John Dykes is a sports television anchor, commentator and journalist based in Singapore. He is best known for hosting "The John Dykes Show" on Disney+ and previously Fox Sports Asia, he was formerly lead anchor for the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

's content service, available to international broadcast partners. He first made his name in Asia after working for more than a decade as host of

ESPN STAR Sports Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Sta ...

' coverage of the Premier League and

European football UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...

as well as a variety of other major global sporting competitions and tournaments.

Biography

Dykes was born in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1964 and went to Brentwood School before moving to Hong Kong with his family. He moved to Singapore in 1997 and lives there with his wife and two daughters.

Early career

He began his media career as a college radio DJ whilst studying English Literature at

Warwick University , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

. A move to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

led to a successful stint at the South China Morning Post, where he was a Sports Writer, Feature Writer and Entertainment Editor for the Sunday Edition. During his time in Hong Kong, he also covered both sports and entertainment beats as a showbiz presenter at

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and ...

. He hosted TVB's live coverage of the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for five straight years before switching back to sports as a football commentator and presenter with STAR Sports.

Initial stint with ESPN Star

At the start of his career at ESPN STAR in Singapore, Dykes hosted tournaments across diverse sports such as

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

and rugby. Highlights of his time with ESPN STAR Sports include his anchoring the broadcast of cricket's 1999 World Cup in England, trips to Wimbledon and

Flushing Meadows Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushin ...

to work alongside

Vijay Amritraj Vijay Amritraj (born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor and retired professional tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian honour, in 1983.In 2022, he was honored for his cont ...

on Grand Slam tennis, and his work in Augusta for

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

' triumph at the 2001 Masters. Over the years, he has been the host of Inside Cricket and The

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

pre-show, Raceday, as well as launching Sportsline - the predecessor to SportsCenter - in India.

Football with ESPN Star

From 2001 to 2010, Dykes hosted football on

ESPN Star Sports Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Sta ...

including Live Matchday coverage of the Premier League, post-match (Final Score), Football Focus and First Edition. His popular Up Close series saw him conduct long-form interviews with football celebrities such as David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, Michel Platini and Sir Bobby Robson. Dykes was joined by

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

Richard Keys Richard Keys (born 23 April 1957) is an English sports presenter who has worked for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Talksport, Al Jazeera, Fox Sports, ESPN Star Sports , BeIN Sports; and has presented many top-level football matches. Career ...

for the weekly First Edition, which rounded-up the major footballing stories across European newsprint. His departure from

was announced in March 2010 and he hosted his final shows (the 2010 FIFA World Cup) in June-July 2010.

Premier League Productions

In March 2010 it was announced that John Dykes would take up a job as lead presenter for the Premier League's content service that launched in August 2010. The made-in-London service, a 24-7, year-round channel specifically for its licensees, is a showcase for the 20 Premier League clubs, providing international broadcasters with a range of new English language, studio based output. Dykes anchored Matchday Live coverage each weekend and hosted the Football Today discussion show twice a week. He also worked on world feed coverage of the Barclays Asia Trophy tournaments in Hong Kong in 2011 and 2013, as well as hosting BPL Live fan park events in Mumbai in 2014 and Cape Town in 2016 In 2016, Dykes became the commentator for the 3pm "Goal Rush" kickoffs, broadcasting goals from the various matches kicking off simultaneously.

Manish Bhasin Manish Dev Bhasin (born 21 May 1976 in Leicester, England) is a sports journalist and presenter broadcasting for Premier League Productions as the face of the Premier League's global coverage to over 700 million viewers as well as the BBC in ...

replaced him on Matchday Live on Saturdays. Dykes then hosted the Sunday edition of Matchday Live. His popularity with viewers worldwide has seen various international broadcasters, primarily Premier League licensees involve him in editorial and promotional campaigns aimed at maximising the value in their association with the BPL. He has worked with SuperSport in Africa, Star Sports in India, Orange in Indonesia, Singapore's mioTV, Hong Kong's nowTV and CTH in Thailand. He left Premier League Productions upon the conclusion of the 2016-17 Premier League Season.

Return to Singapore

It was announced on 29 May 2017, that Dykes was to return to Singapore and host a new show on English Football on

Fox Sports Asia Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Sta ...

. This reunited him with the presenting team he left at the then-ESPN Star Sports, which was eventually bought over and rebranded as FOX Sports Asia. His new show debuted on 31 July 2017 named The John Dykes Show, a thrice-weekly chat show primarily covering English football. Dykes was also in demand as an event host for the Asian Football Confederation among other clients and he and also wrote for www.foxsportsasia.com When Fox Sports International was purchased by Disney, Dykes also contributed to ESPN International’s SportsCenter content and was a regular guest throughout the Euro 2020 tournament. In November 2021, Disney launched the weekly “The John Dykes Show” chat show on the Disney+ Hotstar streams in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, with a January 2022 launch in Singapore and Hong Kong on Disney+. The show combines coverage of Southeast Asian leagues and tournaments with a focus on major issues in European and English football. Michael Owen is a regular guest and Dykes co-hosts the show with Singaporean pundit Rhysh Roshan Rai. In February 2022, it was announced that Dykes would be returning to screens across the Indian sub-continent with a weekly programmed, “The Top Corner, with John Dykes” on the Sony Sports Network.

Personal life

Dykes is a citizen of Singapore and lives there with his wife and two daughters.

References

External links

An Interview With John Dykes

ESPN Star
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dykes, John TVB People from Essex Singaporean people Living people English rugby union commentators 1964 births Date of birth missing (living people)