MARK CHAPMAN is joining Sky Sports’ presenting team – as the broadcaster gears up for its biggest Premier League season yet.
Sky will be showing at least 215 games live for each of the next four seasons – up from 128 last term.
And while there have been no changes to the channel’s main pundit team – including Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane and Jamie Redknapp – the extra matches will see Chapman combining his new Match of the Day role with more work for Sky.
Chapman , along with fellow sky presenter Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan, will fill the void left by Gary Lineker’s Beeb departure on a rotating basis – and will host the first show of the season .
And Sky Sports were delighted to announce Chapman’s arrival as part of their Prem team – in addition to his current work on their Carabao Cup broadcasts.
Managing director Jonathan Licht said: “We’re delighted that Mark’s joining us alongside Kelly and Dave Jones.
“Clearly we have more games this season, we needed more presenters. Kelly and Dave can’t deal with them all.
“Mark will work across the Carabao Cup and our Premier League weekends. We’ve got control of the calendar in terms of the picking of the matches. We’re all adults and we’ll see how it goes.”
The new TV deal with the Prem – which is costing Sky £6.7bn over four years – will see all Sunday 2pm games live on Sky and only the 3pm Saturday kick-off games not shown in the UK.
Sky believe the Saturday afternoon TV “blackout” is coming to an inevitable end – although not before 2029 at the earliest.
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The network is also considering a bid for Champions League rights – currently held by TNT Sports and Prime – when Uefa’s new partner Relevant Sports go to market for the three years from 2027-28 later this year.
Licht added: “That process will come up this autumn. We’ll do all the work and we’ll see whether it makes sense. Clearly it’s a very good competition.”
For now, though, the focus is on the extended offer to viewers, with a raft of new shows across Sky Sports and Sky Sports News.
The extra Sunday games will see what Sky are billing as “Super-sized Sunday”, with multi-view options and extra analysis for the 2pm games as well as a wrap-up show hosted by Carragher on Sunday evenings.
Sky have also gone into partnership with new platform Fanalysis, promising supporter-driven player ratings, manager verdicts, and perspectives.
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Director of Football Gary Hughes conceded: “It probably will be a bit chaotic with the early Sunday games. And that’s the best way it can be – a bit of chaos.
“It’s not quite going to be our version of the NFL Red Zone because that sport is a lot easier to predict.
“But we’ll turn around goals as quick as we can, show any key incidents as quick as we can.
“We won’t linger on a game for a long period if nothing’s happening, we’ll bounce around and move between games.
“It’ll be a bit like Soccer Saturday, with pictures. There’s going to be some continuity and flow.”
*Sky Sports and NOW will broadcast over 215 Premier League matches exclusively live this season.
