ITV Sport
Encyclopedia
ITV Sport is a sport
producer and brand name owned by ITV plc
. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada
Sport, Carlton's (previously Central's) sports department and ISN, the sports division of London News Network
. The company produces Champions League
and FA Cup
Football, along with coverage of England's national team. ITV Sport also shows live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship
and the Tour De France. ITV has carried every Rugby World Cup since 1991.
ITV Sport programmes are broadcast on its main channel (the ITV
Network) although outside of the Rugby World Cup, the only sport shown live on ITV1
is football. Other live and recorded coverage is shown on ITV4
. ITV Sport's main rivals are BBC Sport
, Sky Sports
and ESPN
. Selected events air in high definition
.
The controller of ITV Sport is Niall Sloane, who reports to ITV's director of news, current affairs and sport Michael Jermey.
Featured presenters include Adrian Chiles
, Matt Smith
, Craig Doyle
, Jim Rosenthal
, Steve Rider
and Gary Imlach
.
network, originally broadcasting UEFA Champions League
football and ATP Masters Series
tennis under the brand ONsport. It was then renamed as the 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 after ITV reneged on its promised payments to clubs. 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.
Football is a significant part of ITV's sporting portfolio. Indeed, Britain's first-ever Football League
game to be televised was broadcast on ITV in 1960. Billed as The Big Game, it featured Bolton Wanderers
' visit to Blackpool
's Bloomfield Road
on 10 September.
ITV holds joint rights for the 2014
FIFA World Cup
s, along with the BBC
. The network broadcasts football from a range of competitions throughout the football season, with live coverage of one match each Wednesday from the UEFA Champions League
. They have shared the rights with Sky Sports
since 2003, having televised the competition exclusively prior to that. ITV gets first choice of Wednesday matches, and airs preview and highlights programmes for these matches. Both networks broadcast the final live. ITV share the rights for the UEFA Europa League with Channel 5 and ESPN
and ITV will take over from Channel 5 as the principle rights holder for this tournament for three seasons beginning next season.
Previously, ITV held the rights to English top flight football highlights (both in its current iteration as the Premier League 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 coincidentally 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. 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 round to quarter-finals, one semi-final and the final (shared with ESPN, the competition's pay-TV broadcaster), plus highlights of all other games. England coverage includes all home games and away friendlies.
An ITV
error during their broadcast of the Everton vs. Liverpool FA Cup
replay meant that millions of viewers missed Dan Gosling
's crucial winner for Everton late in extra time, except for certain regions where the picture came back just before the goal. Viewers across the country were left bemused when coverage was interrupted by advertisements in a mistake caused by a timed commencer for the commercial break, only to return to see the stadium celebrating. Thousands of complaints flooded in, with viewers questioning ITV's commitment to broadcasting quality football. It was later revealed that the adverts that evening were controlled by the same people who were responsible for a similar incident during the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix
. This was not the first mishap during the coverage — genitals were seen and fans' swearing was heard during a previous live match.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1090806/ITV-apologise-Histon-hero-shows-tackle-fans-turn-airwaves-blue-Leeds-FA-Cup-giant-killing.html
A similar incident occurred in England's opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
when an advertisement was shown and then returning just after the opening goal of the game was scored. On this occasion, this only happened on ITV1's high definition channel, ITV1 HD and viewers watching the game in standard definition, including on Freeview, were unaffected. Nevertheless, the error still sparked thousands of angry complaints, some even demanding The FA to terminate their live football contract with ITV in case this happened again. As before, ITV apologised for the mistake.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10302816.stm The channel came under criticism for reporting on events at the England camp in Baden Baden during the 2006 World Cup at half time of all games not involving the team, as this meant less discussion of the game in question.
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 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, but ITV came under fire from Manchester United supporters, as they cut to adverts instead of showing the players celebrating. Ironically German TV channel RTL Television
, kept the coverage running which like ITV uses UEFA's live feed. 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 UEFA 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.
, who presents the network's coverage of Champions League, FA Cup, and England games. Other ITV football presenters include Matt Smith
. Smith presents Champions League highlights, secondary FA Cup games and Europa League matches. Angus Scott
Presents the UEFA Super Cup and Europa League games, Kelly Cates is an occasional presenter and hosted early rounds of the Champions League.
, 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. Rider presented ITV's Champions League and FA Cup coverage until April 2010 after he quit the network, following the arrival of Adrian Chiles.
Previous ITV
football presenters include Dickie Davies
, Brian Moore
, Elton Welsby
(late 1980s to 1992), Matt Lorenzo (1993 to 1994), Bob Wilson (1994 to 1999) and Des Lynam
(1999 to 2004). Jim Rosenthal is now the main football presenter on Channel 5, however he continues to front the FA Cup draw.
