ITV Sport

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ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Carlton Sport.

The majority of ITV Sport programmes are broadcast on ITV4 although live football, major horse racing events, the Rugby World Cup and the French Open Tennis finals are shown on the ITV Network (ITV, STV and UTV).

The controller of ITV Sport is Niall Sloane, who reports to ITV's director of news, current affairs and sport Michael Jermey.

Video ITV Sport

History

ITV Sport was created as an umbrella brand for sport programmes on ITV Network, No programmes were actually produced by ITV Sport during this time, but rather the 15 ITV companies each produced sports shows for the umbrella brand, such as World of Sport by LWT and Thames.

In 2004, Granada and Carlton merged, creating a single company for all ITV franchises in England and Wales. The current ITV sport department was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport, Carlton's (previously Central's) sports department and ISN, the sport division of London News Network.

Former Sport channel

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 renamed as the ITV Sport Channel. Lasting for just one football season, the ITV Sport Channel launched on Saturday 11 August 2001 and closed on Saturday 12 May 2002.

Pay-per-view

ITV Sport Select

During the 2001-02 football season ITV showed the on-demand Premier League football matches from Sky Sports on a channel called ITV Sport Select.

ITV Box Office

ITV launched its pay-per-view channel, ITV Box Office, on 4 February 2017 when it showed coverage of Chris Eubank Jr.'s world title boxing fight against Renold Quinlan.

Maps ITV Sport

Current ITV Sport coverage

Football

ITV holds joint rights for the FIFA World Cup with the BBC and has shown every World Cup live since 1966, on a shared basis with the BBC. The same arrangement has been in place for many years for coverage of the UEFA European Championship and both broadcasters shared coverage in 2016. ITV has, since 2008, has covered every England international home friendlies and qualifiers for the European Championship and World Cup, the deal was extended to include away friendlies in 2009 and qualifiers from 2010 following the collapse of Setanta Sports, who initially held the rights for those games. This has since been extended until 2022, where ITV will show every England qualifier and friendly building up to tournaments, while highlights of the new UEFA Nations League tournament were also obtained. ITV also cover one other European qualifier per round not involving a home nation on ITV4 as well, as showing highlights of the rest of the games including those of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. ITV also covered the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup exclusively on ITV and ITV4.

ITV has a long-standing association with European club football, broadcasting the UEFA Champions League every year from 1992 through to 2015. The broadcaster has held the rights exclusively from 1992 to 2003, before having shared it with Sky Sports since 2003. From 1997, ITV began the habit of broadcasting additional matches from the competition, at first showing one extra match per week on either the Granada Plus or Carlton Select cable channels before, following the launch of On Digital, it showed every key match through special bespoke channels Champions on 28 and Champions on 99, later ONsport 1 and ONsport 2, as well as on ITV2. This practice continued until 2009, when ITV reduced its output to just one live match per set in the competition. Live coverage ended in 2015 when BT Sport took over as exclusive broadcaster of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, although ITV's involvement with the competition remained through showing highlights of both competitions every matchweek. However ITV lost these rights in 2017 meaning that their coverage of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup will cease after the 2017/18 season as BT Sport won exclusive rights for live matches, highlights and online clip rights.

ITV football presenters

Since 2015, ITV's main football host is 5 live Sport presenter Mark Pougatch and his deputy is Jacqui Oatley. Previous presenters of ITV's football coverage include Jim Rosenthal (1983-88), Elton Welsby (1988-92), Matthew Lorenzo (1993-94), Bob Wilson (1994-99), Des Lynam (1999-2004), Gabby Logan (2004-06), Steve Rider (2006-10) and Adrian Chiles (2010-14).

Motorsport

The British Touring Car Championship is another series ITV won away from the BBC, doing so in 2002 and 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. The races are now shown live on ITV4 and highlights are shown on ITV1 on Tuesday early morning on the corresponding weekend. Vicki Butler-Henderson and Ben Edwards were the presenters from 2002-2005, with Ted Kravitz and Louise Goodman taking over in 2006. Steve Rider replaced Kravitz in 2009.

