British Television

21st Century Fox Receives European Commission Clearance for Proposed Acquisition of Sky

21st Century Fox today issued the following statement commenting on the European Commission’s clearance of its proposed transaction to combine with Sky:

21st Century Fox welcomes today’s decision by the European Commission clearing unconditionally its proposed transaction to acquire the outstanding shares of Sky that it does not already own. We now look forward to continuing to work with UK authorities and are confident that the proposed transaction will be approved following a thorough review process.

The BBC remake of Poldark has been renewed for a fourth season, according to star Aidan Turner at a panel for the show at the BFI & Radio Times television festival at the Southbank in London.
The Durrells have been renewed for a third season.

The BBC is launching its own in-house font to be used across the corporation, similar in purpose to that which the ABC launched earlier this year :slight_smile:

Several members of the UK-based TV Forum have said that there are plans afoot for a new cross-promotional strategy of the BBC, so there may be more presentation based announcements to come. Not certain yet where the new font will be used. Would be interesting to see whether BBC News/World News uses the font on its supers.

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BBC 2’s retro comedy White Gold is set in the 80’s with a soundtrack to match. Episodes feature the BBC 2 ident from that time.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: BBC News/World News

Britain’s Got Talent presenter Ant McPartlin (one half of Ant and Dec) has checked into rehab after admitting to addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol.

Some Playout pictures from ITV.

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Classic retort for a whingeing Piers Morgan from his breakfast co-host. :joy:

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Similar issues with Foxtel and Ten in Australia.

Last Friday (June 30) the England and Wales Cricket Board announced the results of its broadcasting auction for 2020-2024. While Sky Sports remains the main broadcaster in the new ECB deal, worth £1.1 billion over a five-year period, live international cricket will return to the BBC for the first time since 1999. From 2020, they will broadcast two men’s and one women’s T20 internationals per year, as well as ten matches from the ECB’s new domestic T20 competition, and eight from the women’s. They have also extended their radio broadcasting deal, and secured primetime evening highlights and digital clip rights.
The split means whichever Australian broadcaster covering the 2023 Ashes series in UK will take commentary from Sky Sports for tests and one-dayers, and BBC for T20s.

New Sky Sports line-up gives customers more choice and channels at the same price and individual channel packs for the first time

Sky Sports is expanding its service with 10 sports channels, giving customers more choice, at no extra cost.

The line-up will include new channels dedicated to some of the biggest sports and opens up new ways for customers to join Sky Sports, from as little as 60p a day. It will also offer a better digital experience on one Sky Sports app.

From 18th July, the Sky Sports package will include:
•10 sports channels – more than ever before, including:

•Dedicated channels for the Premier League, football, cricket, golf and F1®

•Two channels, Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Arena, offering rugby union, rugby league, boxing, netball, darts, NFL, tennis, WWE, GAA & much more

•Sky Sports Main Event channel hosting the biggest events in one place

•Sky Sports News and Sky Sports Mix for all Sky customers

The new package of ten channels and an unrivalled schedule of live sport is available for the same price (£27.50 per month), which will remain frozen for 12 months. Existing customers will receive the new Sky Sports package automatically and the new channels will replace the existing line-up.

For the first time, Sky Sports will also offer something for fans not looking for the full breadth of sports, but are interested in specific sports. The new line-up is designed to grow this customer base and offers flexibility to subscribe to individual channel packages at a new price. One channel pack will be available for just £18 per month, two for £22 and three for £26.

Barney Francis, Managing Director of Sky Sports said: “We’re dedicating channels to some of our biggest sports, launching a new way to watch the best live action and offering even better digital products too. Sky Sports is giving customers even more choice and channels at the same price for another 12 months, while opening up new ways for sports fans to join. If you love Premier League, you can enjoy it for as little as 60p a day or you can have the full Sky Sports package for less than £1.”

Stephen van Rooyen, Sky UK and Ireland Chief Executive added: “Sport has been a major part of Sky for 26 years and we’re improving our service even further, super-serving existing customers and providing flexibility to a whole new generation of sports fans. We are making sport more accessible and offering even more choice; all part of our continued investment in offering Sky customers an unrivalled service.”

Viewers will enjoy a host of new programmes, including: a nightly Premier League debate show on Sky Sports Premier League; masterclasses and coaching clinics from some of the biggest names in sport including Shane Warne, Butch Harmon and Rob Key; live golf previews ahead of selected European and US events; and a host of new documentaries.

The full range of digital platforms are also being brought together onto one Sky Sports app to make it easier for customers to enjoy all of their sports on the go.

About the new Sky Sports
Five channels will be dedicated to sports viewers love. Sky Sports Main Event will show the biggest live sports events in one place, while Sky Sports Action and Arena will show all the other incredible sport Sky offers. All Sky customers will continue to enjoy Sky Sports News and Sky Sports Mix. NOW TV customers will be able to purchase the new Sky Sports line-up at no additional cost. Virgin Media and TalkTalk customers will also benefit from the channel changes.

The new line-up of channels* and Sky EPG channel numbers are:
401 Sky Sports Main Event
402 Sky Sports Premier League
403 Sky Sports Football
404 Sky Sports Cricket
405 Sky Sports Golf
406 Sky Sports F1
407 Sky Sports Action
408 Sky Sports Arena
409 Sky Sports News
121 Sky Sports Mix

  • See appendix for channel content line-up.
  • CHANNEL SCHEDULES

401 – Sky Sports Main Event
The destination for the biggest live events
Live Premier League football plus international qualifiers and the biggest games from EFL and La Liga, F1®, Ryder Cup and Major golf, England Test cricket, international Rugby Union, World Darts Championship and more

402 – Sky Sports Premier League
The home of the Premier League
126 live Premier League matches per season. Brand new shows including a new nightly debate show. Dedicated On Demand sections for every Premier League club, including match highlights, interviews and documentaries.

