Sky Sports 4 To Become Dedicated Ryder Cup Channel

arunan22 · 21/07/14 - 10:59

Sky Sports will dedicate an entire channel to The 2014 Ryder Cup this Autumn, offering two weeks of non-stop golf including exclusively live coverage of the biggest event in the sport.

For the first time ever, Sky Sports 4 will become ‘Sky Sports Ryder Cup’ and will show over 330 hours of golf across 14 days, including 36 hours of live coverage from Gleneagles.

The 2014 Ryder Cup is the tenth to be shown exclusively live by Sky Sports. The channel goes live at 6am on Thursday 18 September and continues until 6am on Thursday 2nd October. Last year Sky Sports launched ‘Sky Sports Ashes’ for England’s home cricket series against Australia.

Sky Sports Ryder Cup will form part of an unrivalled autumn of sport on Sky which includes Barclays Premier League football, UEFA Champions League, Autumn International rugby union, Formula 1, ATP tennis and NFL. It also follows the launch of Sky Sports 5, the new home of European football, which launches on 12 August.

Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said: “We’re dedicating a whole channel to the biggest event in golf, providing viewers with the complete Ryder Cup experience all in one place. There will be nowhere better for sports fans to enjoy the passion, drama and excitement of this incredible event. We’ll offer round-the-clock build up, the opening and closing ceremonies and exclusive live coverage of all three days from Gleneagles. We’re incredibly proud of our partnership with golf and its fitting we mark our tenth Ryder Cup on Sky Sports with an entire channel. We can’t wait.”

George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: “The dedication shown by Sky Sports in showcasing both The European Tour and The Ryder Cup is matched only by the continued excellence and innovation of their programming, as will be further illustrated by the ‘Sky Sports Ryder Cup’ channel this September. We are extremely proud of our relationship with Sky Sports and we thank them for their continued commitment and look forward to working together at Gleneagles and beyond.”

Paul McGinley, European Ryder Cup Captain and Sky Ambassador added: “The Ryder Cup is a truly unique sporting spectacle, full of drama, excitement and passion, all of which has been brought to life for the television viewers over the years by Sky Sports. Having worked with the Sky Sports team at major golf events for the past couple of years, I know the professionalism and enthusiasm in place for our sport, all of which will go together to produce a feast of television for golf fans in September.”

Sky Sports will offer unprecedented live coverage of The 2014 Ryder Cup across TV, online and via mobile and tablet devices with Sky Go. Non-subscribers can either enjoy seven days access to the Sky Sports Ryder Cup channel and Sky Sports other six channels contract free on TV and a range of devices with NOW TV.

For live coverage of The 2014 Ryder Cup presenter David Livingstone will be joined in the studio by former winning European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie, coach to US Ryder Cup stars Butch Harmon, and on Sunday Jack Nicklaus who played in five Ryder Cup teams and captained the USA twice winning in 1983. Also providing commentary will be Royal Television Society award winners Ewen Murray and Bruce Critchley as well as Rob Lee and Mark Roe. On course reporting will be provided by Howard Clark who made played in six European Ryder teams between 1977 and 1995, Richard Boxall and Tim Barter, and highlights programming will be presented by Sarah Stirk who will be joined each day in the studio by Andrew Coltart and Nick Dougherty to review the key moments in the previous’ days matches.

From Sunday 21 September Sky Sports News will provide reports throughout the day each in the build-up from Gleneagles as both teams get their first look at the PGA Centenary Course and captains Paul McGinley and Tom Watson fine tune their preparation for the matches. Coverage on Sky Sports News throughout the week will be presented by Kirsty Gallacher with reports from James Haddock.

Sky Sports Ryder Cup will be packed with golf programming including preview shows from Sunday to Thursday of Ryder Cup week, the official opening and closing ceremonies, exclusive interview specials with Paul McGinley and Ian Poulter, and a special preview show on 21 September with Butch Harmon, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance and Tony Jacklin. The channel will also show the official films from previous Ryder Cups including the ‘Miracle of Medinah,’ a highlights show every evening between 7pm and 10pm and ‘How The Ryder Cup Was Won’ from the following Monday.