(also one the voices of the FIFA Series since 2006), who has won several RTS sports awards for best commentator. Tyldesley is ITV's first choice commentator coverage and the voice of ITV's biggest games. He shares ITV's other big games from the FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League, and England internationals with ITV's other staff commentator, Peter Drury
.
ITV Sport's commentators are supplemented by a number of freelancers. Tom Skippings, Andy Bodfish, Ian Crocker
and Steve Bower
are among those used for FA Cup, Europa League, and World Cup games.
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. Former ITV commentators include Guy Mowbray (now with BBC Sport) and Jon Champion who moved to ESPN.
. Kevin Gallacher
, Matt Holland
(now more usually seen on the BBC's Championship football coverage, including presenting Late Kick Off
for BBC East) and Iain Dowie
are also used for some games. David Pleat
was ITV's lead co-commentator for a number of years until he was dropped in 2009.
ITV's two regular pundits are Andy Townsend
and Gareth Southgate
Marcel Desailly
is used frequently. 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. Robbie Earle
was a regular pundit on ITV for over 10 years, until his contract was terminated during the 2010 World Cup due to Earle failing to abilde by ticket allocation rules.
ITV's sports reporters are Gabriel Clarke, Ned Boulting and Andy Kerr. Freelance reporters such as Dave Beckett, Richard Henwood, Tom Skippings, Jed Pitman, Chris Hall and Trevor Harris are also used.
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 took up the role as lead host for 2008 although Steve Rider
and Jane Omorogbe
were 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.
2009 saw Steve Rider
anchor coverage, with Louise Goodman
doing the pitlane reports (as she did on the F1 Coverage) and Ben Edwards
commentating
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, before she 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. John Hindaugh was then lead commentator for a while and then Richard John Neil returned as lead commentator with Ben Edwards again in 2010.
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.
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 Jane 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. ITV regained the rights for highlights from 2009 onwards. In 2011, coverage was presented by James Haydon
while commentary (shared with Eurosport) came from Jack Burnicle and James Whitham
.
live since 1991, being host broadcaster in 1991 and 1999. The only tournament that ITV has not shown has been the inaugural tournament held in 1987. 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
pool 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.
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 were be simulcast on ITV1 Wales/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 were joined by ITV News
sports correspondent Geraint Vincent
and Will Greenwood
, World Cup winner with England in 2003.
The 2011 Rugby World Cup
was presented by Steve Rider
and Craig Doyle
. Studio analysts came from Michael Lynagh
, Sean Fitzpatrick
, Francois Pienaar
, Lawrence Dallaglio
, Girvan Dempsey
and Gareth Thomas as well as injured players Danny Care and Thom Evans
. Martyn Williams
was an analyst for Wales' semi final against France and the third place playoff match against Australia. Commentators were Nick Mullins
, Martin Gillingham
, Simon Ward
and Bob Symonds. Co-commentators were Phil Vickery, Andy Gomarsall
, Alan Quinlan
, Scott Hastings
and Michael Owen
. Reporters were Gabriel Clarke and Martin Bayfield
.
ITV will broadcast the 2015 Rugby World Cup
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 also shows Guinness Premiership club rugby highlights and has done so since the 2008-9 season. A one hour-highlights show presented by Craig Doyle airs on ITV4 on Sunday nights at 8.00 pm, with a repeat on ITV1 later the same evening and again on ITV4 on Mondays at 6pm. Martin Bayfield returned as the pundit and fill in presenters. In 2011 the channel has also shown a highlights package of the Heineken Cup and the LV Cup.
The same channel - which ITV say is available "to 93% of homes" - also showed highlights of the Twenty20 and one-day series which ran in January and February.
ITV controller of sport, Niall Sloane said: "There is huge demand to see England defend the Ashes and I'm delighted that we have secured highlights, free-to-air for UK viewers."
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 Nimbus Communications for the UK broadcast rights to the IPL. Under the new agreement, live coverage of IPL matches will be broadcast free-to-air on ITV4 and simulcast live on ITV.com. The fourth season of the IPL runs from 8 April over 74 matches to 28 May. ITV4 coverage will be produced by ITV Sport with the presenting team due to be announced shortly.
These events had been the first cricket coverage on ITV since 1987.
as the UK terrestrial broadcaster. Daily highlights and live weekend coverage is 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.
For the 2010 Tour de France, ITV4
broadcast daily live coverage of every stage for the first time, as well as the nightly highlights show.
