 contact.[115]
    • July – Fights promoted by Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Sport move from Sky Sports to streaming service DAZN.[116][117] The first live event is shown on 31 July.
    • 30 October – Amazon Prime Video begins showing almost all of the autumn international matches played by the six Nations countries. The only exception is Ireland's matches which are seen on Channel 4 although Ireland's games will move to Amazon in 2022.[118]
  • 2022
    • 2–10 April – Eurosport becomes the exclusive broadcaster of the World Darts Federation's World Championships.[119]
    • May – EFL on Quest will be broadcast for the final time as highlights of the English Football League will transfer from Quest to ITV.[120]
    • June – For the first time, the French Open tennis tournament will be shown exclusively on pay television following Eurosport obtaining exclusive coverage of the event. It had previously been shown on ITV and before then by the BBC.[121]
    • 11 September – Amazon Prime ends its coverage of the US Open (tennis) as part of its pullback from covering the sport. The event returns to Sky Sports in 2023.[122]
    • 24-26 September – Eurosport becomes the exclusive broadcast of tennis' Laver Cup, and will show the event until 2030.[123]
    • October – The National Hockey League's UK TV rights move to Scandinavian streaming service Viaplay as part of its UK launch.[124]
  • 2025
    • 28 February – Eurosport closes in the UK and Ireland after 36 years when TNT Sports incorporates the coverage previously showed on Eurosport. This includes the Olympic Games, cycling (including the Tour de France), snooker, tennis (including three of the four majors) and winter sports.[129]
    • April – Queensberry Promotions boxing moves from TNT Sports to DAZN.[130]
    • May – Amazon ends its six seasons of broadcasting Premier League football as the rights it held move to Sky Sports after the Premier League opted not to offer the rights that Amazon held as a package this time round.[131]
  • 2026
  • 2027
    • Live coverage of the Champions League will transfer to streaming services. Amazon Prime will show the Tuesday fixtures with Paramount+ broadcasting the Wednesday games.[132]

See also

References

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