Visitors to Gleneagles for The 2014 Ryder Cup will be able to access the Sky Sports Ryder Cup channel for free whether they are Sky Sports subscribers or not thanks to complimentary WIFI provided by The Ryder Cup and access to Sky Sports provided by Sky Go and NOW TV.

Sky Sports seem to be a big fan of rebranding channels temporarily for big events e.g like the Ashes. Not sure I see the point, but doesnt really make a difference. Good news for Golf fans I suppose!

steveh31 · 21/07/14 - 11:11

Did we need a whole essay on it lol a quick Sky Sports 4 to become Ryder Cup channel would have been enough.

andy_d77 · 21/07/14 - 11:16

interesting that its on ss4 as its a list B event

Jason C · 21/07/14 - 11:18

Presumably this is another conceit to make a major Sky Sports event unavailable to people watching through BT?

howard h · 21/07/14 - 11:20

steveh31 wrote: »

Did we need a whole essay on it lol a quick Sky Sports 4 to become Ryder Cup channel would have been enough.

Got to the start of the fourth paragraph and realised it was just a load of Sky Sports spin tosh and gave up reading.

Golf's tucked away on a pay-TV channel. For that I owe a debt of gratitude.

Mark. · 21/07/14 - 11:22

andy_d77 wrote: »

interesting that its on ss4 as its a list B event

So what?

andy_d77 · 21/07/14 - 11:23

Jason C wrote: »

Presumably this is another conceit to make a major Sky Sports event unavailable to people watching through BT?

as i stated at the same time its an interesting move re BT wonder if the golf powers that be will have approved of this or just been told SS4 or we are off???

andy_d77 · 21/07/14 - 11:27

Mark. wrote: »

So what?

as someone else has noted it reduces the pay tv viewing to those with just sky. list b has to have highlights fta - but there are lots of marketing and financial implications of this.

this could be sky signaling where there is no clause stating it must be on 'your main channel' [ie ss1 ss2] they are going to put more list b events they hold exclusively onto sky exclusive channels.

Mark. · 21/07/14 - 11:30

andy_d77 wrote: »

as i stated at the same time its an interesting move re BT wonder if the golf powers that be will have approved of this or just been told SS4 or we are off???

Why would "the golf powers that be" need to approve anything?

They sold the rights to Sky; Sky can do what they want with it. The only people that can take a serious interest in where Sky shows different sports is Ofcom, i.e. if substantial premium content is moved to SS3 or 4.

Mark. · 21/07/14 - 11:31

andy_d77 wrote: »

as someone else has noted it reduces the pay tv viewing to those with just sky. list b has to have highlights fta - but there are lots of marketing and financial implications of this.

this could be sky signaling where there is no clause stating it must be on 'your main channel' [ie ss1 ss2] they are going to put more list b events they hold exclusively onto sky exclusive channels.

So long as the highlights remain available FTA, the listing is irrelevant to Sky.

arunan22 · 21/07/14 - 11:35

steveh31 wrote: »

Did we need a whole essay on it lol a quick Sky Sports 4 to become Ryder Cup channel would have been enough.

Sorry I was in a rush at the time so just copied and pasted the press release!

andy_d77 · 21/07/14 - 11:41

Mark. wrote: »

Why would "the golf powers that be" need to approve anything?

They sold the rights to Sky; Sky can do what they want with it. The only people that can take a serious interest in where Sky shows different sports is Ofcom, i.e. if substantial premium content is moved to SS3 or 4.

The R&A have spoken to the BBC and to SKY on previous occasions about the exposure that golf has on their channels and its positioning, both in relation to the channel and 'presentation' of it. They have on many occasions stated that they want the widest possible audience to their main events hence why the open is still exclusive to the BBC

This is the first time that a golf 'list B' event has been moved in an era where there is take up of skys channels by subscribers to other providers (VM BT etc), the objection that the R&A have would be that they have reduced exposure they have removed it from their main channels

Peter Dawson stated in the Guardian:
“I think it’s now 59 years since the Open was first televised on the BBC. Our contract runs through [to] the 2016 Open and what will happen thereafter remains to be seen. We obviously have to balance that long-term relationship and the high viewership of the BBC against commercial considerations. The value of golf rights has accelerated dramatically, particularly in the US just in the last 12 months, and that’s perhaps a bigger item in the equation than it might otherwise have been, but it’s massively premature to speculate on what might occur.”

