Gray, Tyler and seductive viewing (Sky Sports 1)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Sky Sports 1
Date:	01/09/01 (358 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gray, Tyler, The content

Disadvantages: Jimmy Hill

You can imagine the scene now .... Courtroom One, the place is hushed, the man and the woman glare at each other across the seething room, the woman's barrister speaks slowly and solemnly: "Mrs D was driven to the point of distraction by dave27 and his horrible and prolonged abuse. She is now filing for divorce and she cites as the co-respondent..." A buzz goes around the gallery as the expectation is tangible "... Sky Sports."

Now I know that this is pushing things a tad more than somewhat, but the high quality sports coverage provided by Sky Sports and its unfailing ability to grip the attention of the great British male viewing public like an absolute vice has undoubtedly been the source of considerable marital tension in living rooms the length and breadth of the UK this last decade.

Football on Sky began with a bang back in August 1992 with the advent of the Premiership League and all that it entailed and the good old greatest game in the world would never be quite the same again. Ever since that fateful day, the great British game has been one of the absolute core offerings behind Sky Sports' steady and sustained rise to the very pinnacle of British sports television programming.

These days in the field of sports coverage on television there is really no contest - Sky Sports is the start, middle and ending and is totally without equal.

You get it as part of the standard Sky package, together with Sky Movies and around 100 different channels, and we currently pay £29.99 for it, though that is just about to go up to £34.99, and even though Mrs D regularly gives me the most vicious of ear bashings for that level of outgoing, I rate this the absolute tops in terms of value for money. The Movie and Sports channels are really what makes the Sky offering so outstanding and if you took either of them away the Sky deal wouldn't be half so popular.

Let's just take a quick rundown on a ty
pical month in the Sky Sports universe. In September 2001you get the following live footie games - Nuneaton Borough v Yeovil Town (whoo big time or what!), Republic of Ireland v Holland, Scotland v Croatia, Germany v England, England Under 21 v Albania Under 21, England v Albania, Hearts v Rangers, Charlton v Fulham, Chelsea and Leeds in the UEFA Cup, Dundee v Celtic, Ipswich v Blackburn, Leicester v Middlesbrough, Chelsea v Charlton, Dundee United v Rangers, West Ham v Newcastle, Southampton v Aston Villa, Rangers v Celtic and Ipswich v Leeds. That's 19 games in 30 days, and that's without the very latest thing, the pay per view offering, and coverage of Spain's La Liga.

You also get some great cricket games and some naff cricket games, Australian Rugby League, the US Tennis Open, the Australia-New Zealand Rugby Union match, and some wonderful golf coverage, including the Ryder Cup.

Sky Sports 1 gets the biggest highlights, but 2, 3 and Sky Sports Extra get their fair share of BIG STUFF. Now this bloody great enormous package represents one of the greatest TV deals you could hope to come across, absolutely phenomenal.


Aside from the basic raw content of Sky Sports, there's an awful lot of skill and quality about the way that the whole lot is presented and packaged and it's all extremely well done. There's an awful lot of razzamatazz and American influenced kitsch and cheesey naffness about it all, but it is very, very seductive and gripping. There's great commentary from people like Martin Tyler and Andy Gray, the Saint and Greavesie of the last ten years, but then you get the appalling link work of the hairiest man alive, Richard Keys, he of the beetling brows, hairy arms and abysmal jackets and ties, but every station needs to have its loser and Keys fills the bill perfectly.

Now bad as Keys is, I can handle him a bit easier than old duffers like Tony Gubba (the man with no eyebrows), Steve
Ryder (the man with no charisma) and Ray Stubbs (the man with no personality). That little lot would cure your insomnia.

Match of the Day used to have Hansen, Lineker and Brooking, and Hansen's waspishness was great television, but the quality of the Tyler-Gray partnership is very good, and the former Scotland centre forward has made an outstanding transition from playing to on screen punditry.

The Saturday afternoon results service as provided by Sky Sports 3 is also a real highlight of the week with such superb contributors as Clive Allen, Rodney Marsh and Frank McLintock, though you also get the considerably less gifted George Best (now sadly addled and the worse for his alcohol problems), Dave Bassett (usually quite distracted by watching the football), Chris Kamara (bluff and steadfastly Yorkshire hard nut) and Alan Mullery (Mr Stubborn and very dull), but the interplay is thoroughly entertaining.

There also needs to be a special mention for Soccer AM, the Saturday morning fun time magazine programme with Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain, although that is balanced by the Sunday Supplement with the outdated and fumbling Jimmy Hill.

On the whole, however, Sky Sports on the box is a wonderful experience.

The station used to also have an extremely strong Internet site with some truly wonderful soccer photography, but they had a redesign about seven or eight months ago and it's become only a shadow of its former self, and I've switched my Net Sports favours to bbc.co.uk of recent times.

Summary: