SKY Sports to launch new channel and win Eredivisie rights
Sky Sports have announced today they will be launching a brand new European Football channel ahead of the new season. Sky Sports 5 will air Champions League, Euro 2016 qualifiers, Spanish Football and for the first time live Dutch topflight football from the Eredivisie.
Customers with Sky Sports will be able to receive the new channel – Sky Sports 5 – as part of their sports package, at no extra cost, and as a further bonus they can make the switch to Sky Broadband with an offer giving them unlimited broadband for two years. Sky Sports 5 will screen over 600 live European football matches next season featuring European Qualifiers, UEFA Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey from Spain, plus a host of other European football programming including Revista De La Liga and Champions League Weekly.
Along with this Sky have signed a four year deal to show the Eredivisie from the Netherlands. The Dutch top flight was a regular fixture on Setanta Sports until 2009, but hasn’t featured much on British TV since. However viewers will be able to follow the domestic campaigns of the Netherlands’ top sides including Ajax, Feyenoord, FC Twente and PSV Eindhoven.
Customers can register for the channel via the red button, online and by calling from the 12th of June. A new comical advert featuring David Beckham will be seen for the first time on air at 9.45pm on Thursday evening at half time of the first World Cup game on ITV.
Barney Francis, Managing Director of Sky Sports said: “Sky Sports 5 takes our unrivalled live football coverage to the next level offering more European football than ever before. There’s never been a better time to be a Sky Sports customer and with two years’ free totally unlimited broadband, we offer the ultimate package for sports fans.”
Sky ambassador David Beckham added: “Some of my greatest playing moments were on the European stage with Manchester United, playing in El Clasico for Real Madrid and captaining England in Euro qualifiers. Sky Sports 5 will offer all the drama and excitement that European football has to offer and I’ll certainly be gripped.”
Sky Sports are showing a stand it would seem in their on-going battle with BT Sports. The latter are taking over Champions League rights from Sky from 2015/16. Also BT have long term deals with the Bundesliga in Germany, Serie A in Italy and Ligue 1 in France. Sky did come from left field with rights to the Coppa Italia last season and now slowly growing European coverage now ahead of the up and coming season.
