ITV Sport

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ITV Sport is a sport producer and brand name owned by ITV plc. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport and ISN, the sports division of London News Network. The company produces Champions League Football, Carling Cup and Football League highlights. ITV Sport shows live and exclusive coverage of the Formula One season, and shows live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship and the GP2 racing series. Big Fight Boxing is another pivotal part of ITV Sport's portfolio. ITV Sport has been the official UK broadcaster of the Rugby World Cup since 1991, and the network also broadcasts the University Boat Race, the Grand Slam of Darts and the Tour de France under the ITV Sport brand.

ITV Sport programmes are usually broadcast on its main channel (the ITV Network). ITV Sport also provides sporting coverage for its own channel ITV4. ITV Sport's main rivals are BBC Sport, Sky Sports and Setanta Sports.

The head of ITV Sport is Mark Sharman as part of his title as Director of ITV's news and sport output.

Featured presenters include Steve Rider, Matt Smith, Craig Doyle, Charlotte Webster and Gary Imlach.

Former Channel

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Channel's logo

ITV used to have a dedicated sports channel on the ITV Digital network, originally broadcasting UEFA Champions League football and ATP Masters Series tennis under the brand ONsport. It was called ITV Sport Channel and was responsible for the service's downfall, due to offering unrealistic amounts for the rights to broadcast matches from The Football League, almost bankrupting many league clubs in the process. Lasting for just one football season; the ITV Sport Channel launched on Saturday 11 August 2001 with Man City v Watford in the First Division, and closed on Saturday 12 May 2002 with the Division 2 Play Off Final between Brentford and Stoke. Matt Smith, Tony Dorigo, Russell Osman, John Hendrie, Garry Nelson, Guy Havord, Guy Mowbray, Peter Drury, Jon Champion, David Fairclough, Paul Walsh, Jim Beglin, Simon Hill, Peter Stevenson, Carrie Frais, Lisa Rogers and Dave Beckett commentated for the channel. There were two spinoff channels, ITV Sport Plus and ITV Sport Select, the latter used to show the on-demand Premier League football matches from Sky Sports. Whilst football was the mainstay of the channel, it showed the ATP Masters Series, British basketball and European Cup rugby union. Previously to the ITV Digital rebrand, the ITV Sport bouquet included ONsport 1 and ONsport 2, which were subject to rebrands themselves after ITV bought up the rights to the tennis Masters Series. Before then, the channel had been branded as Champions on 28, and Champions on 99.

Sports which ITV Sport holds rights to show

Football

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ITV Sport opening sequence

Football is a significant part of ITV's sporting portfolio.

ITV holds joint rights for the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, along with the BBC. The network broadcasts top-quality football from a range of competitions throughout the football season, with live coverage of two matches each Tuesday from the UEFA Champions League. They have shared the rights with Sky Sports since 2002, having televised the competition exclusively prior to that. ITV gets first choice of Tuesday matches, and airs preview and highlights programmes for these matches. Both networks broadcast the final live.

ITV currently holds exclusive rights to the UEFA Cup from the quarter finals onwards. The network also broadcasts terrestrial highlights of the Football League; its main programme is The Championship, and the Carling Cup. Football League and Carling Cup coverage will switch to the BBC in 2009.

ITV's main football host is Steve Rider, who replaced Gabby Logan as the presenter of the UEFA Champions League matches in 2006. Logan herself took over as the main presenter after Des Lynam's departure in July 2004. However she received some harsh criticism from the British press after her performance fronting the network's Champions League final coverage between Barcelona and Arsenal at the Stade de France. ITV Sport bosses made the decision to replace her with Rider, a former BBC Sport host, for the main presenter role at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Logan left the network for the BBC in December 2006. ITV's other football presenters are Matt Smith and recent signing Craig Doyle. Veteran Jim Rosenthal was a football presenter on ITV up until the end of 2007 when he was dropped after 28 years.

Previously, ITV held the rights to English Premiership football highlights (both in its current iteration and as the old Football League First Division). It acquired the Premiership highlights in 2000, surprising the BBC, the previous holders, and ending Match of the Day (aside from FA Cup and England weekends, which coincidently switched to the BBC at the same time). The ITV Premiership programme was titled 'The Premiership' and was presented by Des Lynam (himself formerly a presenter for Match of the Day). The show originally went out at 7pm, but this ended up being unpopular with viewers and advertisers. As such, the show was moved to 10.30pm only a few months later. ITV lost the rights in 2003 to the BBC, starting with the 2004/2005 season. During the period in which ITV held the rights to the Premiership, The Goal Rush was aired on Saturday during the football matches taking place on that day to provide live scores and match reports. It used a similar format to Gillette Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports but never achieved good ratings. The programme ended in 2003.

