IT'S SATURDAY, EVERY DAY (Sky Sports News)

Member Name: nathaninnit

Product:	Sky Sports News
Date:	25/02/08 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Team news and the such

Disadvantages: More extensive info on the net

Watching the news no longer means hearing about the more serious worldwide business, but instead if you flick to channel 405 you can tune into news coverage that is dedicated entirely to sporting events. Why on earth would you ever need a twenty-four hour news station for sport you ask? Believe me, there are reasons, but you will only see them if you are a sports fan and if you want to see them. This isn't the channel that will make you become a sports fan, but it is a musthave channel when you are a sports fan. This is Sky Sports News.
Established in 1998, SSN became the first digital only channel on the launch of BSkyB's digital satellite service that is now so popular across the country. 2000 would see the channel introduce a '.com' to the title of the channel to help promote to the launch of a Sky Sports website, but this would be dumped a year later as a testiment to the success of the channel and continued service to its viewers promising to be among the first for breaking news. Over the years as we now approach the channels ten-year anniversary many changes have occured, the biggest coming in the presentation of the channel in August '07 to coincide with the new football season. This came in terms of colour schemes and music rather than the actual layout, which is similar to that of what you see on Soccer Specials only offering different information on the right hand side of the screen and along the bottom.

Whilst the audiance share does differ depending on the importance of the news, as of Nov '07 the general audiance share was around the 0.6% mark, an achievement for a news broadcast. A look at audiance figures for the same time frame shows that the channels partner, Sky News only earns a 0.5% share showing that a lack of competitors does benefit SSN. Having said that the channel saw its first competitor emerge last year in the form of Setanta Sports News, that as of Dec '07 had no sort of reputable audiance share. This channel was a result of Virgin Media's frustration with BSkyB as they failed to resolve a dispute that meant their customers would no longer receive the basic BSkyB channels, including SSN as well as the likes of Sky One. In retaliation, Virgin Media changed the name of SSN on their electronic television guide to 'OLD SKY SPORTS SNOOZE', a move that lead the world to give a big grow up shout to Richard Branson.
So, SSN is the pinacle of sporting journalism, and there are many people that make up the team of presenters and reporters. Whilst it is important for people on television in their position to remain inpartial, you sometimes question whether they are trying to not be bias or if they just do not know anything about what they are talking about. Whilst the channel does broadcast the same Soccer Saturday programme side-by-side with Sky Sports 1 at the weekends, usually the team on SNN is made out of people who are picked on their appearance and way with words, rather than for making good pundits. I suppose this is as they want people that can read the news, rather than go off on a tangent of opinion. What opinion we do see on Sky Sports on various programmes from pundits is what sets those shows apart from the rest however, and makes SNN very ordinary when it comes to delivery.

Thriving on news from the sporting industry means it can be a slow day, and being a reputatable broadcast they can't just make things up. This does also mean that the main headlines are not always going to be football orientated, although for the most part they are. It all comes down to a matter of preference as to what sport you find the most entertaining, but one of the low points of the channel is when it is discussing things I really don't care about. What SNN can do that no other channel can is things like the last hour countdown to the transfer deadline, giving you all the last minute excitement as a counter in the bottom corner counts down to midnight. You also get things like new player unveilings, immediate reaction to FA cup draws and England team announcements, and for the first time ever in 2007 SSN even aired the Conference playoff final between Exeter and Morecambe.

FREEVIEW CUSTOMERS CAN ALSO RECEIVE SSN ON CH.83

Summary: Perfect at times of urgency, e.g. the Eduardo injury