| SportTV | |
|---|---|
| SportTV logo | |
| Launched | September 16, 1998 |
| Owned by | ZON Multimédia (50%) Controlinveste (50%) |
| Picture format | Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Resolution: 576i (SD)/720p (HD) |
| Slogan | "O seu desporto favorito." ("Your favorite sports.") |
| Website | sporttv.pt |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| ZON TV | |
| meo satélite | |
| Cable | |
| ZON TV | |
| Cabovisão | |
| IPTV | |
| meo | |
| Optimus Clix TV | |
| Vodafone Casa TV | |
SportTV is the brand name for a group of seven Portuguese sports-oriented television channels. SportTV is the dominant subscription television sports brand in Portugal. The first channel, then known as only SportTV, was launched on 16 September 1998 and is produced by ZON Multimédia and Controlinveste (and originally had the participation of Rádiotelevisão Portuguesa). It is available in almost all television distribution operators in Portugal as a premium subscription channel.
SportTV transmits mainly football (soccer), Formula One, basketball, volleyball, rugby, and tennis. It also features debates, news and sports reports.
The most important Liga ZON Sagres games are shown exclusively on SportTV.
Contents |
On 16 September 2005, seven years after the opening of the first channel, SportTV launched a second channel, SportTV 2. It regularly broadcasts alternative sports such as mountaineering, cycling and radical sports. The channel was available only through ZON TV Funtaasic Life package, but the model didn't work. They relaunched the channel as a premium channel, also available on Cabovisão, Optimus Clix TV and Portugal Telecom's meo. This was followed in June 2008 by SportTV 3.
SportTV showed UEFA Euro 2008 in HD, through ZON TV.
On January 22, 2010, the specialist golf channels SportTV Golfe and SportTV Golfe HD were launched.
On August 13, 2010, they launched SportTV Liga Inglesa, a HD channel dedicated to the Barclays Premier League, broadcasting 380 games and 400 highlights per season, made by the Premier League (also broadcasting on other countries).
On January 7, 2011, SportTV 1, SportTV 2 and SportTV 3 started to broadcast in 16:9.
On August 13, 2011, all of the SportTV main channels will broadcast in HD and will launch a new channel, SportTV 4, that will also be available on HD. At the same time, the SportTV HD channel will disappear.
SportTV is widely regarded as anti competitive, since it is the only group of channels in Portugal with the rights to broadcast the Liga Sagres matches, as well as other international competitions. Portugal is one of the few countries in Europe where Formula One is broadcast on a premium channel, the others being Finland and Sweden.
On September 2007, SportTV sent a cease-and-desist to a Portuguese live TV streaming website [1], because the latter was providing links to streams of UEFA Champions League matches that only SportTV had the rights to broadcast. This has caused great public concern with regard to the monopoly abuse status of the SportTV channels.
Every year SportTV shows many live matches from around the world of football.
On August 13, 2010, Sport TV launched Sport TV Américas, a dedicated sports channel for the Portuguese diaspora in North America. The channel was launched in partnership with American Portuguese-language broadcaster SPT TV. It airs live soccer matches every week from the Portuguese First & Second divisions as well as coverage of the League Cup and Portuguese Cup.
Soccer programming on Sport TV Américas includes:
Sport TV Américas is currently available in the US via Dish Network and in Canada via Bell Fibe TV, MTS and NEXTV.