Sky Sports is to give its viewers the opportunity to watch four Premier League games at once this season, introducing a “multiview” feature to accompany a record number of live matches in the top flight.
The initiative, which echoes the NFL’s “red zone” coverage where the pictures shift to where the action is, forms part of an expanded offering by Sky as the broadcaster seeks to hold off the challenges of piracy and adapt to a changing media environment.
Multiview will be used when Sky has the rights to show as many as five games at a time. This will mostly be on Sundays as a result of rescheduling for Thursday European fixtures. With one main match and three smaller screens lined up alongside, one commentary team will move across all the games. Each of the matches will also be broadcast individually on different channels. The format may also be used for coverage of the WSL this season.
Sky’s director of football, Gary Hughes, said the service would offer viewers more choice. “The question for us has been how can we enhance what we’ve got? And how can we utilise the new rights?” he said. “Having four simultaneous games, we might even have five on some midweeks, means it’s just the best way we can offer the best use of the assets that we’ve got. There could be some chaos to it, but that’s the beauty of having all those games at once.”
The broadcaster also announced it had recruited Mark Chapman as a presenter for its league coverage, with Chapman joining Kelly Cates in working for both Sky and the BBC’s Match of the Day this season. There will also be a new analysis show on Sunday nights, presented by Jamie Carragher, and a wide-ranging reboot of Sky Sports News which will bring the return of the formerly cancelled shows Goals on Sunday and the Sunday Supplement. Roman Kemp will host a show on the channel on Friday evenings.
Sky will show a minimum of 215 live Premier League matches this season as it enters the first of a new four-year £6.7bn rights deal. It comes into effect amid a decline in the value of sports rights across Europe, and ubiquitous online piracy.
The company reported a doubling of financial losses in its most recent accounts, but Jonathan Licht, Sky’s chief sports officer, said Sky Sports was a “growth business”, with record audiences recorded in April when Rory McIlroy won the Masters. He said new developments in its programming would give non-subscribers a chance to “reappraise” the brand. Licht called on tech companies, who are increasingly interested in sports rights, to “get the right side” of the issue of piracy.
“I think it’s everyone’s responsibility,” he said. “I think we certainly look at big tech to take that on and we look at the government to help. There is a feeling that if certain players were minded to do more, they could do more. If these players are going to want to be global sports players, they’re going to have to try and get the right side of piracy. It is a serious issue, it’s value destructive so we take it seriously.”