ITV had the rights to broadcast the FA Cup exclusively on terrestrial television in 1997, showing each final with Sky from 1998 to 2001. As noted above, ITV then lost terrestrial rights to the FA Cup and England matches to the BBC. In 2008, ITV regained the FA Cup and England rights, this time in conjunction with Setanta Sports. ITV shows live coverage of one game from both the first round and second round of the FA Cup, two live games and one replay (if necessary) from the 3rd to 6th round, one semi-final and the final (shared with Setanta), plus highlights of all other games. England coverage includes home qualifiers, away friendlies, and some home friendlies, plus highlights of games televised by Setanta.

ITV have shown every World Cup live since 1966, and numerous European Championships. ITV's most significant football moments include the World Cup Final of 1966. Whilst most of nation tuned onto the BBC for live coverage of the final between England and West Germany, ITV broadcast the event as well, with commentator Hugh Johns describing the winning England goal by Geoff Hurst in extra time. Perhaps the biggest ITV football achievement was its live and exclusive coverage of the World Cup 98 second round match between England and Argentina. Argentina won the match on penalties and a record audience, and its highest for a football match, of almost 25 million viewers tuned in to ITV's coverage, fronted by Bob Wilson.

Other moments include the Champions League Final of 1999, when Manchester United won it in the dying seconds of the match. The final achieved an audience peaking at around 17 million viewers. The Champions League Final of 2005 was also won by an English club, and live on ITV. Liverpool beat AC Milan on penalties, with a peak audience of around 15 million tuning in to ITV's coverage. Around 12.5 million tuned in to see Arsenal play Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final, despite the English side losing in the dying minutes of the match. The all English final of the UEFA Champions League between Manchester United and Chelsea in 2008 generated an average of 16 million, gaining a peak of 17.5 million for the penalty shootout finale.

ITV's highest World Cup ratings of 2006 was its live coverage of England versus Sweden, in the group stages, and it achieved a peak audience of 21 million, its highest audience since the England versus Argentina match at World Cup 98.

Previous ITV football presenters include Dickie Davies, Brian Moore, Elton Welsby, Matt Lorenzo, Bob Wilson and Des Lynam.

Brian Moore was the voice of ITV's football coverage from the 1960s through to the 1998 World Cup final in France. He presented and commentated on football for the network in four different decades. He died on 1 September, 2001, on the day England beat Germany in Munich 5-1.

ITV's current lead commentator is Clive Tyldesley (also the voice of FIFA 06, FIFA 07 and FIFA 08), who has won several RTS sports awards for best commentator. There are three other staff commentators, Peter Drury, Jon Champion and John Rawling.

ITV Sport's four commentators are supplemented by a number of freelancers. Tony Jones and Gary Bloom are often used on Football League, League Cup and UEFA Cup coverage. ITV's regional commentators also call some matches for the full network. These include Phil Duffell and Bob Symonds on The Championship, based in Wales, plus Anglia's Donovan Blake and the Westcountry's Martyn Dean.

ITV's main co-commentators are David Pleat and Jim Beglin. Matt Holland has been used as a co-commentator for some UEFA Cup games.

ITV's two regular pundits are Andy Townsend and Robbie Earle. ITV use guests as pundits when and if they are needed. These have included Dutch international and Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit, Sam Allardyce, Stuart Pearce and Alan Curbishley. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Terry Venables, and Ally McCoist were all regular pundits before quitting to take other jobs involved with football.

ITV's sports reporters are Gabriel Clarke and Ned Boulting. Freelance reporters such as Dave Beckett, Richard Henwood, Tom Skippings, Jared Young and Trevor Harris are also used.

ITV and BBC jointly shared coverage of UEFA Euro 2008. ITV only showed highlights of the final to avoid a head-to-head with the BBC - despite the fact no home nation will be competing in a major international football competition for the first time in 14 years. The World Cup in 1994 was the last time all home nations were absent, although the Republic of Ireland qualified.

Motorsport

Formula 1

ITV has covered Formula One from 1997, when the BBC lost the exclusive rights. The deal, worth £60 million, offered extended pre and post race analysis and complete live coverage of qualifying, thanks to a deal negotiated with FOM's Bernie Ecclestone. ITV chose to bid for the rights due to constantly being beaten at weekends while the Grand Prix coverage was on.

