The Sport Thread

Roland Garros: Early finish today and early start again tomorrow so changes to the ITV4 schedule.

They've got a recorded continuity announcement that says "sorry we're not able to bring you the French Open" sounds like it's for technical reasons, not because of rain.

Question for anyone here that might have Premier Sports on Sky - is the DOG tonight (specifically, during Republic of Ireland v Belarus) reading "Premier Sports HD" or "Setanta 1 HD"?

its Setanta 1 HD but why?

The reason I asked is, it was shown and available on both Setanta Ireland and Setanta 1 (which is really the same channel as Premier Sports) in Ireland. On previous occasions when Republic of Ireland games have been on both, Setanta 1 has been blocked for ROI customers. This has been annoying for Sky customers though, because Setanta Ireland is only SD, whereas Setanta 1/Premier Sports is HD. So glad they saw sense tonight, but was interested that they used the Setanta 1 DOG, break bumper and Setanta promos, all of which were presumably seen by UK viewers. It's especially interesting as Setanta and Premier have been separate companies for the past two months or so, though Setanta 1 and Premier Sports remain the same channel.

On 11th July, Sky Sports will start coverage of The Open, dedicating Sky Sports 1 to it with a temporary name change. Also on this date will be a permanent reshuffle of the Sports channels which will correct a silly decision made a while ago and the channels will go back to corresponding with their old EPG numbers:-

401 - Sky Sports 1 (Sky Sports The Open)
402 - Sky Sports 2
403 - Sky Sports 3
404 - Sky Sports 4
405 - Sky Sports 5
406 - Sky Sports News HQ
407 - Sky Sports F1

Ah, once again a Sky marketing decision is quietly reversed. See also Sky Sports 5 no longer being the 'home of European football' (although that had finished its very specific Summer 2014 purpose by that point, anyway). Good old Sky. Somehow they get away with it, though, and everybody thinks that they are the only broadcaster who can cover sport properly, probably because of the sheer bombast with which they justify their decision-making.

Apparently it's because they want to group the subscription channels together (401-405, Sky Sports 1-5) away from the channels that every Sky subscriber gets alongside the launch of Sky Sports Mix, which will presumably take over Sky Sports F1

Sky Sports 1-5 worked brilliantly on 401-405, I never understood why they changed it, it was just illogical.

Sky Sports Mix isn't replacing Sky Sports F1, unless you mean it's EPG entry. They're the exclusive home of F1 from 2019 anyway.

I wonder if 406 may one day become Sky Sports 6?

Sky Sports 6? There's hardly enough for the current 5. Have you browsed the channels at 5am. Very rare do you find anything live, and its all fillers. I can almost recite the script for 'Sporting Heroes - Babe Ruth' off by heart.

Meanwhile, further up the Dsat Sport EPG, the scattered mess of the BT Sports channels continues.

Surprised they're still carrying on with the terrible "Sky Sports News HQ HD" branding or "Sky SpN HQ HD" as it ridiculously appears as on the EPG.

The whole "aligning premium channels together" part appears to have been made up by a poster on DS (quelle surprise). There is no indication of what will happen to Sky Sports F1. Nor any hint that Sports News is on 406 because Sports Mix will take over 405 (or 407) or even take over an existing channel for that matter. It's all speculation, which started from someone's opinions they inserted into a copy and paste of a press release.

See the original Sky Sports release here:-
https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/news-page/2016/sky-sports-to-show-first-tee-shot-at-the-open-live-for-the-first-time

I thought they weren't allowed to use the Setanta name in UK hence Premier Sports?