Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Karen Carney and David Jones unveil new Sky Sports studio

Sports fans will see a new Sky Sports studio for the first time tonight on Monday Night Football (MNF) with Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Karen Carney and David Jones making their debut in the space to analyse the first weekend of action from the Premier League as well present the exclusively live broadcast of Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The state-of-the-art studio has many features which have never been seen before as part of sports broadcasting in the UK & Ireland. Viewers will be given a glimpse into the future, with features including a super wide high-res screen and a virtual canopy roof. All of which will create a more immersive viewing experience for sports fans.

A masterpiece in technical engineering, an LED floor will also allow analysts and presenters to better use the wealth of data available from live match action, giving audiences a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of players and teams across sports.

Whether it’s why Jürgen Klopp switched to a box midfield, or how the inverted fullback became the norm, Sky Sports viewers will gain a deeper appreciation of the reasons behind the tactics used by the greatest managers in the game.   

Jonathan Licht, Sky Sports Managing Director, said: "Sky Sports has been at the forefront of broadcasting innovation since our inception over 30 years ago. The new studio unveiled today demonstrates our commitment to continuing to give sports fans the most entertaining viewing experience possible of the biggest and most-loved events in the sporting calendar.”

Ben Wickham, Sky Sports Director of Creative Output, said: “We wanted to create a modular space that brings the latest technology to our customer, allows us to showcase the joy of sport, and capture the huge advances in technology that are happening rapidly.

“As well as sport, it takes inspiration from cinema and entertainment, with the tech involved allowing us to be brave and add an entire new dimension to our output. The options are endless for future content presented from this studio.”

Initially the studio will be used for MNF and later this month, for US Open Tennis coverage which gets underway from 28^th August.  The scale and flexibility of the space will allow more of the biggest and best sporting events live on Sky Sports to benefit from the innovative technology available in the future.

About Sky

Sky is one of Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies and is part of Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology company that connects people to moments and experiences that matter. At Sky we Believe in Better. It’s in our DNA. 

We’re famous for innovation. We offer streaming services NOW and WOW; the world’s smartest TV, Sky Glass; and the best aggregation platform, Sky Q. We provide connectivity you can count on in mobile, and fast, secure, reliable residential and business broadband.

We’re Europe’s premium content producer. We create award-winning original content, produce the biggest live sporting events, and we provide free access to news and the arts.We believe that we can have a positive impact on society, by supporting and creating tens of thousands of jobs, addressing digital inequality, being a diverse and inclusive employer, and becoming net zero carbon by 2030.

Creative Summary

Sky Sports’ new home is an expansive arena-shaped studio surrounded by high resolution screens and immersive AR graphics; seamlessly blending traditional set design and best-in-class innovative technologies.

The set design is modern and versatile, with minimalist furniture, sleek lighting and hints of stadium architecture. The high-resolution screens act as huge canvases to bring our flagship program brands to life, like Monday Night Football, instantly changing the look and feel of the space.

The addition of ambitious AR graphics creates an immersive space, with by an AR stadium canopy above and a “forth wall” that conceals camera positions to create a 360 degree filming environment. The studio boasts an array of cameras too, including a jib and a wire cam, offering a range of unique and dynamic shooting opportunities.

Pioneering sporting analysis is made possible with an enhanced touchscreen featuring 3D virtual game reconstructions, alongside a massive LED floor that gives our presenters a huge canvas to explain tactics and team formations. And that’s just football! There are more exciting analysis ideas coming soon with Tennis and F1.

The studio was designed in-house by Sky Creative, Sky’s in-house creative team. The project started in early 2022, with a close-knit collaboration between design, production and technology teams in both the UK and Italy.

This studio facilitates and represents a bold and ambitious new generation of Sky Sports programming.

Sky Creative Credits

• Ceri Sampson - Executive Creative Director
• Harry Ward - Creative Director
• Jason Landau - Creative Director, Innovation
• Sophie Brooks - Director of Production
• Sofie Leale - Exec Producer
• Nicky Chauhan - Senior Producer
• Danny Yeomans - Design Director
• Jonathan Ryder Richardson - Set Design Lead
• Phil Madge, Real Time Lead
• Luca Brioschi, VR/AR Manager
• Vincenzo Lagattolli - Head of Content Operations

Sky Sports Credits

• Jonathan Licht, Managing Director
• Steve Smith, Exec Director, Content
• Ben Wickham, Director of Creative Output
• Gary Hughes, Director of Football

Technical details

• Location: Sky Studios, West London
• ScenaPro – set constructors
• WhiteLight – AV
• LED tiles - ROE Ruby 1.9mm and 2.3mm tiles. ROE ‘Black Marble’ LED floor tiles.
• Grassvalley cameras with Mo-Sys Star Trackers
• Four-point wirecam system supplied by BatCam
• VizRT graphics playout system
• Unreal & VizRT AR graphics rendering system
• Adapted football analysis tools from Rezzil
• All broadcast productions transmitted in Ultra HD.