Coverage was originally presented by Jim Rosenthal from 1997 to 2005 with Tony Jardine as analyst until 2001 when he shared the role with Mark Blundell. Jardine, along with Jim Rosenthal left ITV's coverage at the end of the 2005 season, with BBC Sport presenter Steve Rider joining ITV, replacing Rosenthal as the presenter of the coverage. ITV also managed to secure Murray Walker to continue commentating as he had done with the BBC, his new co-commentator was ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle, who would act as a summariser, similar to the position James Hunt and Jonathan Palmer had when the BBC aired the Grand Prix. On several occasions, different people would stand in for Brundle on commentary, including Derek Warwick, Jody Schekter, Anthony Davidson and 1996 Drivers' Champion Damon Hill.

The 2001 United States Grand Prix was Walker's very last having missed four other races that season. James Allen moved up from his former role as pitlane reporter to replace Murray in the commentary box with Brundle still commentating as usual. Ted Kravitz then inherited Allen's old role. About 10-15 minutes before the start of each race Martin Brundle does his very famous and popular grid walk. He walks around the grid interviewing drivers and F1 personnel.

ITV has drawn criticism for airing advertisement breaks during Formula 1. Five three-minute commercial breaks are taken during every race. In 2005 the network angered fans by running adverts during the tense conclusion to the San Marino Grand Prix. ITV repeated the last three laps after the race but were inundated with complaints from angry viewers, the server on their website crashed, and they were fined by regulator Ofcom. An on air apology was made by Rosenthal before the start of the next race in Spain two weeks later.

However, ITV have also been recognised for their coverage of Formula 1, and won countless awards including several BAFTA nominations and RTS awards, including best sports presenter (Jim Rosenthal) and best sports analyst (Martin Brundle). ITV Sport won a British Academy Television Award in 2007 for its coverage of the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix, where Jenson Button won for the first time. On March 13 2008, ITV announced that they would be for the first time ever streaming live-coverage of practice session, with qualifying, race sessions, and extra features also broadcast on their website for UK-based users.

In March 2008, it was announced that ITV had enacted a clause within their current contract enabling them to leave F1 coverage after the 2008 season. It is believed this was done for commercial reasons and to give ITV more money to spend on securing Champions League football. The BBC have acquired F1 from the 2009 season onwards.

Other motorsport

As part of the F1 contract, the network show the GP2 Series, the feeder series to F1. These programmes were broadcast a week after the event (until 2007). From 2008, live coverage was shown on ITV4, presented by Charlotte Webster with commentary from BBC Radio 5 Lives' David Croft. ITV will lose coverage of the GP2 Series from 2009 following the loss of the F1 contract to the BBC.

ITV used to broadcast the World Rally Championship between 2004 and 2007, the rights to which it picked up from Channel 4 (who, in turn, had picked them up from the BBC in 2001). Coverage was hosted by Angus Scott, with Jon Desborough (of Sky News) and Robbie Head in 2004 and 2005. However as a cost cutting measure, ITV decided in 2006 to take the international WRC programmes produced by ISC, therefore removing the ITV presenters. For the 2007 season, coverage was moved away from the main ITV channel onto the digital ITV4, available only via Freeview or satellite. Subsequently, Angus Scott left ITV to join Setanta Sports, and Jon Desborough returned to present sports round-ups on Sky News. The rights to the WRC for 2008 were poached from ITV by Dave (formerly UKTV G2).

The British Touring Car Championship is another series ITV won away from the BBC, doing so in 2002. Coverage was initially hosted by Vicki Butler-Henderson and Ben Edwards, with Edwards joined in the commentary box by various guest colour commentators during the 2002 season. These included Will Hoy, Chris Goodwin and Kelvin Burt. Tim Harvey was introduced as a permanent co-commentator for the 2003 season and has only missed one programme since. In 2004, ITV introduced live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship for the first time on network television. Previously the BBC had shown occasional races live, but not to this extent. All meetings have been broadcast live by ITV Sport since. Angus Scott joined as a second presenter for the 2006 season, but both he and Vicki Butler-Henderson were replaced for 2007 by Louise Goodman and Ted Kravitz. Kravitz has taken up the role as lead host for 2008 although Steve Rider and Janie Omorogbe have been known to cover. The races are now shown live on ITV4 and highlights are shown on ITV1 on Tuesday early morning on the corresponding weekend.

The support races to the BTCC are broadcast by ITV Sport in a separate programme called Motorsport UK, typically shown in the channel's early morning schedules. This also launched in 2002, when it featured the Porsche Cup, Clio Cup, Formula Ford and Formula Renault championships. It was presented in the first year by Rachel Whatley with commentary from Richard John Neil. Diana Binks was used as a reporter.

