UK – A free sports channel for all its UK and Ireland subscribers, Sky has confirmed that Sky Sports Mix will launch on August – opening a window on the action shown on Sky Sports every day and shining a light on sport not previously covered on television.

According to Sky, as the feel-good factor around British sporting achievement continues to grow during the Olympics, Sky Sports Mix will bring a huge variety of different sports to a whole new audience with an average of five hours of live action each day across the first month – and 16 different sports covered in that time.

Cricket will be the first Live sport on Sky Sports Mix and the new channel will be found at 407 next to Sky Sports News HQ. England face Pakistan in the first one day international at the Rose Bowl cricket ground.

The channel goes Live with former England captain Nasser Hussain leading a masterclass to families and kids at the nursery ground as part of the launch show hosted by Laura Woods to bring Sky Sports Mix to life for the first time. Live coverage of the cricket begins an hour later.

Real Madrid, world rugby champions New Zealand and the Belgian grand prix headline a weekend of some major live sport that will also include European Tour golf and the EFL Sky Bet Championship match between Burton Albion and Derby County on Friday night – all available to every Sky TV customer.

Across the first month Sky Sports Mix will bring live sport every day, with nine different sports shown live including cricket, rugby union, rugby league, golf and football. A further seven sports will be shown non-live showing the commitment to provide an introduction to sport for millions of Sky customers at no extra cost.

These will appear alongside shows such as Game Changers and sporting masterclasses that connect Sky Sports to the passion that kids have for learning about and playing sport. The Sky Sports Mix channel line-up will also include insightful documentaries, sports entertainment shows and other sporting content that will amaze and inspire.

“It’s an exciting moment for Sky Sports as we open up a window to millions more people for the first time,” declared Sky Sports Managing Director, Barney Francis. “Sky Sports Mix will offer the chance for millions of homes to enjoy a selection of the first class sport we broadcast every day, and we hope that will mean even more people find a sport they love and are inspired to become even more passionately engaged.”

Sky Sports Mix will be available in the same number of Sky TV homes as Sky Sports News HQ, a channel with an annual reach of 17 million viewers. Sky Sports Mix will also complement Sky’s growing digital audience, where 35 million monthly users engage with a range of Sky Sports products as well as its presence on leading platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.