Launched March 1, 1999 Picture format 16:9 SDTV, HDTV Country Sweden | Owned by Modern Times Group Audience share 0.2% (2008, ) | |
Slogan "En kanal för varje passion." ("One channel for every passion") | ||
Viasat Sport is a group of sports channels broadcasting from the United Kingdom. The channels target Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, though the primary market of the channels is Sweden.
Contents
History
The channel was launched in 1999 as a pan-Scandinavian channel. It was launched to make use of the many sports rights in the MTG portfolio that weren't shown on TV3 and therefore were unused.
In January 2002, Viasat Sport Denmark (later replaced by TV 2 Sport) was launched and the original version would now target Sweden and Norway. This continued until SportN for Norway launched in 2005. When Viasat launched to new sports channels in 2004, Viasat Sport 2 and Viasat Sport 3, the first channel got the name "Viasat Sport 1".
In March 2008, Viasat received a licence to broadcast Viasat Sport 1 in the terrestrial network. As of August 2009, the terrestrial broadcasts were yet to begin since the infrastructure to broadcast the new channels hadn't been put in place.
On October 17, 2008, Viasat relaunched their sports channels in Sweden, Norway and Finland. This meant that Viasat Sport 1 reverted to its old name Viasat Sport. Most soccer-related programmes were moved to Viasat Fotboll. Contact sports programmes that were formerly on Viasat Sport 3 was moved to Viasat Sport.
The launch of Viasat Hockey on September 1, 2009, meant that most hockey broadcasts were moved to a separate channel, including the Ice Hockey World Championships, HockeyAllsvenskan, the NHL and KHL. Sports remaining on Viasat Sport are tennis, basketball, American football and contact sports.
Viasat acquired the rights of football's English Premier League in April 2010 and announced, that they will create a new channel for the league. It launched on August 13, 2010 and it is called Viasat Premier League HD.
On September 7, 2010, MTG are launching the new free-to-air sports channel TV10. It will take over much the sports previously broadcast on Viasat Sport, TV6 and TV8. Viasat Sport will remain, but will become an overflow channel for the other sports channels.
Viasat Sport HD
Viasat Sport HD is a sports channel broadcasting events from standard definition Viasat Sport channels in high definition and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. The channel is primarily targeting Sweden and Norway.
Viasat Premier League HD
Viasat Premier League HD is a high definition channel, that broadcasts only Premier League football in high definition. It broadcasts Premier League-related magazines, studio programs, live, delayed and classic matches every day around the clock in English and Swedish. The channel was created, when Viasat acquired the Premier League rights in Sweden, other Scandinavian countries and the Baltics in spring 2010. It was also planned to start broadcasts in Norway and Denmark, but Viasat resold the rights to both countries TV2 channels, which created their own versions of Premier League HD (which are actually kept on the air by Viasat).
Viasat Fotboll
Viasat Fotboll is a channel broadcasting only football. The origins of the channel are as far away as the year 2004, when Viasat launched Northern Europe's first football channel, Viasat Sport 2. De facto, the channel still exists today, but with different programming and the name Viasat Fotboll, which has been the channel's on-the-air name since October 2008.
The channel was launched after a series of hired football experts, like Glenn Strömberg, Ola Wenström and Ola Andersson. The head of Viasat Sport channels, Per Tellander explained, that a pay channel was necessary to finance those hirings. The launch brought mixed reactions on the various forums on the Internet. Some felt that an effort was necessary, while others were annoyed at the fact, that the Champions League was moved from a free-to-air channel TV6 and existing customers had a large increase in subscription prices.
Shortly after the launch, the channel began to show a program called Avspark (literally translated to Kick-off) with Ola Wenström and Bosse Pettersson. The program showed highlights from Allsvenskan mixed with interviews of current Allsvenskan personalities in the studio. The program was on-the-air only for a year between late October 2008 and early November 2009, then the channel heads decided not to continue the program for the next season.
The channel broadcasts only in Sweden and Norway with localised versions for both countries, even though the former Viasat Sport 2 was broadcast also in Denmark and Finland, where the channel has got no replacements by 2010.
Viasat Motor
Viasat Motor broadcasts motorsports. The broadcasts include series, like MotoGP, STCC, WRC and Formula 1, which the channel has made heavy investments to. In most of the race weekends, experts Frida Nordstrand, Eje Elgh and Stefan Johansson are on track, supplemented by a studio in Stockholm led by Janne Blomqvist, who is also the commentator of the race along with Elgh. During other weekends, only Elgh is in the place. The channel has also run a news magazine dedicated to motorsport (particularly F1) since 2009 together with Sportbladet.
The channel also launched a major investment in MotoGP, which includes live broadcasts of all three classes (125, Moto2 and MotoGP). Other broadcasts include the Swedish Touring Car Championship, NASCAR and F1 Powerboat.
Viasat Hockey
Viasat Hockey is a channel dedicated to ice hockey broadcasts.
The channel's broadcasts are focusing on NHL, KHL, HockeyAllsvenskan and the Ice Hockey World Championships and it broadcasts over 300 games per season from these leagues. The channel was announced to the public on May 7, 2009 during the year's Hockey World Championships.
Although Viasat Hockey shows the NHL in Sweden, it doesn't have exclusive rights. ESPN America, which is carried by the competing operator Canal Digital, shows NHL games with English audio, while Viasat shows the games in Swedish.
Viasat Golf
Viasat Golf's broadcasts consist exclusively of golf. Its rights include tours such as PGA and LPGA tours, Ryder Cup and the WGC. The Swedish broadcasts are mainly commentated by Göran Zachrisson.
The channel has arose some controversy, when viewers were upset of being forced to buy the channel, because some of them (Lübker Golf Resort) thought, they already paid for golf broadcasts, when buying the Viasat Sport package.