Binks took over as presenter for the 2003 season, remaining until the end of 2005. Fran Robinson presented in 2006, while Louise Goodman took over in 2007. Ben Edwards replaced Richard John Neil as commentator in 2004. In 2005 he was joined by Simon Hill as co-commentator. For the 2006 and 2007 seasons the commentators were John Hindhaugh and Simon Hill.

The SEAT Cupra Championship and Formula BMW UK were added to the series covered by Motorsport UK in 2004, replacing Formula Ford. The Porsche Carrera Cup was not shown in 2003 or 2004, but had its own programming on Channel 4. It returned to Motorsport UK in 2005.

In 2006, ITV broadcasted the British round of the World Touring Car Championship from Brands Hatch and well as the World Superbike Championship meeting at the same venue.

To consolidate its ever expanding motorsport portfolio, in 2004 ITV broadcast a brand new magazine show for motorsport fans called Speed Sunday. The show was mainly presented by Matt Smith and Vicki Butler-Henderson. Other presenters included Lee McKenzie, Angus Scott and Jason Plato. It include a mix of news and features from the world of motorsport, in front of a live studio audience, for 1 hour on Sunday afternoons, on alternate weekends to F1. Special programmes included live coverage of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the BTCC Masters race. Whilst the concept of the show was appreciated by motorsport fans, the programme struggled ratings wise and the budget was tight, meaning that the shows were cut 45 minutes and filmed on location instead of the studio. The show was axed at the end of the season.

In 2006, ITV replaced Channel 4 as the terrestrial broadcaster of the British Superbike Championship, increasing both the quantity and quality of the coverage. Channel 4 had previously shown highlights early in the morning a week after the event. ITV started with live coverage of most rounds, although some Bank Holiday Monday races were shown as highlights. Angus Scott and Janie Omorogbe were the presenters in 2006. Scott was replaced by James Cracknell for 2007. Barry Nutley and James Whitham were the commentators in 2006. Nutley was replaced by Jack Burnicle for 2007. However, ITV decided to pull out of this event and British Eurosport took over live coverage with Channel 4 signing a deal for highlights.

Boxing

ITV Sport has broadcast many boxing matches over the years, and broadcasts some of the biggest fights featuring UK fighters under the Big Fight Live banner.

In 2005, the network obtained the main share of Frank Warren's Sports Network fights (that, for the last decade, had previously been aired by Sky Sports) and as a result broadcasts fights involving Amir Khan, Joe Calzaghe, Danny Williams, Audley Harrison and others. Former high-profile fighters on ITV included Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank.

In May 2005, ITV returned to the ring, with live coverage of Amir Khan's last fight before becoming professional against Mario Kindelan. It achieved a peak audience of 6.3 million viewers, encouraging ITV to reach a long-term agreement to show future Sports Network boxing promotions.

Other highlights since ITV returned to the sport have included the Joe Calzaghe's emphatic victory over Jeff Lacy for the WBO and IBF super-middleweight world title at the Manchester MEN Arena in March 2006. Despite being a poor fight, the first contest between Audley Harrison and Danny Williams in December 2005 achieved an audience of eight million viewers - giving credence to the fact there is large potential audience for top class boxing in the UK. Five's decision to show boxing ar part of a prime-time slot on Five US from January 2007 may have been influenced by this.

The main host of ITV Boxing is Jim Rosenthal, with analysis from Barry McGuigan and commentary from John Rawling and Duke McKenzie. Gabriel Clarke provides reports and also presented and co-produced a recent documentary on Joe Calzaghe - No Average Joe, shown on ITV4.

On September 6th 2008, Amir Khan switched to Sky from ITV, signalling the end of ITV's contract with Frank Warren's Sports Network promotion (Khan suffered a shock first round knockout by Breidis Prescott in his first fight screened by Sky Box Office). Later that month, ITV announced a 2 year, 26 fight deal with Hennessy Sports. The majority of fights will be screened on ITV4.

Rugby World Cup

The network has broadcast every Rugby World Cup live since 1991, being host broadcaster in 1991 and 1999. In 2003, England finally triumphed in the final against Australia, at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney. ITV broadcast the event live, with a peak audience of around 12-14 million viewers, a record for any rugby match broadcast to a UK audience (and almost certainly a record audience figure for the time of day - around 9am UK time). The action was anchored by Jim Rosenthal, Angus Scott and Gabby Logan with pundits including Francois Pienaar and Will Carling. The network received some criticism for relegating coverage of England's group match against Uruguay and the New Zealand v South Africa quarter final to ITV2, then a channel which the majority of UK households did not receive.