In 2006, ITV replaced Channel 4 as the terrestrial broadcaster of the British Superbike Championship.

Rugby Union

The network has broadcast every Rugby World Cup live since 1991, being host broadcaster in 1991, 1999 and 2015. The only tournament that ITV has not shown has been the inaugural tournament held in 1987. During the eighties and nineties, ITV showed a variety of rugby, including Lions Tours, Autumn Internationals and even some club rugby, though this was restricted to certain regions.

When Sky Sports controversially won the rights to show highlights of England home internationals, including the Five Nations, ITV sub-licensed highlights rights to those games.

At the same time ITV started coverage of the international Rugby Sevens series. This took the form of highlights of most tournaments, with live coverage of those held in England and Wales. ITV lost those rights to Sky Sports in 2006, but since 2015 has been showing highlights once again.

ITV acquired shared rights to the Heineken Cup for a single season in 2001, when Premium TV failed to launch its channel on time. These games were shown on the ITV Sport Channel.

Between the 2008/09 and 2016/17 seasons, ITV showed highlights of Premiership Rugby and the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

From 2016, in reaction to satellite pay-TV bids from Sky and BT for coverage of the Six Nations Championship from 2017, the BBC agreed to lose exclusive rights to the tournament two years early in order for the BBC and ITV to jointly bid for the rights of the tournament to keep the Six Nations on free-to-air television. On 9 July 2015, the bid was accepted, and ITV and BBC became joint broadcasters of the Six Nations in the UK from 2016 to 2021. ITV will broadcast all England, Ireland and Italy home matches live, while BBC will broadcast all France, Scotland and Wales home matches live. Mark Pougatch and Jill Douglas present ITV's coverage of the Six Nations.

On 4 February 2017, it was announced that ITV had extended its contract for the Rugby World Cup until the 2023 tournament. The deal also includes live coverage of the Women's Rugby World Cup for the first time and the Under 20 World Cup. ITV previously showed highlights of the WRWC in 2001.

Boxing

ITV made a return to boxing in 2015, covering Belfast world champion Carl Frampton live. In 2017 ITV showed Chris Eubank Jr.'s world title boxing fight against Renold Quinlan. The event launched ITV's new pay-per-view channel ITV Box Office.

ITV is currently showing the World Boxing Super Series tournament. 14 different fights will be shown between September 2017 and the final in May 2018. The fights involving George Groves and Eubank Jr. are being shown on the Box Office platform, as well as the final with all other bouts airing on ITV4.

Horse Racing

On the 1st January 2016 it was announced ITV Sport had won rights to be the exclusive free to air home of British Horse Racing from the 1st January 2017 taking over from Channel 4 which had taken ITV rights previously in the 1980s. ITV deal encompassed Horse Racing every Saturday Afternoon on ITV or ITV4 as well as covering the major festivals on ITV. This deal meant ITV were able to cover festivals such as The Grand National, Cheltenham and Royal Ascot which they previously were not allowed to cover when they covered Horse Racing on World of Sport and also meant The Derby returning to the channel in 2017 for the first time since 1988.

ITV's Racing coverage encompasses coverage of almost 100 days of racing each year with 41 days on ITV and 60 days on ITV4. ITV main Racing Presenter is Ed Chamberlin who signed for coverage from Sky Sports and Francesca Cumani who hosts during the Flat season. Oli Bell also joined ITV as a presenter of the Opening Show and which is broadcast live every Saturday Morning on ITV or ITV4. Oli also covers main presenter duties for Chamberlain when he is off.

Cycling

ITV obtained the rights to the Tour de France in 2002, replacing Channel 4 as the UK terrestrial broadcaster. The coverage is shown on ITV4, having aired in previous years on ITV2 and ITV3. Initially, live coverage was only broadcast at the weekend but since the 2010 Tour de France, ITV4 has broadcast daily live coverage of every stage, as well as the nightly highlights show.

Following the ratings success of the Tour de France, ITV invested in more cycling coverage and now shows the Women's Tour Tour of Britain and Tour de Yorkshire live. It shows highlights of La Vuelta, having previously showed that race live before it regularly clashed with the Tour of Britain. ITV has previously shown the Tour of Ireland.