A 'major' event is not going to have that if you reduce its exposure to just one provider for live coverage and another for highlights who don't have advertising.

on a side issue SKY's figures are out on friday

Mark. · 21/07/14 - 11:47

andy_d77 wrote: »

The R&A have spoken to the BBC and to SKY on previous occasions about the exposure that golf has on their channels and its positioning, both in relation to the channel and 'presentation' of it. They have on many occasions stated that they want the widest possible audience to their main events hence why the open is still exclusive to the BBC

The Ryder Cup is nothing to do with the R&A - it's a joint venture between the PGA and the European Tour.

This is the first time that a golf 'list B' event has been moved in an era where there is take up of skys channels by subscribers to other providers (VM BT etc), the objection that the R&A have would be that they have reduced exposure they have removed it from their main channels

Again, it's nothing to do with the R&A.

And stop mentioning the 'B listing'; it's got no relevance whatsoever.

Ginger Daddy · 21/07/14 - 11:49

Hardly a shock revelation this, Sky have been putting all of its golf on Sky Sports 4 for ages now.

eladkse · 21/07/14 - 11:51

Am I missing something here? SS4 is available on Virgin and Talk Talk. It certainly isn't a Sky exclusive - it's only BT who miss out. There are plenty of providers.

apaul · 21/07/14 - 12:07

There isn't 330 hours of golf over 14 days to be shown. It'll be an orgy of repeats and padding.

andy_d77 · 21/07/14 - 13:33

Mark. wrote: »

The Ryder Cup is nothing to do with the R&A - it's a joint venture between the PGA and the European Tour.

Again, it's nothing to do with the R&A.

And stop mentioning the 'B listing'; it's got no relevance whatsoever.

that is used as an example of how golf feels about tv coverage; the list b is of relevance as ofcom / government could say that they are going to either remove its listing or make it 'A list' based upon the restrictive viewing implications of it only being live on sky sports 4

Mark. · 21/07/14 - 13:41

andy_d77 wrote: »

that is used as an example of how golf feels about tv coverage;

An example of how the R&A feels about TV coverage; they don't speak for all of golf.

Sky's coverage of the PGA and European Tours has been on SS4 for some time now and I've not seen any objections raised.

the list b is of relevance as ofcom / government could say that they are going to either remove its listing or make it 'A list' based upon the restrictive viewing implications of it only being live on sky sports 4

No they won't.

Seriously, you're just showing how little you understand about this. The 'B listing' only requires that FTA highlights are provided; so long as that criteria as met, the live rights holder can show them in any way they want.

Dansky+HD · 21/07/14 - 14:04

Jason C wrote: »

Presumably this is another conceit to make a major Sky Sports event unavailable to people watching through BT?

It's a good thing to be hitting back at BT.

jeffersbnl · 21/07/14 - 14:38

andy_d77 wrote: »

This is the first time that a golf 'list B' event has been moved in an era where there is take up of skys channels by subscribers to other providers (VM BT etc)

They've tried something similar before. Sky moved the 1999 Ryder Cup to Sky Box Office, but made it available to all subscribers. That prevented On Digital customers from being able to watch it. (The cable companies carried the Sky Box Office coverage.)

The European Tour kicked up a fuss and in the end three hours a day was shown on Sky Sports 2 (which was available via On Digital).

Details here, here and the resoloution here.

andy_d77 · 21/07/14 - 16:01

jeffersbnl wrote: »

They've tried something similar before. Sky moved the 1999 Ryder Cup to Sky Box Office, but made it available to all subscribers. That prevented On Digital customers from being able to watch it. (The cable companies carried the Sky Box Office coverage.)

The European Tour kicked up a fuss and in the end three hours a day was shown on Sky Sports 2 (which was available via On Digital).

