More US Sports in HD on Sky?

[Radiomike]

Possible good news for NFL fans and others interested in US sports today.

www.broadbandtvnews.com reports that SES New Skies and SM2 Sports Media Solutions have signed a contract for 18MHz bandwidth on the NSS-7 satellite at 22 deg West. Under the contract SM2 will deliver North American sports events in HD to Europe for 5 years.

Existing clients include BSkyB and other European Satellite Programmers, NFL international, TNA Wrestling, ESPN International, USGA, Fox Sports International, Augusta and US Figure Skating.

Bodes well for more NFL in HD and other sports too hopefully. An NASN HD or ESPN HD channel might be a possibility but NFL Sunday on Sky in HD has to be something Sky would be aiming at.

[Goodoldbakes]

Originally Posted by Radiomike

......but NFL Sunday on Sky in HD has to be something Sky would be aiming at.

Oh yes...!!!

[kingdannyb]

I've seen the baseball in HD in the States and it was fantastic.

You can see the spin on the pitches and if the runner got to second before the tag . . . .

[Nik73]

Yeah baby, can't wait for this! Best news I've had all year. I saw some football and baseball in the US too and it's amazing, the NFL especially.
I'd love ESPN to have their own channel but think it's unlikely, or at least one that is predominantly US sports. Didn't Setanta say they had no immediate plans for HD but that doesn't mean NASN wouldn't break off on it's own as its owned by ESPN.

Does anyone know when this will kick in? Fingers crossed for HD NFL on Sky being this season!

[Boozyuzi]

All 14 days of the US Open tennis on Sky will be HD starting end of August.

Hopefully the Eurosport coverage will be in HD as well.

[NuclearWinter]

NHL in HD, please!

[flushingmeadows]

Originally Posted by Boozyuzi

All 14 days of the US Open tennis on Sky will be HD starting end of August.

Hopefully the Eurosport coverage will be in HD as well.

Fantastic! And about time too!

Flushing Meadows always looks great!

[uno]

I see Eurosport HD are showing some Womens tennis next week from Canada in HD so that will be a nice addition and fully expect them to cover their US open matches in HD

[Jaycee Dove]

Originally Posted by Nik73

Didn't Setanta say they had no immediate plans for HD but that doesn't mean NASN wouldn't break off on it's own as its owned by ESPN.

I think NASN (ESPN) needs to break away from Setanta as it is saddled to its football agenda and their pricing structure that is giving away viewing to Virgin who have no intention of having an HD channel.

They have reitterated this in the past few days that they see no need to offer more than BBC HD and VOD programming. Because really they cannot compete with satellite for HD capacity, of course.

Whilst this governs their agenda Setanta HD will be miles off and NASN HD even further.

A US HD sports channel would be a perfect fit for Sky HDs generally better off customers and there really ought to be discussions afoot as it would help Sky sell HD set ups if this were offered and free NASN from being part of a channel structure not really interested in US sports (a charge you cannot levy against Sky).

Anyone know how tied NASN are to the Setanta package?

[Nik73]

A US sports channel on Sky would be great Jaycee. On a similar subject, the NFL is planning to bring the NFL Network to the UK and actually wanted it to start this season as a free to air channel!!
However a few problems have meant it's looking more like next year now. While chuffed, I'm a bit surprised tbh as it's still a niche sport here. Still be great.
Personally my ideal situation would be to just get the US version of ESPN. Possible but veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery unlikely.

Out of interest, does anyone know if the NASCAR is shown in HD on Sky? I've seen some of that and it looks great as well.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Nik73

Out of interest, does anyone know if the NASCAR is shown in HD on Sky? I've seen some of that and it looks great as well.

Daytona was but nothing since but the coverage on SS1 in SD is stunningly good, a huge leap over the pretty poor IRL feeds

[dpgs]

Originally Posted by uno

I see Eurosport HD are showing some Womens tennis next week from Canada in HD so that will be a nice addition and fully expect them to cover their US open matches in HD

Not sure if this is in HD or not - only says W on the epg information, unless I've got it wrong. Be pleased if I am wrong, Eurosport HD has been outstanding - a great addition to the HD lineup.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by dpgs

Not sure if this is in HD or not - only says W on the epg information, unless I've got it wrong. Be pleased if I am wrong, Eurosport HD has been outstanding - a great addition to the HD lineup.

According to DigiGuide it's SD on Tuesday, but HD later in the week!!

[dpgs]

Originally Posted by derek500

According to DigiGuide it's SD on Tuesday, but HD later in the week!!

Thanks for that. Look forward to seeing it, great news.

[cliveuk]

not nascar as such but i caught the end of a nascar advert on rush HD last night, checked the website and can only see nascar:quest for the cup so i guess that was it.
dont know if it will interest anyone