ITV also has highlights to the Tour Series cycling, and several of the classic French races, such as Paris-Roubaix

Darts

ITV was the first broadcaster of darts in the United Kingdom. They covered many tournaments on World of Sport, including the News of the World Championship and the Winmau World Masters. When World of Sport ended ITV scaled back its darts coverage and dropped darts altogether in 1988 and with the exception of a single one-off event, the 1999 Match of the Century between PDC World Champion Phil Taylor and BDO World Champion Raymond van Barneveld. It would be almost 20 years before ITV resumed coverage of the sport when in 2007, ITV Sport announced they would be covering a new darts tournament, the Grand Slam of Darts, comprising champions of both the BDO and PDC tournaments. ITV covered the event between 2007 and 2010 - coverage then moved to Sky Sports.

In 2011 ITV signed a new contract with the PDC to show the European Darts Championship in July and the Second Players Championship Finals of 2011.

On 14 June 2013 the PDC and ITV announced they had signed a new deal to cover four tournaments a year from 2013 to 2015. The tournaments are The Players Championship which they had covered from 2009 to 2010 and from December 2011 - present, The European Championship which they covered previously in 2008 and 2011, a new tournament called the Masters where the top 16 face in other in a three-day tournament, and the UK Open, otherwise known as the FA Cup of Darts, which had previously been shown on Sky.

In late 2014 it was announced ITV signed a deal to cover five darts tournaments in 2015 covering a new tournament entitled the World Series of Darts Finals. This means that in 2015 ITV will cover the Masters in January, the UK Open in March, the European Championship in October, the World Series of Darts Finals and Players Championship Finals in November.

Tennis

In 2011 ITV Sport won the rights from the BBC to show the French Open and has shown the event since 2012. The bulk of the daily coverage is broadcast on ITV4 although both singles finals plus other weekend matches are shown on ITV. However, controversy reigned in 2014 when the main ITV channel stopped coverage of the men's final with four points left and sent the match to ITV4 thus denying viewers recording the match the chance to watch later and those with Freeview in some rural areas (where ITV4 may not be available on Freeview) the chance to see Rafael Nadal win an historic title. This did not deter ITV from immediately renewing its deal to show the tournament and ITV Sport will now show the French Open until 2018.

Snooker

In the 1980s and early 1990s, ITV broadcast up to four Major Snooker Tournaments per season including The Jameson International, The World Doubles Championship, The World Matchplay (which replaced the World Doubles in 1988), The Lada/Mercantile Credit Classic and The British Open. Daytime action was sometimes shown on Channel 4 until 1988. However, ITV decided to axe all of its snooker after the 1993 British Open and apart from a brief return to the green baize in 2000 and 2001, the sport was absent from ITV screens for more than 20 years.

Since 2010 ITV has shown a single weekend of a new format of the sport called Power Snooker and in February 2013 ITV4 broadcast the World Open. It was announced in June 2013 that ITV4 will cover the new tournament entitled the Champion of Champions from November 2013. In summer 2014 ITV and Barry Hearn announced they had signed a 5-year deal to cover 2 Snooker Tournaments per year, keeping coverage of the Champion of Champions and a new tournament called the World Grand Prix. In August 2015, World Snooker announced that ITV4 would televise the Snooker Shoot-Out in a three-year deal through to 2018.

Sports Life Stories

ITV Sport's award-winning documentary strand has featured the stories of many sporting greats. Sports Life Stories series one was first shown on ITV4 in 2012 and included episodes on Ronnie O'Sullivan, Dame Kelly Holmes, Fabrice Muamba, Barry McGuigan, Gareth Thomas, Brian Lara, Amir Khan and Lawrence Dallaglio. Series two first shown on ITV4 in 2013 included episodes on James Cracknell, David Weir, Nicola Adams, Jermain Defoe, Eric Bristow, Chris Eubank, Didier Drogba and Jimmy White. Series 3 returns in February 2015. Reporters on the series have included Gabriel Clarke, Ned Boulting, Adam Darke and Leon Mann.