403 – Sky Sports Football
The home of over 900 live games per season
127 Sky Bet EFL matches per season, EFL Cup including semi-finals and final, SPFL Premiership & Scottish Cup, 300 La Liga matches a season, MLS, Eredivisie and more.

404 – Sky Sports Cricket
The only place to see every home England match live
Exclusive live coverage of every home England Test, ODI and T20 match. The widest range of domestic cricket including County Championship, T20 Blast and more. The ICC Champions Trophy, Cricket World Cup, World Twenty20 and Women’s World Cup live.

405 - Sky Sports Golf
The must-have channel for all golf fans
The only place to see every day of The Open Championship and US Open live. Home of the European Tour, PGA Tour, Ladies European and Ladies PGA Tour. This year’s Solheim Cup and The 2018 Ryder Cup.
406 – Sky Sports F1®
Every Formula 1® practice, qualifying hour and race live
Exclusive coverage of the FIA Formula 2 Championship, GP3, Porsche Supercup and Goodwood Festival of Speed.

407 – Sky Sports Action
408 – Sky Sports Arena
The home of rugby union (England, European and domestic rugby union, the British & Irish Lions), rugby Super League, ATP tennis, PDC darts (including World Championship), world championship boxing, NFL, WWE, GAA, netball and more

409 – Sky Sports News
The home of breaking sports news, 24 hours a day.
Regular news and feature programmes where studio guests provide an in depth look at upcoming sporting events, combined with the latest stories as they happen from around the world. Cameras and reporters stretch across the country, and the globe, taking viewers to the heart of sport.

121 – Sky Sports Mix
A window into the world of Sky Sports, bringing a selection of sports entertainment to all Sky customers.
Regular live football including La Liga, MLS and international qualifiers as well as a select number of Premier League and EFL matches. As well as support programming that will appeal to kids and family audiences, viewers can also enjoy live golf from Europe and the US, international cricket and much more.

About Sky Sports
Sky Sports offers over 65,000 hours of sport every year, with an unrivalled schedule including the best matches from the Premier League, international and EFL football, every F1 race, England Test cricket, British & Irish Lions and England rugby union plus golf’s Majors.
Sky Sports viewers can enjoy commentary from some of the biggest names in sport. For football fans that means Thierry Henry, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness. Meanwhile, Sir Ian Botham, Shane Warne, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and, new for this year, Andrew Flintoff, are part of the award-winning cricket coverage while in F1, viewers can enjoy the thoughts of Martin Brundle, Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert.
Analysing golf’s biggest events on Sky are Paul McGinley, Butch Harmon and Nick Dougherty while ringside for the biggest head to heads in boxing are Carl Froch and Johnny Nelson. International rugby union coverage includes analysis from Will Greenwood, Scott Quinnell and Sean Fitzpatrick and for the latest breaking news in sport, Kirsty Gallacher and Jim White lead the team on Sky Sports News.

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Interesting decision, and very much in-line with what Fox Sports is looking to do here with Fox Footy and League.

401 Main Event and 402 Premier League are IIRC “must-offer” channels in the UK from what I’ve read on TV Forum, so they obviously will be the channels with the most mainstream sports.

A golf channel is an interesting one.

No information about Sky Sports Action - I can’t even guess as to what that’ll have on. Name is too vague.

edit: there’s more information here about the relaunch. New logos and the whole shebang. Kinda meh on the logos.

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With this news from Sky Sports in the UK, I wonder if Fox Sports might take this idea further in the future.

A “Fox Cricket” channel is something I wouldn’t be surprised to see happen (but with free to air TV still retaining some cricket coverage, of course) as a result of the next broadcast rights deal with Cricket Australia. Especially in a country which has cricket as it’s #1 sport during the Summer, having a Pay TV channel dedicated to it seems like quite a natural fit IMO.

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I get the impression action and arena will show similar content, almost a best of the rest

They don’t say it, but it might have overflow events too. So if there’s too many EPL or cricket matches on the branded channels, some might be thrown onto those channels. Also serves as an appetizer for those on the fence looking to upgrade, in addition to Sports Mix.

Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Arena are essentially the same - just for other sports without a dedicated channel, and I think if you subscribe to one you get them both as content will switch between channels.

Sky Sports 2 has essentially been a cricket channel for a number of years, and the same with Sky Sports 4 for Golf, while Sky Sports 5 was launched with a focus on European football, but this was dropped after a year.

Surprised they didn’t have a dedicated tennis channel but I guess even though they have the ATP rights that’s only about 18 weeks a year, but still far more content than F1. Rugby League and Union could have been combined too but that’s very weekend heavy and they’ve now lost the European rugby rights and are said to be dropping Pro12, so apart from England Internationals in the autumn and foreign tours, plus Super Rugby and whatever the Tri-Nations is called now they don’t have much rugby union at all.

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BBC has revealed the salaries of its television and radio stars earning more than £150,000 per year. Former Top Gear host Chris Evans is the top earner with a salary of £2.2 million per year. Strictly Come Dancing host Claudia Winkleman is the highest paid woman, earning between £400,000 and £450,000 per year. Graham Norton earns up to £899,000 per year.

The hypocrisy of the left-wing, sanctimonious, ever lecturing BBC has been revealed today, with males completely dominating the list of their highest paid “stars”. How Jeremy Vine earns that amount, I have no idea. Spends half his day posting left-wing ranting on twitter.

From The Sun:

From the Financial Times:

Is that it? Not very much compared to their American counterparts.

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