However, in 1991, Eurosport was the subject of a complaint by the competitor Screensport, who argued the effect of restricting and distorting competition in the sports market and Sky pulled out of the venture.

By bidding £304 million, BSkyB beat ITV to acquire the exclusive live Premier League football broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland for a five-year period.

[47] It was widely reported that Sky used the West Ham United v Stoke City Premier League game on 31 August 2013 as an internal production test for broadcasting 4K/Ultra HD picture.

Sky Sports' lead commentators include Peter Drury, Rob Hawthorne and Bill Leslie with Ian Crocker, Daniel Mann, Gary Weaver and Seb Hutchinson appearing occasionally, while co-commentary is regularly provided by Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Alan Smith, Andy Hinchcliffe and occasionally, Don Goodman and Lee Hendrie.

The increase is partly due to Sky taking over the midweek rounds previously shown by Amazon and by showing all ten fixtures from the final day of the season.

[57][58][59] The lead commentators that appear on Game of the Day and Premier League Replay, consist of a variety of freelancers including: Peter Drury, Jim Proudfoot, Joe Speight, Ian Darke, Gary Taphouse, Nigel Adderley, Mark Scott and Jonathan Beck.

Whilst the co-commentators include, Tony Gale, Keith Andrews, Andy Walker, Garry Birtles, Davie Provan, Don Goodman, David Phillips, Danny Gabbidon, Terry Gibson, Iain Dowie and Efan Ekoku.

Rob Hawthorne, Bill Leslie, Gary Weaver, David Stowell, Ian Crocker, Pien Meulensteen, Daniel Mann, Seb Hutchinson and Rob Palmer are the lead commentators throughout the competition with the co-commentators including, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Alan Smith, Andy Hinchcliffe, Don Goodman and Lee Hendrie.

[68][69] Launched on 20 August 1994, Soccer AM, is a Saturday morning talk show presented by John "Fenners" Fendley and ex-footballer Jimmy Bullard, with a focus on humorous analysis of British football, largely but not exclusively based around the Premier League.

Other studio pundits include Tony Cottee, Iain Dowie, Alan McInally, Matt Murray, Glen Johnson, Clinton Morrison and Sue Smith.

Regular reporters include Bianca Westwood, David Craig, Dickie Davies, Rob Palmer, Johnny Phillips, Neil Mellor, Peter Smith, Peter Stevenson, Stuart Jarrold, Paul Walsh, Simon Watts, Faye Carruthers, Tony Colliver, Jonathan Beales, Steve Jackson, Mike Jones, Russ Taylor, Mark Benstead, Charles Paterson, Frank Gilfeather, Andy Walker, Stuart Lovell, Davie Donaldson and John Temple.

A midweek programme with the same format, fronted by Julian Warren, is also broadcast when there are a number of major games taking place, such as on UEFA Champions League nights, and is called Soccer Special.

Test cricket coverage is presented by Ian Ward alongside a commentary team of Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Nick Knight, Ebony Rainford-Brent and occasionally, Sir Andrew Strauss.

In recent series, these have included, Dinesh Karthik (India), Simon Doull (New Zealand), Ian Bishop (West Indies), Ricky Ponting (Australia) and Wasim Akram (Pakistan).

Overseas series involving England are presented from the London studio by Nick Knight alongside the likes of Mark Butcher, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Dominic Cork, Niall O'Brien, Stuart Broad and many other guests.

Ian Ward, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain contribute to coverage from where England would be touring, as they would usually join the host broadcaster for these series.

Commentary comes from Charles Dagnall, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Lydia Greenway, Adam Collins, Niall O'Brien, Dominic Cork and Alex Tudor, along with many other guest commentators.

Coverage of women's cricket on Sky Sports is presented by Nick Knight, Mark Butcher or Mel Jones alongside commentators, Charles Dagnall, Adam Collins, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Lydia Greenway and Charlotte Edwards.

Sky also held the rights to tour matches by England, Ireland, Scotland and France, to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand (as a part of their contract with SANZAAR until 2018 and from 2022).

The sport is now seen as being in a healthy state with two live matches from the Super League every week fronted by Brian Carney, who is joined pitch-side or in the studio by pundits - usually two of: Jon Wilkin, Sam Tomkins, Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Jodie Cunningham.

Live Super League broadcasts routinely rank amongst the top ten most watched programmes in a week on Sky Sports [citation needed].

The co-commentators include expert analysts, McGinley, Beem, Roe, Howell, Johnstone, and presenter, Nick Dougherty, as well as many other guests, with Wayne Riley and Andrew Coltart providing on-course commentary.

Tim Barter and Sarah Stirk are the main interviewers on the golf coverage, with James Haddock reporting on majors for Sky Sports News.

[93] Anna Woolhouse is the lead presenter, alongside former boxers, Johnny Nelson, Spencer Oliver, Paulie Malignaggi, Carl Froch and Tony Bellew, with also the likes of Paul Smith and Matthew Macklin.

Towards the end of the contract, Sky Sports broadcast up to ten live matches each round with the coverage handled by the commentators who included Rob Palmer, Kevin Keatings, Jon Driscoll and Dominic Johnson.

From the 2018–19 season, Sky Sports no longer have the shared rights to the Champions Cup, these passed to Channel 4 and so did the contracts to cover Ireland's Autumn Internationals after 2018.

[128][129] In April 2019, Sky Sports aired nine fights of the World Boxing Super Series in the 2018–19 season, starting with the semi-final world title bouts between bantamweights Nonito Donaire and Stephon Young followed by super-lightweights Regis Prograis and Kiryl Relikh,[130] and ending in November with the bantamweight final between Nonito Donaire and Naoya Inoue.

It was shown two nights after the US broadcast after a viewer complained to Ofcom in August 2006 about an image in the opening credits, and Sky agreed to air the program after the watershed.

On 30 January 2014, Sky Sports announced they had signed another five-year deal with WWE, it will now continue to exclusively broadcast flagship shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland through to 2019.

The debate was reignited, with former Offaly hurler and television match analyst Michael Duignan stating publicly on RTÉ: "The biggest disgrace of the weekend was on Saturday evening, that Waterford and Kilkenny (Round 2 hurling match) wasn't shown free-to-air in this country", a statement which resounded with many GAA fans across Ireland and gained much public sympathy, bringing further into question the continuation of the Sky GAA deal in the long term.