The British Open is over, McIlroy has triumphed, and next up is the Ryder cup at Gleneagles.
SKY SPORTS has announced that it will dedicate an entire channel to The 2014 Ryder Cup this Autumn, offering two weeks of non-stop golf including exclusively live coverage of the biggest event in the sport.
‘Sky Sports Ryder Cup’
For the first time ever, Sky Sports 4 will become ‘Sky Sports Ryder Cup’ and will show over 330 hours of golf across 14 days, including 36 hours of live coverage from Gleneagles.
Sky Sports Ryder Cup will be packed with golf programming, ideal for attracting daytime trade. It will include preview shows from Sunday to Thursday during Ryder Cup week, exclusive interview specials with Paul McGinley and Ian Poulter, and a special preview show on 21 September with Butch Harmon, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance and Tony Jacklin.
Thursday 18 September to Thursday 2 October
The 2014 Ryder Cup is the tenth to be shown exclusively live by Sky Sports. The channel goes live at 6am on Thursday 18 September and continues until 6am on Thursday 2nd October.
Sky Sports Ryder Cup will form part of an unrivalled autumn of sport on Sky which includes Barclays Premier League football, UEFA Champions League, Autumn International rugby union, Formula 1, ATP tennis and NFL. It also follows the launch of Sky Sports 5, the new home of European football, which launches on 12 August.
Dedicated to the biggest event in golf
David Rey, managing director of Sky Business, said: “We’re dedicating a whole channel to the biggest event in golf, providing viewers with the complete Ryder Cup experience all in one place. More than 900,000 people watched golf live in a pub or club in the last 12 months and there will be nowhere better than Sky Sports for pub goers to enjoy the passion, drama and excitement of this incredible event. We’ll offer round-the-clock build up, the opening and closing ceremonies and exclusive live coverage of all three days from Gleneagles.”
Paul McGinley, European Ryder Cup Captain and Sky Ambassador added: “The Ryder Cup is a truly unique sporting spectacle, full of drama, excitement and passion, all of which has been brought to life for the television viewers over the years by Sky Sports. Having worked with the Sky Sports team at major golf events for the past couple of years, I know the professionalism and enthusiasm in place for our sport, all of which will go together to produce a feast of television for golf fans in September.”
Presenting team
For live coverage of The 2014 Ryder Cup, presenter David Livingstone will be joined in the studio by former winning European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie, coach to US Ryder Cup stars Butch Harmon, and on Sunday, Jack Nicklaus, who played in five Ryder Cup teams and captained the USA twice winning in 1983.
Also providing commentary will be Royal Television Society award winners Ewen Murray and Bruce Critchley, as well as Rob Lee and Mark Roe. On course reporting will be provided by Howard Clark, who made played in six European Ryder teams between 1977 and 1995, Richard Boxall and Tim Barter, and highlights programming will be presented by Sarah Stirk who will be joined each day in the studio by Andrew Coltart and Nick Dougherty to review the key moments in the previous’ days matches.
About Sky Business
Sky Business is the business-to-business division of Sky, the UK and Ireland’s leading entertainment and communications company. Sky Business provides commercial customers in the UK and Ireland with comprehensive multichannel television services across a wide variety of businesses. These include pubs, sports clubs, bookmakers, hotels, offices, gyms, shops, care homes, golf clubs and oil rigs.
Sky Business has led the way in delivering innovation to commercial customers. This has included the introduction of high-definition (HD) television before it was available to residential customers and the launch Sky’s free WiFi service, powered by The Cloud, which now allows 11,000 licensed outlets to attract valuable customer footfall and create an enhanced customer experience. The Cloud also has exclusive commercial partnerships with retail, leisure, hotels, sports, transport and entertainment customers.
Visit www.sky.com/business for more information and/or follow on Twitter at @SkySportsPub.