ITV will broadcast the Tours of Britain, France and Ireland until 2013, bringing their coverage of the Tour de France to 11 years. http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/Pressreleases/Programmepressreleases/ITV4tobroadcastliveTourDeFrancecoverage/default.html
In 2011 ITV 4 began to broadcast the Vuelta a Espana
, the last of the three cycling Grand Tours.
, comprising champions of both the BDO and PDC tournaments. ITV had covered the event between 2007 and 2010. In 2010 Sky Sports
announced they would be covering the Grand Slam of Darts
in a new contract with the PDC.
ITV Sport had also aired the inaugural PDC European Championships.
ITV's darts presenter was Matt Smith
, pundits included Steve Beaton
(who did the first two Grand Slam of Darts and the European Championship), Chris Mason
and Alan Warriner-Little
. ITV Sport's Darts commentators were boxing and football commentator John Rawling
, Sky darts commentator Stuart Pyke and football commentator Peter Drury. Nigel Pearson initially freelanced, but is now working exclusively for Sky Sports. Reports came from Ned Boulting and Janie Omorogbe, who had featured on ITV Sport's coverage of the British Superbike Championship.
ITV signed a new contract with the PDC in 2011 to show the European Darts Championship in July. Following on from this, the PDC announced that the Second Players Championship Finals of 2011
will be televised on ITV4, having been shown on the channel in 2009 and 2010.
presented the coverage with commentary from John Lloyd and Simon Reed but in 2010, Matt Smith
was the presenter with commentary from Simon Reed and Annabel Croft
.
ITV Sport will show the next three French Open tennis tournaments (2012 to 2014). The bulk of the coverage - expected to be around six hours per day - will be on ITV4 although both singles finals plus two other matches will be shown on ITV1.
, Peter Matthews and Steve Ovett
. ITV decided to axe all Athletics in 1997.
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.
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 John Watts, was nominated for two BAFTAs and also won at the RTS Awards.
ITV Sport did not renew its contract for The Boat Race after its contract ended due to wanting to concentrate on football. The rights reverted back to the BBC.
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.
The main host of ITV Boxing was Jim Rosenthal
, with analysis from Barry McGuigan
and commentary from John Rawling
and Duke McKenzie
. Gabriel Clarke provided reports and also presented and co-produced a recent documentary on Joe Calzaghe
- No Average Joe, shown on ITV4
.
On September 6, 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 was 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.
from to , after the BBC lost the 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 and Rosenthal both left ITV's coverage at the end of the 2005 season, with ex-BBC Sport
presenter Steve Rider
replacing the latter 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 televised the sport. On several occasions, different people would stand in for Brundle on commentary, including Derek Warwick
, Jody Scheckter
, Anthony Davidson
and Drivers' Champion Damon Hill
.
The 2001 United States Grand Prix
was Walker's last in the ITV commentary booth, having missed four other races that season. James Allen
moved up from his former role as pitlane reporter to replace Walker in the commentary box with Brundle still commentating as usual and Ted Kravitz
inheriting Allen's old role. ITV also introduced Martin Brundle's hugely popular gridwalk (a role he still continues on the BBC), where roughly 10–15 minutes before the start of the race Brundle would walk around the grid interviewing drivers, team personnel, celebrities and whoever else he could find. One such interview was with the King of Spain.
ITV drew criticism for airing advertisement breaks during the races - they were obliged to take five three-minute commercial breaks during each race. In 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. As a result of these complaints, 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.
They were also criticised for showing adverts including crashes, race-changing overtakes and dramatic Championship moments, such as Alonso
's engine failing during the 2006 Italian Grand Prix
, and missing Nico Rosberg
's 100 mph crash at the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix
.
However, ITV were also recognised positively for their coverage of Formula 1, and won several awards including several BAFTA nominations and RTS
awards. Jim Rosenthal won an award for best sports presenter, and Brundle won an award for best sports analyst. 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 sessions, with qualifying, race coverage, and extra features also broadcast on their website for UK-based users. However, they later announced that they had enacted a clause within their contract enabling them to leave F1 coverage after the 2008 season. It is believed this was done for commercial reasons and to allow more money to be spent on securing coverage of the UEFA Champions League
. The BBC retained coverage from 2009 onwards. Ironically, ITV F1's highest ever broadcast rating came in its final race, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
(the first season in which ITV had aired a British Championship victory), which attracted 8.8 million viewers, peaking at 12.5 million viewers. On 17 November 2008, BBC announced that Martin Brundle would continue his commentary role alongside Jonathan Legard
during the 2009 season
, while Ted Kravitz would continue his pit-lane reporter role alongside Lee McKenzie
.
, 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 Live
s' David Croft. ITV lost 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).
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
producer and brand name owned by ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...
. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada
Granada Productions
Granada Productions was a British commercial television production and distribution company. The company took its name from the successful ITV franchise, Granada Television....
