Sky Sports

Sky Sports is the dominant subscription-based television sports brand in the UK and Ireland and provides viewers with access to hundreds of live events on dedicated channels—from live Premier League football, to international cricket and golf majors and exclusive rights to Formula 1 races.

For a long time, if you were passionate about watching live sport on TV, Sky Sports was the only option. All that changed with the arrival of BT Sport in 2013, which they included for free with broadband subscriptions. Suddenly, for the first time since it launched in 1991, Sky Sports had a proper competitor. And in 2019 Amazon will enter the playing field, after securing rights to stream Premier League games.

Fans increasingly want to personalise their sports experience and become more deeply immersed in the spectacle. According to research, over half said they wanted the ability to choose different camera angles and select different commentary options. From a report on The Future Sports Fan by behavioural insights agency, Canvas8.

New ways of capturing live sport (e.g. new camera types or wearables that record player data), and developments in viewing technologies (e.g. connected televisions, virtual reality and second-screens) have created multiple options for fans to watch and enjoy the same action.

Sky wanted to combine these new technologies with its next generation TV system Sky Q, and create a live sports experience that would leave rival services looking old-fashioned. So I was briefed to evolve Sky’s red button interactive TV service to bring sports fans closer to their sporting heroes.

I wanted to simplify the whole live viewing experience and create a scalable interface that didn't get in the way of the action by overwhelming viewers. This was currently not the case: F1 for example, offered twelve different camera views of one race! The trend had been ‘If we can do it technically, then let's make it available.’ But the result was visual pollution—a system and interface cluttered with lots of features that fans had never asked for and rarely used.

Part of the exercise was to identify the core attributes for each sport and join up the experience across TV and mobile. The other was to consolidate features and create a UI that would evolve the current red button app.

Working closely with product and development teams, I experimented with scaling video in html, tested flash prototypes and various menu transitions. I also developed wireframes to explain how key features could enhance an event. For example, the ability to watch a series of clips as a pre-packaged set of VOD highlights on a timeline and how to incorporate new types of audio and data feeds from OPTA. Building on the Sky Q architecture, I created animations to help product and development teams understand user experience as viewers navigate the system.

The result was a unified approach to watching sport that enabled viewers to split content across screens and create a personalized experience—putting them at the center of the triumph, glory and excitement of live events.

The social element was completely missing, so we also gave viewers new ways to share clips and watch a game with a group of friends spread across different locations. So fans’ favourite moments could be enjoyed with others, over and over again.

No matter which team you support, you can see them live, in full and with commentary, either via your television or on your mobile. For Sky Q customers, matches on the red button are available in ultra HD quality and the service comes at no extra cost.

For F1, fans have greater customisation and choice across devices via the Red Button, iPad or online. ‘Race Control’ offers up a live stream of the Sky F1 channel plus the pit lane channel, onboard cameras, live data, and videos of on-track highlights. To avoid an overlap of sound when watching highlights, audio plays from whichever event you have currently selected and you can switch the sound between the live event and a recorded clip.

Sky's brand director of TV and content products Luke Bradley-Jones said “We know our customers absolutely love watching live sports and the new Sky Q features will give them the flexibility to choose how they watch.”

“Whether it’s a Premier League match or Formula 1 race, customers can simply choose split screen viewing and watch the most talked about goal again and again, or two live races side by side.”