UPDATE: Sky Sports News HD launches on August 23
Updated 19.07.10
Sky Sports News will launch its high-definition service on August 23rd, following the withdrawal of the Sky Sports News channel from Freeview. It will be subscription-only on Sky and Virgin Media.
Published 17.06.10
Sky Sports News will no longer be shown on Freeview after Sky announced the channel is to become subscription-only. Sky will also be launching a new Sky Sports News HD channel.
BSkyB, which launched Sky Sports News on Freeview in 2002, is to replace the channel with a one-hour-timeshifted Sky 3 +1 service later this year.
Sky Sports' managing director, Barney Francis, said: "As part of a subscription service, customers can look forward to expanded coverage and the launch of Europe's first HD sports news service."
The move looks to signify a change in approach for BSkyB, which previously saw the benefit of a free-to-air channel for introducing the Sky brand to a wider audience, while also picking up increase ad revenue.
BSkyB will keep its presence on Freeview when it rebrands the Virgin 1 channel as part of its takeover of Virgin Media TV.
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Comments
Cr*p news. No intention of paying for SKY but they have taken a channel away that I do watch sometimes.
I agree the_lhc. I see no benefit of SSN going HD, tbh.But 16:9 would be good.
I don't care about HD for SSN, I'd like it if they just broadcast it in 16:9...
Are you the chris hollands we know from tv at all ?
and you're not wrong... we do pay enough for it !
and as such it should be available, full stop.
Cant believe that, i spend my life on Saturday afternoons in the kitchen watching
sky sports news!! What really winds me up is i subscribe and pay a fortune , but only for the living room..
sad news that :(
I do hope some decent competition comes along ... put sky in their place.
Am gutted thats my favourite channel
Does anyone actually watch Sky 3 ?
That's no good.