As the 2003 World Cup had been a huge ratings success, ITV tried to obtain the rights to the Six Nations Championship from the BBC; however, the corporation have retained the rights until the end of the decade. Most of the main rugby tournaments outside of the World Cup, including Six Nations, Guinness Premiership, Heineken Cup and Anglo-Welsh Cup are broadcast on the BBC or Sky Sports.

ITV held joint UK rights to the 2007 Rugby World Cup along with S4C and showed all games live on either the ITV Network or ITV4, with two games - Scotland v Romania and Wales v Japan - on ITV3 due to UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup football coverage on both ITV and ITV4 on the same night. While all of England's matches were broadcast live on ITV (English regions), many of the other home nations' matches were "relegated" to ITV's digital services (though they will be simulcast on HTV/STV/UTV in their respective nation).

Jim Rosenthal and Martin Bayfield were the main studio presenters for the 2007 World Cup in France, although they hosted some coverage from a studio in London. Sky Sports commentators Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes were 'loaned' out to ITV for the duration of the tournament and teamed up for major matches, including the final. They returned to Sky Sports once the tournament had finished. Other commentators included veteran ITV commentators John Taylor (who covered the Finals from 1991, to 2003) and Bob Symonds (former editor of rugby for HTV), Jon Champion and Murray Mexted. Reporters included veteran ITV Sport reporters Gabriel Clarke and Ned Boulting, who are joined by ITV News sports correspondent Geraint Vincent and Will Greenwood, World Cup winner with England in 2003.

No decision has yet been made as to who will broadcast the 2011 World Cup; it is possible that, as the tournament is in New Zealand, the early morning kick-off times might make the tournament less appealing for commercial broadcasters and that the BBC might take the rights. Previously, ITV had broadcast highlights of England's home internationals at Twickenham in the Six Nations (during a period when Sky Sports held the live rights to England's home Six Nations tests) and the Autumn International test matches. ITV also held the rights to the IRB Sevens tournament from 2001 to 2006. These rights were obtained by BBC Sport for the 2006/7 season.

ITV has secured rights to show Guinness Premiership club rugby highlights for the 2008-9 season. A one hour-highlights show presented by Craig Doyle will be broadcast on ITV4 on Sunday nights at 6.30 pm. The show will be repeated on ITV1 on Tuesday nights.

The Boat Race

ITV won the rights to the annual Varsity Boat Race in 2004 from the BBC, who regarded the event as one of their sporting 'crown jewels'. The contract runs to 2009. Gabby Logan fronted ITV's live coverage of the event in 2005 and 2006, with former Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell. However she did not front the programme in 2007, as she had defected to the BBC.

Steve Rider was thought to be the likely candidate to replace her. He has already fronted numerous Boat Race broadcasts for the BBC. However, in an announcement on the official Boat Race website it was confirmed that presenter Mark Durden-Smith would front ITV's coverage of the 2007 race, on 7 April. Craig Doyle presented the coverage in 2008.

ITV's Peter Drury is the commentator.

Against expectations, coverage of The Boat Race was the subject of acclaim from many quarters. The audience for the event hit six million viewers in 2005 and increased to 7.2 million in 2006.

The opening titles commissioned by Paul McNamara and directed by Victor Martinez won a Royal Television Society award in 2006 for best Sport based titles.Whilst the overall race coverage directed by BAFTA award winning John Watts, has been nominated for two BAFTA's and has also won at the Royal Television Society Awards.

Tour de France

ITV obtained the rights to this prestigious cycling event in 2002, replacing Channel 4.

Highlights and live coverage of certain stages are featured on ITV4, having aired in previous years on ITV2 and ITV3.

Coverage is fronted by Gary Imlach, who is normally accompanied by a former competitor as a pundit (such as Chris Boardman). Commentary comes from Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen (who also broadcast for other English-language channels around the world), thus re-uniting the former Channel 4 broadcast team. Eurosport also broadcasts the event, covering every stage live.

Darts

On 17 March 2007, ITV Sport announced they would be showing an all new darts tournament, the Grand Slam of Darts, comprising champions of both the BDO and PDC tournaments. Live coverage was shown on the ITV Network and ITV4 as well as nightly highlights throughout the week of the tournament. Matt Smith presented coverage of the tournament, with analysis from former players Steve Beaton and Alan Warriner. Commentary will came from ITV's boxing and football commentator John Rawling and Sky darts commentator Stuart Pike, with reports from Ned Boulting and Janie Omorogbe, who has featured on ITV Sport's coverage of the British Superbike Championship for the past two seasons. ITV will continue to cover the tournament for the next two years.

External links

• ITV Sport at itv.com