Vic Wakeling

Sky Sports MD accused of freezing out Scottish football

Born: June 18, 1943;

Died: May 15, 2017

VIC Wakeling, who has died aged 73, was a former junior newspaper reporter who went on to change the face of TV sports coverage as managing director of Sky Sports. He was once described as the "the father of the Sky Sports revolution, who took sports from the back pages and bottom of news bulletins to part of the national conversation." A Geordie born near Newcastle, he elevated sports, and notably football coverage, from the staid single-camera days of BBC and ITV to the glossy, high-tech coverage millions take for granted today in their armchairs at home or in pubs and clubs.

It was he who beat ITV to win Sky the rights to the Premier League at its inception in 1992 and took his network into the digital age with HD, live feeds, broadband access, multiple cameras, close-ups, an interactive red button and the now-famous pundits' big board screen. Add to that a Sky Sports website which is now the UK's most popular commercial sports website and round-the clock sports news service with on-screen breaking headlines running along the bottom of the screen.

Mr Wakeling first saw the value in using former sportsmen as commentators and pundits, including former Scottish football international Andy Gray, whose passion and goal commentaries - "ya beauty!" - won over viewers until he was sacked in 2001 for an unguarded misogynist remark about a female linesman.

Mr Wakeling was also a driving force behind instant American-style slow-motion replays, multiple camera angles, close-up shots and on-screen clocks crucial to viewers who tuned in late. Such innovations also led to a spiral in advertising, with the wealthiest brands vying, at premium prices, for pre-match or half-time exposure. That, in turn, made British football a billion pound industry which, love it or hate it, made footballers multi-millionaires and brought an influx of the world's best players to the UK.

Mr Wakeling, however, was not quite as popular among some Scottish football administrators who blamed him for concentrating on the Premier League while "freezing out" Scottish football from the massive overall broadcasting pot. The Daily Record, in March this year, noted that Scottish clubs "scrape by" on a share of £18.75million a season, the English leagues rake in a whopping £1.7billion.

Sky Sports' former top football presenter Richard Keys, who eventually suffered the same fate as his on-screen sidekick Andy Gray, told the Record: "I was astounded by them (the figures). The sums are frightening. It's a crying shame the way Scottish football is being treated - in fact it's a disgrace." Mr Keys said it all harked back to a 2002 dispute between Mr Wakeling and the then SPL chief executive Roger Mitchell over broadcasting payments.

"Vic put something like £60million on the table and the response (from Mr Mitchell) was 'come back to me when you're serious.' Vic withdrew the offer and overnight he made it clear we were to stop talking about Scottish football on Sky Sports News which was a disgrace in itself. The instruction was, ‘Scottish football doesn’t exist. Shut it down. We're not interested in it until they come back to the table on our terms’" Mr Keys said he believed Scottish football was still paying the price.

Victor Noel Stanley Wakeling was born in the village of Low Westwood, 14 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne, and attended Hookergate grammar school in nearby High Spen. After completing his O-levels, he was doing his paper round when he saw an ad for a junior reporter at the local Blaydon Courier. After he cycled six miles to their offices, he was there before the editor arrived to open up and the latter hired him immediately for his keenness.

Although he started out covering local court cases, sport was his big love, particularly Newcastle United FC. His uncle had taken him as a boy to the Magpies' matches, in the days when children could be safely passed over the heads of fans to get to the front of the terraces. So he was delighted to join the Birmingham Evening Mail as a sports reporter before moving south to the mecca of journalism, Fleet Street, where he worked over time for the Observer, Daily Express and London Evening News.

In 1990, his work having been admired by Rupert Murdoch, he was hired by what was then BSkyB as head of football and, within two years, had broken a BBC/ITV cartel which wanted to alternate TV rights between them. Having been appointed managing director of Sky Sports, his success won him the added duty of managing director of Sky News in 2007, when he spent all his daytime hours working at Sky HQ in west London or driving to or from his home in Hampshire. His only break was a two-week holiday at his villa in Cyprus. A lifelong chain smoker, he, like many old-time journalists, had trouble adjusting to the new indoor no-smoking policies of Sky and other news organisations.

A lifelong Newcastle United fan, he ensured the team got particularly regular coverage in the early years of the Premier League and it was he who famously dubbed the club "the Entertainers" during Kevin Keegan's tenure as manager.

Mr Wakeling was honoured for his lifetime achievement at the 2007 Sports Industry awards and the 2008 Broadcast awards. After retiring in 2009, he was appointed CBE by the Queen.

Friends and colleagues said Mr Wakeling was a quiet, modest and softly-spoken man who never abused his privileged position by attending major sporting events - not wanting to take an accreditation pass away from a working journalist.

Vic Wakeling is survived by his wife Susan and children Sally, Rob, Caroline and Kate.

PHIL DAVISON