src: www.theawakeningmedia.co.uk

List of Current ITV Sport Rights

Football

FIFA World Cup Finals: All matches live on BBC Sport & ITV Sport (2018-2022)
UEFA European Championship Finals: All matches live on BBC Sport & ITV Sport (2016 and 2020)
England Internationals: All England European Championship Qualifiers and World Cup Qualifiers live until 2024. Pre-tournament Friendly Matches Live until (2024). Highlights of Nations Cup until 2024.
Confederations Cup: Live on ITV & ITV4
FA Youth Cup: Semi-finals and final are shown live on ITV4

Rugby Union

Rugby World Cup: All matches Live on ITV & ITV4 (to 2023)
Women's Rugby World Cup: Live on ITV and ITV4 until 2023
Under 20 Rugby World Cup: Live on ITV4 until 2023
RBS 6 Nations: ITV has rights to England, Ireland and Italy home games (2016-2021)
IRB Rugby Sevens: Highlights

Tennis

French Open: Live on ITV & ITV4 (to 2021)

Motorsport

British Touring Cars Championship: Live on ITV4 (to 2021)
MotoGP: Highlights on ITV4
World Superbike Championship: Highlights on ITV4
British Superbike Championship: Highlights on ITV4
Isle of Man TT: Highlights on ITV4
Goodwood Festival of Speed, Goodwood Revival and Goodwood Members Meeting
British F3 Championship highlights

Boxing

World Boxing Super Series: Live on ITV4 and ITV Box Office

Snooker

Champion of Champions: Live on ITV4 (to 2019)
World Grand Prix: Live on ITV4 (to 2019)
Players Championship: Live on ITV4 (to 2019)
World Snooker Shoot-Out: Live on ITV4 (to 2018)

Darts

UK Open: Live on ITV4
European Championship: Live on ITV4
The Masters: Live on ITV4
World Series of Darts Finals: Live on ITV4
Players Championship Finals: Live on ITV4
World Series of Darts: Delayed & Live Coverage of 6 events on ITV4 (Delayed coverage of events outside UK & Europe)

Cycling

Tour de France: Live Coverage & Highlights on ITV4
La Course by Le Tour de France: Live on ITV4
Tour of Britain: Live coverage & Highlights on ITV4
Women's Tour of Britain: Highlights on ITV4
Tour de Yorkshire: Live on ITV4
Vuelta a Espana: Highlights on ITV4
British Road Race Championships: Highlights on ITV4
Tour Series: Highlights on ITV4

Horse Racing

Exclusive terrestrial rights to a minimum of 95 days of racing, live on ITV, ITV3 and ITV4 including Cheltenham Festival, Grand National, Derby & Royal Ascot

A team from the BBC takes on a team from ITV in the Sport Relief ...

src: c8.alamy.com

List of Current ITV Sport Personnel

Football

Eni Aluko
Craig Bellamy
Slaven Bilic
Ned Boulting
Gabriel Clarke
Peter Crouch
Lee Dixon (Also works for NBC)
Iain Dowie (Also works for Sky Sports)
Richard Dunne (Also works for BT Sport)
Danny Higginbotham (Also works for Sky Sports and Talksport)
Glenn Hoddle (Also works for BT Sport)
Mark Hughes
Roy Keane
Christian Karembeu
Sam Matterface (Also works for Talksport)
Leon Mann
Jacqui Oatley (Also works for BBC Sport and BBC Radio 5 Live)
Gary Neville (Works for Sky Sports, on loan for 2018 World Cup)
Mark Pougatch (Also works for BBC Radio 5 Live and BT Sport)
Celina Hinchcliffe
Emmanuel Petit
Louis Saha
Gordon Strachan
Joe Speight (Also works for IMG)
David Stowell
Clive Tyldesley
Howard Webb (Also works for BT Sport)
Norman Whiteside
Ian Wright (Also works for BBC Sport and BT Sport)
Ally McCoist (Also works for BT Sport)
Jon Champion (Works for BT Sport and Premier League World Feed)
Slavan Bilic
Martin O'Neill
Henrik Larsson
Patrice Evra

