FreeSports is a channel operated and owned by Premier Media S.à r.l. It is a British sports channel operated in the United Kingdom. The channel launched on 31 August 2017.
Video FreeSports
History
FreeSports launched on 31 August 2017, with its aim to provide free-to-air sports coverage and become a top three dedicated sports channel in the UK.[1][2] It is available on all major platforms available in 18 million UK homes, except Virgin Media. It is only available on Freeview HD, not standard Freeview.[3] The channel holds a partnership with rights holders IMG, MP & Silva, Lagardère Group, Pitch International and Infront Sports & Media.[1] It is a sister channel of Premier Sports.[4] FreeSports released a statement in February 2018 that it will be going HD on the Sky platform in Summer 2018.
Maps FreeSports
Programming
FreeSports aim to be majority live with over 1000 events a year for an average of 10 hours per day showing numerous sports, including association football, ice hockey, tennis, rugby league, basketball, wrestling, boxing and cricket.
Football
The channel shows live coverage of the Primeira Liga (two games a week), Belgian First Division A (three games a week), Segunda División (one game a week) and the League of Ireland Premier Division, as well as numerous club TV shows, including Dortmund TV and AC Milan TV. The first match shown live was a 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier between the Netherlands and England on 1 September. The channel also plans to broadcast a wide range or pre World Cup 2018 friendlies and club pre-season friendlies featuring teams from the Premier League, Scottish Premier League and European clubs.
FreeSports currently shows weekly coverage of Copa do Brasil.
Ice hockey
The National Hockey League fronts the channel's ice hockey coverage with three games a week. Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin made the announcement on the channel's Twitter account. However, the first live coverage of Ice Hockey was between Nottingham Panthers and Mountfield HK in the 2017-18 Champions Hockey League. As well as NHL and CHL, the IIHF and SHL will also be shown live, while the Spengler Cup semi-finals and final will also be screened. The Ice Hockey World Championships are expected to be shown on FreeSports including live coverage of games featuring Great Britain.
In March 2018, it was announced that FreeSports would be televising the KHL Playoffs throughout March & April and later announced it had a 2 year extension to televise live KHL from the 2018-2019 season onwards.
Motorsport
NASCAR features on the channel and will be broadcasting live the Daytona 500 2018 for the first time on free to air television in the UK. FreeSports also shows the Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series showing live as well as highlights of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.. Also live on the channel are Australian V8 Supercars, Swedish and Polish Speedway. There will also be highlights of Monster Jam, Arenacross, Formula D and the FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Rugby league
The channel features delayed coverage of Toronto Wolfpack games in The Championship and, in conjunction with RugbyAM, live games from the National Conference League. Last year the channel had covered the National Rugby League. However the rights passed to Sky Sports for the 2018 season. The channel had also screened some games from the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.
Rugby Union
FreeSports showed Autumn internationals including France & Italy matches and is currently showing live BUCS Rugby matches.
On the 30th April 2018, sister channel Premier Sports announced they have signed a landmark partnership to broadcast every game from the Guinness PRO14 live in High Definition across the UK and Northern Ireland for at least the next three years, with no less than 21 games (one per round) shown live Free-To-Air on FreeSports.
Cricket
The channel broadcast live coverage of the 2017 Bangladesh Premier League tournament.
Basketball
The British Basketball League (BBL) signed a deal with FreeSports in January 2018 to broadcast a number of games during the remainder of the 2017-2018 season. The first game broadcast on the channel was the BBL Trophy Final between Worcester Wolves v Cheshire Phoenix. Other live Spanish basketball on the channel is ACB Basketball from the Copa Del Rey series.
Wrestling
5 Star Wrestling was broadcast live on FreeSports from January to March 2018 featuring an array of British and American wrestling talent. During the first twelve shows in the UK wide arena tour, many high profile wrestlers were on the roster including Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio, Zack Gibson, John Morrison, Jack Hager, Adam Maxted, Carlito, Chris Masters and Eddie Ryan.
Other sports
Twenty-five events from the ATP World Tour 250 series will be shown on FreeSports. Other competitions to feature include: FEI Nations Cup (show jumping), Liga Española de Baloncesto (Spanish basketball), ONE Championship (Singapore-based mixed martial arts), Professional Fighters League, Drone Champions League, World Weightlifting Championships and Crankworx World Tour. Cage Warriors joined the channel's portfolio on 7 September 2017. Live coverage of major events in the French horse-racing calendar began with the meeting at Chantilly on 10 September 2017.
A FreeSports Fight Night is broadcast monthly on Friday evenings from UK venues with promoter Dennis Hobson.
In February 2018, The IPA Professional World Championships was televised live on Freesports over the course of three days and was won by Ben Davies. Following this, the IPA FreeSports Pool Cup began on Monday 12th February with the aim of finding Britain's best 8 ball pool player.
References
External links
- FreeSports website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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