Sky Sports News - Breaking Sports News (Sky Sports News)

Member Name: Carysb

Product:	Sky Sports News
Date:	13/07/09 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exclusive, Up-to-date, Informative

Disadvantages: Repetative

Sky Sports news is a 24 hours news facility which is dedicated to all sporting issues. The channel 405 on Sky or 83 on Freeview is presented by two presenters in each of its programmes and they take it in turn to report the latest sporting news updates as well as views and emails of the opinions on various topics.

Sky Sports News - Sky Channel 405 - Freeview Channel 83

Sky Sports News is always at the forefront of breaking sports news and at this time of the year has a very strong tendency to lean towards football, but that is not to say that the other sports are ignored.

What you see on Sky Sports News is a screen divided into 4 sections. There is a column to the right hand side which gives updates such as upcoming fixtures, sporting results or during transfer season, those who have come in and out of all league football clubs. Running along the bottom of the screen is a toolbar which has tabs on it, football, cricket, racing, rugby, tennis, golf, F1 etc depending on what news is available, and below whichever tab is open, is the headlines for that sport. The main image on the screen is likely to be a studio shot of the two presenters or the screen will be filled with whatever they are talking about, for example a clip from a sport or interviews. The day is delivered in sections and on a weekend the schedule looks something like this:

Good Morning Sports Fans is what will be on in the morning when you wake up and are eating your cornflakes. The programme starts at 7am and goes right through the morning until 10am. They often look at what is on the mornings back pages of the papers and will be delivering the daily headlines. The Morning Report is scheduled between 10am and noon. A Saturday is different to the weekday programme in that Football Today is from 12pm - 2pm followed by Gillette Soccer Saturday which host s several football pundits sat in the studio discussing the current footballing events and that days fixtures. Between 3pm - 5.30pm they comment on the matches as they happen, offering an insight from each premier league match and often from the grounds of league games. During this time the current scores of every match being played will be rolling to the right hand side of the presenters and in the toolbar will be minute by minute updates on goals scorers, results, half or full time announcements and details of those who are being red carded across the country. As you can probably tell, Saturdays are very football orientated during the football season on Sky Sports News and after Gillette Soccer Saturday they have an Evening Update of all sporting events followed by Football Tonight between 7pm and 10pm. 10pm sees the sports headlines followed by Through the Night which starts at 11pm and goes through until the next morning at 7am.
On a weekday the programming is changed slightly and isn't as football orientated (though you don't get away from it).

From Monday to Friday you will wake up to Good Morning Sports Fans, starts at 6am and continues until 10am, from 10am - 12pm is the Morning Report, 12pm - 3pm is the Football Update and from 3pm - 5pm is The Afternoon Report . 5pm signals the evening update which again is followed at 7pm by the show Football Tonight. The Sporting News is at 10pm and then Through the Night starts at 11pm.

The channel has an array of presenters both male and female and all cover their stories well. You will be unlikely to find an unattractive female presenter on the show but the same cannot be said for the men. Sky Sports News is the best News programme dedicated to sports available. Others have attempted to match their efforts with Setanta being the second best thing, having copied Sky's format and mirrored it, but failing to provide the same quality of presenters and up to date exclusives. Nobody can criticise the channel for not being up to the moment with breaking news and they are the best channel to go to for regular updates on any subject (especially football) if you are awaiting for a breakthrough announcement.

The downfalls of such a system lie when you have nothing else to watch and cannot just flick the channel over. Sky Sports News as with all news channels is extremely repetitive and you will find yourself watching the same news story several times an hour. The channel boasts all the news every 15minutes and that exactly what they offer.

If a piece of breaking news is broken then other stories do not just disappear, they will reappear on the news tabs at the bottom on the page in the toolbar and you will see then run across the bottom of your screen. Viewers are repeatedly offered the chance to interact with the presenters and contact details are regularly published in big bold letters for you to email or text your views to them. Many emails are read out live as they come in, especially if there has been a big event of topic of discussion. The channel is very fair in what it airs for example they will read out emails which both agree and disagree with what has happened, what the presenters say and what other viewers think. The channel like most others aims to be impartial and will release interviews and statements from all sports and a sensible amount of time is even to each news article, they are not rushed and they are informative. Sky Sports News can only be praised over its coverage of the Football transfer windows as it runs down the clock until midnight. I have to say I watch it all and I am always impressed that they have reporters at the majority of locations throughout the country who are wherever they needed to be to dish the dirt. Unfortunately for me the one I'm interested in is Newcastle and the news is always all bad. I am pleased that Sky released this channel to the Freeview network so others can benefit from it. It is a good channel and its definitely worth looking at if you need any updates.

My criticism of the channel is that it is very repetitive but that cannot be helped, and also that they do not change the bits which introduce the show or the adverts. The images they use are very distinctive and whenever you hear the Sky Sports News music you cannot fail to know what channel you are watching, but the run up is old and needs updating.

If this interests you check out the Sky Sports website and see what else they have to offer. The site is updated with as much content if not more than the channel and you will find opinion polls, as well as past and present stories and news articles to browse through. There are also top racing tips which feature during the day and also a forum for discussion. The website is advertised a lot on the channel so if you ever (heaven forbid) miss something the presenters say and cannot sit in for the next round up you will be sure to find it on the website.

Sky Sports Website

On first look the website is very cluttered with lots of link, information and images. It is a similar design to the news channel but the different sports tabs run across the top and each consists of a link which will take you to the pages of said sport. For example if you click on Rugby Union you are taken to the Rugby Union page where you then need to click for fixtures, tables, news photos, links etc etc. These options are available for all sports. The site is very easy to navigate with the sports headlines listed in links to the centre of the page and an image to the left of the top story also linking to the text that accompanies the image. The home page also gives you the option to view the latest headlines on video, photos or to watch them live on your computer. Scrolling down the page you will find a "don't miss these" section of recent stories and also a user poll. The poll is updated regularly and you can view the results by clicking a link.

You will also find the "Sky Sports News Debate" which has links to the forum, fans views and quotes from viewers who have emailed or text in. There is something for every sports fan in the debate section and an opportunity to upload your own videos on the SkyCast (however on clicking the link you will be directed to a holding page of information stating that this facility will no longer be available and you can redirect yourself via the relevant links i.e., news, sports etc. If you have seen a news article on the television but cannot see it on the site then you can search by using the search facility in the top right hand corner. This allows you to search the Sky Sports website or extend your search to a Google search. The website also uses its own key system which indicates if a story is accompanied by a video. If this is the case you will see a small image of a reel of film. That indicates that the story has a link to a video clip related to it.

In addition to all of the above you can access betting services, expert opinions, competitions, forums, RSS feeds, sportszine and the television guide and highlights for ALL Sky Sports Channels.

Summary: Up to date sports news