Boxing

Mark Pougatch (Also works for Channel 5)
David Haye
Duke McKenzie
Dave Farrar (Also works for Channel 5)
Richie Woodhall (Also works for Channel 5)
Gabriel Clarke

Cycling

Chris Boardman (Also works for BBC Sport)
Ned Boulting
Gary Imlach
Hugh Porter
David MIllar

Darts

Ned Boulting
Dan Dawson (Also works for BBC Sport, PDC TV and Talksport)
Chris Mason (Also works for Channel 4 and BT Sport)
Jacqui Oatley
Stuart Pyke (Also works for Sky Sports)
John Rawling (Also works for Channel 4 and BT Sport)
Alan Warriner-Little (Also works for BBC Sport)

Horse Racing

Oli Bell
Matt Chapman (Also works for At the Races)
Ed Chamberlin
Francesca Cumani
Mick Fitzgerald
Brian Gleeson
Sally-Ann Grassick
Luke Harvey
Charlotte Hawkins
Richard Hoiles
Mark Johnson
AP McCoy
Victoria Pendleton
Rishi Persad (Also works for Racing UK)
Alice Plunkett
Brough Scott
Hayley Turner
Lucy Verasamy
Jason Weaver

Motorsport

David Addison
Louise Goodman
Tim Harvey
Barry Nutley (Also works for British Eurosport)
Niall Mackenzie (Also works for British Eurosport)
Steve Rider
Paul O' Neil
Phil Glew
Simon Hill
Richard John-Neil

Rugby Union

Maggie Alphonsi
Martin Bayfield (Also works for BT Sport)
Marco Bortolami
Gabriel Clarke
Lawrence Dallaglio (Also works for BT Sport)
Gordon D'Arcy (Also works for BBC Radio)
Jill Douglas (Also works for BBC Sport)
David Flatman (Also works for BT Sport & Channel 5)
Martin Gillingham (Also works for Sky Sports)
Scott Hastings (Also works for Sky Sports)
Ben Kay (Also works for BT Sport)
Sir Ian McGeechan
Nick Mullins (Also works for BT Sport)
Ugo Monye (Also works for BT Sport & BBC Radio)
Brian O'Driscoll (Also works for BT Sport)
Mark Pougatch
Jason Robinson
Gareth Thomas
Shane Williams (Also works for BBC Wales & BBC Radio)
Jonny Wilkinson (Also works for Sky Sports)
Sir Clive Woodward (Also works for Sky Sports)

Snooker

Jill Douglas
Clive Everton (Also works for Sky Sports)
Neal Foulds (Also works for Sky Sports & British Eurosport)
Alan McManus (Also works for BBC Sport & British Eurosport)
Stephen Hendry (Also works for BBC Sport)

Tennis

Marion Bartoli (Also works for BBC Sport)
Jim Courier (Also works for BBC Sport, CBS and Seven Network)
Annabel Croft (Also works for BBC Sport, BBC Radio 5 Live, Sky Sports and British Eurosport)
Lindsay Davenport (Also works for BBC Sport)
Celina Hinchcliffe
John Inverdale (Also works for BBC Sport)
John Lloyd (Also works for BBC Sport)
Nick Mullins (Also works for BBC Sport and BT Sport)
Mark Petchey (Also works for BBC Sport)
Simon Reed (Also works for British Eurosport and BBC Sport)
Fabrice Santoro
Samantha Smith (Also works for BBC Sport and BT Sport)
Jeff Tarango (Also works for BBC Radio 5 Live)

ITV commissions three part drama Tina And Bobby

src: www.itv.com

Previous ITV Sport coverage

Athletics

In 1985, ITV won the rights to show British Athletics from the BBC. As well as broadcasting UK athletics, the channel also showed many of the major European evening meetings whereby ITV showed the first hour with the second hour broadcast on Channel 4. ITV also broadcast the 1983 and 1987 World Championships and the European Athletics Championships during the 1980s and in 1990. Again, some of the coverage was broadcast on Channel 4. Jim Rosenthal presented the coverage with commentary from Alan Parry, Peter Matthews and Steve Ovett. ITV scaled back its coverage of the sport in the early 1990s and decided to axe all remaining athletics coverage in 1997 and the sport has subsequently never been seen on the channel. Channel 4 briefly took the baton from ITV, showing UK meetings in 1997 and 1998, before coverage reverted to the BBC in 1999.