Details here, here and the resoloution here.

many thanks for that I know this had happened in the past, our friend Mark seems to think hes an expert and denounces others who point out these little nuances in coverage arrangements and how rights distributors can ask for clarification or a change of broadcasting, especially as the list B status [fta highlights] means that the coverage is warranted to be of an event deserving of the best exposure on live PTV

Mark. · 21/07/14 - 16:13

andy_d77 wrote: »

many thanks for that I know this had happened in the past, our friend Mark seems to think hes an expert and denounces others who point out these little nuances in coverage arrangements and how rights distributors can ask for clarification or a change of broadcasting, especially as the list B status [fta highlights] means that the coverage is warranted to be of an event deserving of the best exposure on live PTV

How many times - the 'B' list has absolutely nothing to do with where and how Sky show the coverage. They could make it genuinely PPV and charge people £20/day, but so long as the BBC continued to show highlights in the evening, that would be that.

Sure, the organisers could complain but strictly speaking unless there's a clause in the contract that outlines acceptable levels of coverage then they don't have a leg to stand on. The only reason Sky were keen to find a solution in the past is because they didn't want to lose the rights when they were up for grabs again.

I would also think having a dedicate channel called "Ryder Cup" will actually be quite appealing to the PGA/European Tour.

Radiomike · 21/07/14 - 16:14

andy_d77 wrote: »

many thanks for that I know this had happened in the past, our friend Mark seems to think hes an expert and denounces others who point out these little nuances in coverage arrangements and how rights distributors can ask for clarification or a change of broadcasting, especially as the list B status [fta highlights] means that the coverage is warranted to be of an event deserving of the best exposure on live PTV

1999 was a different world and the circumstances here are entirely different. I wonder how many people receive Sky Sports through BT. I imagine it isn't that many. As Sky Sports 4 is otherwise widely available I don't think the PGA Tour or the European Tour will have an issue.

The B List status warrants nothing more than that an event has been designated (not by the rights holder though) worthy of requiring at least highlights on FTA tv. Best exposure on payTV (I assume that is what you mean by PTV) would require it to be on Sky One or another basic level subscription channel. It isn't so that argument falls flat. The difference between being on Sky Sports 4 as opposed to Sky Sports 1/2 is minimal for a golf event.

I'd also imagine there's a fair chance that from or after 2016 Sky might have The Open with the BBC having live rights only on Sat/Sun alongside Sky and highlights the first two days.

gs1 · 21/07/14 - 16:35

Jason C wrote: »

Presumably this is another conceit to make a major Sky Sports event unavailable to people watching through BT?

I think such shifting of content is becoming increasingly irrelevant to BT & most of its customers, as unless they expressly order Sky Sports 1&2 at the point of order, new customers are provided with a Youview box in the knowledge that there's no upgrade to any of Sky Sports channels available.

BT's deal for Sky Sports 1&2 via the Vision box reportedly expires in 2016.
I wonder how long BT will continue to support the platform?

GeorgeS · 21/07/14 - 17:28

sky sports 4 is pretty much Sky's golf channel anyways so it's no surprise that the Ryder Cup is on it.

Alex2606 · 21/07/14 - 19:12

jeffersbnl wrote: »

They've tried something similar before. Sky moved the 1999 Ryder Cup to Sky Box Office, but made it available to all subscribers. That prevented On Digital customers from being able to watch it. (The cable companies carried the Sky Box Office coverage.)

The European Tour kicked up a fuss and in the end three hours a day was shown on Sky Sports 2 (which was available via On Digital).

Details here, here and the resoloution here.

andy_d77 wrote: »

many thanks for that I know this had happened in the past, our friend Mark seems to think hes an expert and denounces others who point out these little nuances in coverage arrangements and how rights distributors can ask for clarification or a change of broadcasting, especially as the list B status [fta highlights] means that the coverage is warranted to be of an event deserving of the best exposure on live PTV

There's a key quote in that Guardian piece though,

Spokesman Mitchell Platts said last night: "The Ryder Cup committee will be insisting in meetings with Sky that our contract is honoured and that the telecasts are transmitted on Sky Sports (One) which is where the viewing public have been accustomed to watching European tour golf coverage."

Sky Sports could just point out that all European Tour coverage has been on Sky Sports 4 this season so viewers are accustomed to watching it there.

It's also highly unlikely that the European Tour are going to kick off about it given that their Chief Exec has given quotes in the press release supportive of the move

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