Sky Sports has since announced a new deal for the Ryder Cup, ensuring that golf's premier event will be exclusively live in 2004, 2006 and 2008. It has also won extended deals with the PGA European Tour for over 30 tournaments and all four World Golf Championship events each year, until 2008.

In other new deals signed this year, Sky Sports extended its contracts for two of golf's Majors (the USPGA Championship and US Open) Golden League Athletics and NFL American Football, and agreed a new four-year deal with the Football Association.

In the autumn, Sky won the rights to cover live UEFA Champions League football for the first time. From September 2003, at the Group Stage, Sky Sports will have exclusive live coverage of all Wednesday matches in the UK and up to six live ties on Tuesday nights, with viewers choosing which game to watch through an interactive menu.

The 2003/04 new football season will now showcase more televised football than ever on Sky Sports with over 350 live matches, including the Barclaycard Premiership, Nationwide Football League, FA Cup, Carling Cup, Tennents Scottish Cup and international football.

Last football season saw Sky Sports attract its highest audience for five years with the Premiership match between Arsenal and Manchester United. Promoted on and off-air as 'Face Off', the clash between the title contenders drew the biggest live Premiership audience and the third-highest multichannel audience ever.

Football League competitions returned to Sky Sports and the Nationwide League and Worthington Cup each attracted higher audiences than before. Sky achieved particularly strong viewing figures on the day of the Worthington Cup Final and the Cricket World Cup game between England and Australia, with 47% of multichannel homes viewing either event.

For the 2003 Cricket World Cup every match was shown exclusively live through February and March. When matches clashed, Sky Sports used its interactive technology to offer a choice of live games.

Prior to the Cricket World Cup, the ICC Trophy and England's Ashes tour were also live. After this, the recent 'Summer of Sport 2003' on Sky Sports featured each of England’s one-day cricket internationals and the successful launch of Twenty20 cricket alongside England’s Rugby Union victories against Australia and New Zealand.

Sky Sports News, which marks its fifth anniversary this autumn, continues to grow with audiences up 50% in the first six months of 2003 and is now available via digital terrestrial as well as digital satellite and cable.

Sky Sports Active launched new services, with speedway the eleventh sport to be shown live and interactive and Sky Bet available through interactive football menus supported by a new betting-based commentary.

Skysports.com also set new records, for unique users and total page impressions during the year and users of the site have more than doubled since the start of 2002.