Sky Sports Creates Dedicated European Football Channel

LONDON: Sky Sports is to launch the first-ever TV channel dedicated exclusively to European football, with Sky Sports 5.

Sky Sports customers will be able to receive the new channel as part of their sports package, and as an added bonus can also get two years free Sky Broadband Unlimited. The network will broadcast up to 600 live European football matches next season.

Sky Sports 5 marks the seventh channel from Sky Sports. It will serve as the home of European Qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016, UEFA Champions League, La Liga, Coppa Italia and Copa del Rey for Sky Sports viewers, plus a host of other European football programming including Revista De La Liga and Champions League Weekly.  For the first time, Sky Sports will also offer exclusively live coverage of Holland’s top division Eredivisie.

Sky Sports viewers can activate the channel from June 12, ahead of it officially going live on August 12.

Barney Francis, the managing director of Sky Sports, said: “Sky Sports 5 takes our unrivaled live football coverage to the next level offering more European football than ever before. There’s never been a better time to be a Sky Sports customer and with two years’ free totally unlimited broadband, we offer the ultimate package for sports fans.”

Sky ambassador David Beckham added: “Some of my greatest playing moments were on the European stage with Manchester United, playing in El Clasico for Real Madrid and captaining England in Euro qualifiers. Sky Sports 5 will offer all the drama and excitement that European football has to offer and I’ll certainly be gripped.”