Sky Sports News to go free-to-air in Germany, Austria

German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has said it will make its Sky Sports News HD channel freely available to viewers from December.

Sky Sports News HD launched in December 2011 as the first 24-hour sports news channel in Germany and Austria.

Under the change, it will become freely available across all platforms in the two countries and will be the first free-to-air television channel launched by Sky.

Carsten Schmidt, chief executive of Sky Deutschland, said: “We are convinced that the channel is very popular even beyond the circle of Sky customers and is a great showcase of the Sky brand as Germany’s No.1 sports supplier. The start of the first free TV channel is a further milestone in the development of Sky Deutschland.”