Viasat Sport is the common brand of several sports channels targeting the Nordic, Baltic and Eastern European countries owned by Modern Times Group. Viasat Sport is also the name of one TV-channel in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Baltics. Its main competitors are CMore Sport and Eurosport.
Contents
Association football
Other sports
Channels
Viasat Sport was launched as a pan-Nordic channel in 1999. In January 2002, a dedicated Danish channel, Viasat Sport Denmark, launched and replaced the pan-Nordic version in Denmark.
1 February 2004, Viasat launched two new sport channels; Viasat Sport 2 and Viasat Sport 3. The two existing channels were re-branded as Viasat Sport 1. During the autumn the two new channels were refocused, turning Viasat Sport 2 into a dedicated soccer channel and Viasat Sport 3 becoming a channel for motor and contact sports.
In April 2005, a "news channel" called Viasat Sport 24 was launched.
In the end of 2005, Viasat Sport 1 in Norway was replaced by SportN, a joint venture with government-owned public broadcaster NRK .
In January 2007, a dedicated golf channel, Viasat Golf, was launched replacing Viasat Sport 24.
11 April 2007, Viasat Sport 1 in Denmark was replaced by TV 2 Sport, a joint venture with state-owned broadcaster TV 2.
In early 2008, Viasat launched their first high-definition sports channels: TV 2 Sport HD for Denmark and Viasat Sport HD för Norway and Sweden.
On October 17, 2008, the Viasat Sport channels went through a major overhaul which saw Viasat Sport 2 and 3 disappear in Sweden and Norway. They were replaced by Viasat Fotboll (in Sweden), Viasat Sport (in Norge) and Viasat Motor (both countries). The Swedish Viasat Sport 1 was renamed Viasat Sport. Viasat Sport HD continued to be available in both Norway and Sweden, and Viasat Golf was still available in all four Scandinavian countries.
Viasat Sport 2 and 3 continued in Denmark, Finland and the Baltics until January 6, 2009. On January 7, 2009, Viasat Sport Baltic channel was launched in Baltic states. Viasat Golf also became available in the region. Finland and Denmark didn't receive any replacements for Viasat Sport 2 and 3. In Bulgaria the channel is called 'Nova Sport'.
Denmark
Channel lineup:
Finland
Channel lineup:
Norway
New channel lineup as of 15 September 2008:
Sweden
New channel lineup as of 16 September 2009:
Baltics
New channel lineup as of January 7, 2009