Sky Sport has presented its summer schedule and the line-up for the new season, with a mix of new features, surprises and familiar faces. The first certainty is football. In the coming days, the Sky Sport channels will begin with the pre-season friendlies of Juventus, Milan, Inter and Napoli, before moving into the preliminary rounds of the European competitions, where Atalanta will be involved in the Conference League. The calendar already includes Manchester City–Inter on 1 August as part of the Hong Kong Football Festival, Milan–Inter and Chelsea–Juventus on 5 August, Juventus–Inter and Chelsea–Milan on 8 August, Manchester United–Milan on 15 August, as well as Napoli’s friendly matches during their training camps in Dimaro Folgarida and Castel di Sangro, available on pay-per-view, against Arezzo, Osasuna, Celta Vigo and Aris Thessaloniki.
At the end of August, the season gets underway properly, with the return of the major European leagues and UEFA competitions. Sky will once again be the home of Serie A, with three matches from each round, as well as the Premier League and Bundesliga exclusively, 185 of the 203 Champions League matches exclusively, and the Europa League and Conference League, both exclusive. Around the games, the usual schedule of analysis and commentary will return: Federica Masolin will host the pre- and post-match studios for the prime-time fixtures on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, taking viewers through to midnight, while for some of the biggest matches the Sky Sport team will move pitchside for special programmes with its regular talents and guests. Mario Giunta will lead the Midnight Show on Sky Sport, the nightly appointment throughout the Champions League, while this season will also introduce After Party – La notte dei campioni, a new programme built around the most spectacular moments and the players who define the European game.
The league coverage will continue with Sky Calcio Club on Sunday evenings, Sky Friday Night and Saturday Night Football. Monday nights will belong to Serie A – L’Originale, the spin-off of Calciomercato – L’Originale, which will finish its summer tour across Italy at the end of August. The schedule will also include the Serie A Women’s Cup, now in its second edition, featuring the 12 teams from the league, together with the Coppa Italia Women and the Supercoppa Women.
The rest of the sporting calendar is already moving at full speed in the summer months. Sky Sport has started with Wimbledon, broadcast exclusively, followed by the US Open, two of tennis’ most anticipated moments of the season. The coverage will continue across the ATP calendar, from the 250 and 500 tournaments to the Masters 1000 events, before reaching the ATP Finals in Turin from 15 to 22 November. The same attention will follow the women’s circuit, which will end with the Finals in Indian Wells from 8 to 15 November.
For national teams, the summer will bring four different European Championships and the Women’s Basketball World Cup. It begins with the European Aquatics Championships in Paris, from 31 July to 16 August, followed by the European Athletics Championships from 10 to 16 August. Volleyball will close the cycle: the women’s tournament will take place from 21 August to 6 September, while the men’s competition, with Italy among the hosts, will be broadcast on Sky Sport from 10 to 26 September. From 4 to 13 September comes another major event, the Women’s Basketball World Cup, where Italy returns after 32 years away.
Formula One will also continue through the summer. Between July and August, the championship will stop in Belgium from 17 to 19 July, Hungary from 24 to 26 July and the Netherlands from 21 to 23 August, before moving on to Monza and Madrid in September and towards the final race weekend of the season, scheduled for 4 to 6 December. From Formula One comes one of the most notable announcements: Andrea Kimi Antonelli, leader of the Drivers’ Championship standings, will become the new Sky ambassador from the next campaign, alongside Alessandro Del Piero. During the presentation of the schedules, Sky also showed the teaser for the advertising campaign that will arrive in the coming weeks.
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Alongside the live events, Sky Sport will also introduce a series of original productions looking back at some of the most important stories in sport. The most ambitious is dedicated to Giampiero Boniperti, player, president and one of the central figures in Juventus history. Produced by Sky Sport in collaboration with Sky Documentaries, Giampiero Boniperti. L’unica cosa che conta will feature the memories of figures such as Michel Platini, Marco Tardelli and Antonio Cabrini, alongside one of the greatest symbols of the Bianconeri. Boniperti’s three children, Alessandro, Federica and Gianpaolo, also took part in the project, opening their home and family archive to tell the story of their father’s career and life.
From September, Sky Sport’s original productions will continue with the new seasons of 90-10 storie di calcio with Stefano Borghi and Federico Buffa Talks, conversations halfway between interview and storytelling with some of the leading figures in Italian sport, hosted by Buffa together with Sky Sport director Federico Ferri. The new season is ready to begin.