The Boat Race

In 2004, ITV won the rights to the annual Varsity Boat Race from the BBC. The contract ran to 2009. Hosts of the coverage were initially Gabby Logan and Mark Durden Smith. Craig Doyle took over as presenter, while Peter Drury commentated. James Cracknell acted as a co presenter and pundit. ITV Sport did not renew its contract for The Boat Race after its contract ended due to wanting to concentrate on football and the rights reverted to the BBC.

Boxing

ITV Sport has broadcast many boxing matches over the years under the Big Fight Live banner and the sport was a regular fixture on ITV screens until the mid 1990s when ITV lost its two premier contracts - in mid-1994 Barry Hearn took Chris Eubank and his stable of fighters to Sky Sports and at the start of 1995, Sky Sports won the rights to show Sports Network fights. This left ITV with only occasional boxing for the following ten years. Their only networked boxing during this period were a few fights involving Shea Neary, thanks to a contract with Merseyside promoter John Hyland. Other bouts were shown on ITV2 and the ill-fated ITV Sport Channel and some boxing was shown on a regional basis, but this was rare.

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 broadcast the main share of Frank Warren's Sports Network fights and as a result broadcast fights involving Amir Khan, Joe Calzaghe, Danny Williams, Audley Harrison, Dereck Chisora and others. Other highlights included 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. During this period the main event was usually shown on the ITV Network while undercard matches were often televised on ITV4.

On 6 September 2008, Amir Khan switched to Sky from ITV, signalling the end of ITV's contract with Frank Warren's Sports Network promotion. Later that month, ITV announced a 2-year, 26-fight deal with Hennessy Sports. The majority of fights were screened on ITV4 and was once again hosted by Jim Rosenthal, who made an unexpected return to ITV having previously been axed in early 2008. Amir Khan moved back to ITV in 2010, when his fight against Paulie Malignaggi was broadcast live in the early hours of Sunday 15 May 2010. ITV also broadcast delayed coverage of at least one Carl Froch fight in America the night after it took place. ITV then decided to stop covering the sport as ITV thought that boxing was no longer commercially viable.

The main host of ITV Boxing was Jim Rosenthal and until 1996 the main commentators were Reg Gutteridge and Jim Watt, both of whom moved to Sky while continuing to commentate for the few boxing shows ITV televised in the late 1990s, which were presented by Russ Williams. Graham Beecroft commentated on boxing on a regional basis during the late 1990s. When boxing returned to ITV on a regular basis in 2005 Jim Rosenthal resumed presenting duties and Barry McGuigan left Sky Sports to continue his role as a pundit on ITV. John Rawling and Duke McKenzie were the commentators and Gabriel Clarke provided reports and conducted interviews with the boxers.

Commonwealth Games

The only ITV coverage of the Commonwealth Games has been of the 1958 Games in Cardiff, which was shared with the BBC. Otherwise this event has been shown exclusively on the BBC.

Cricket

Cricket has only been shown very occasionally on ITV. The BBC had been the major broadcaster of cricket during the 20th century until it lost all of its cricket coverage to Channel 4 in 1999. However, during the BBC's dominance of coverage of the sport ITV occasionally broadcast cricket on a regional basis, such as the Roses matches between Yorkshire and Lancashire which were shown in the north of England. ITV also showed highlights of England's overseas tour of New Zealand in 1988.

There was to be no further cricket on ITV until in 2010 the broadcaster signed a deal to show the 2010 Indian Premier League and encouraged by the success of having aired the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2010, on a one-year contract, UK broadcaster ITV has signed a new four-year deal with Sony Entertainment for the UK broadcast rights to the IPL. In February 2014 ITV lost coverage of the IPL from the 2015 season to Sky Sports.

ITV also broadcast highlights of the 2010/11 Ashes series and the 2015 Cricket World Cup.