Sky Italia refreshes sports channel lineup

Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has overhauled its sports offering by relaunching its channel portfolio, with a channel dedicated to Serie A, the top division of domestic football, introduced for the first time.

The changes took hold yesterday (Monday) and follow a similar move made by Sky’s sister operation in the UK last year.

Sky Italia’s sports portfolio will now consist of nine channels, with Sky Sport Serie A launched in the wake of the broadcaster’s rights deal last month.

Sky and digital sports content and media group Perform in June acquired domestic rights to Serie A, in deals worth a total of €973.3m ($1.166bn) per season across 2018-19 to 2020-21.

Sky, an existing rights-holder, acquired two packages, the first of which, Package 5, includes rights to three matches per weekend for a total of 114 per season, including the 8.30pm game on Sunday. Sky also acquired Package 6 – four matches per weekend or 152 per season, including the 8.30pm match on Mondays.

Sky Italia’s new lineup will also consist of dedicated channels for the Formula One motor-racing championship, MotoGP motorcycling championship and North American basketball league the NBA.

Elsewhere Sky Sport 24 will continue to provide sports news, while Sky Sport Uno will highlight the showcase sports offerings at the time. Sky Sport Football will provide international content such as the Uefa Champions League, Europa League and English Premier League.

Sky Sport Arena will offer the likes of the Wimbledon tennis grand slam and ATP men’s tournaments, along with the 2019 Basketball World Cup and US wrestling series WWE.

Finally, Sky Sport Golf will be the home of the PGA Tour, European Tour and Ryder Cup.

Sky Sport 24, Sky Sport Uno and Sky Sport Serie A will also be available via digital terrestrial television.