Sport, Carlton's (previously Central's) sports department and ISN, the sports division of London News Network
London News Network
London News Network was a television news and facilities organisation in London. It was created in 1992 as a joint operation between London's two ITV contractors, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television, with each company holding a 50% stake...
. The company produces Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
and FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
Football, along with coverage of England's national team. ITV Sport also shows live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship
British Touring Car Championship
The British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom. The Championship was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and has run to various rules over the years – "production cars", then FIA Group 1 or 2 in the late 1960s...
and the Tour De France. ITV has carried every Rugby World Cup since 1991.
ITV Sport programmes are broadcast on its main channel (the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
Network) although outside of the Rugby World Cup, the only sport shown live on ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
is football. Other live and recorded coverage is shown on ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
. ITV Sport's main rivals are BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
, Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
and ESPN
ESPN (UK)
ESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009...
. Selected events air in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
.
The controller of ITV Sport is Niall Sloane, who reports to ITV's director of news, current affairs and sport Michael Jermey.
Featured presenters include Adrian Chiles
Adrian Chiles
Adrian Chiles is a British television and radio presenter, currently working for ITV Sport presenting football coverage....
, Matt Smith
Matt Smith (broadcaster)
Matt Smith is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.-Early life:Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89. During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies...
, Craig Doyle
Craig Doyle
Craig Doyle is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV...
, Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal is a sports presenter on British television.-Early life:Rosenthal grew up in Oxford and attended Josca's Preparatory School before going to Magdalen College School...
, Steve Rider
Steve Rider
Stephen Rider is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage, which included the Champions League, England Internationals, the FA Cup and the 2006 World Cup. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010...
and Gary Imlach
Gary Imlach
Gary Imlach is a British author, journalist and broadcaster, specialising in sport. Imlach is particularly associated with non-mainstream sports, working for many years as the face of Channel 4's coverage of American Football and the Tour de France, having transferred to ITV when the station...
.
Former channel
ITV used to have a dedicated sports channel on the ITV DigitalITV Digital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster, which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network as ONdigital in 1998 and briefly re-branded as ITV Digital in July 2001, before the service ceased in May 2002. Its main shareholders...
network, originally broadcasting UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
football and ATP Masters Series
ATP Masters Series
The ATP Masters Series was a series of nine tennis tournaments that formed part of the Association of Tennis Professionals tour, held annually throughout the year in Europe, North America...
tennis under the brand ONsport. It was then renamed as the 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
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
, almost bankrupting many league clubs in the process after ITV reneged on its promised payments to clubs. Lasting for just one football season; the ITV Sport Channel launched on Saturday 11 August 2001 with Man City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
v Watford
Watford F.C.
Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. It is often referred to as Watford F.C., Watford, or by the team's nickname The Hornets . Watford Rovers, Founded in 1881, entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1886, and the Southern League a decade...
in the First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
, and closed on Saturday 12 May 2002 with the Division 2
Football League Second Division
From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
Play Off Final between Brentford
Brentford F.C.
Brentford Football Club are a professional English football club based in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow. They are currently playing in Football League One....
and Stoke
Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...
. Matt Smith
Matt Smith (broadcaster)
Matt Smith is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.-Early life:Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89. During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies...
, Tony Dorigo
Tony Dorigo
Anthony Robert Dorigo is a retired English football player who played for Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leeds United and the England national side as a left-back.-Career:...
, Russell Osman
Russell Osman
Russell Charles Osman is a retired England international footballer.-Playing career:Osman was born in Repton, Derbyshire, the son of Rex Osman who played a handful of games for Derby County in the early 1950s...
, John Hendrie
John Hendrie
John Grattan Hendrie is a Scottish former professional association footballer who played on the right wing or in attack....
, Garry Nelson
Garry Nelson
Garry Paul Nelson is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Southend United, Swindon Town, Plymouth Argyle, Brighton & Hove Albion, Charlton Athletic and Torquay United between 1979 and 1997. He played as a striker or on the left wing...
, Guy Havord, Guy Mowbray
Guy Mowbray
Guy Mowbray is a football commentator on British television, who supports York City FC, and is currently with the BBC. Whilst working for Eurosport at the 1998 World Cup, he became the youngest ever television commentator on a World Cup Final, aged 26...
, Peter Drury
Peter Drury
Peter Drury, born 1968, is ITV Sport's number two football commentator, a role he has held since joining the network in 1998.A politics graduate from Hull University, Peter began his career as a journalist with Hayters sports agency before joining BBC Radio Leeds in 1990 as a football and cricket...
, Jon Champion
Jon Champion
Jon Champion is ESPN UK's number one football commentator. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the past 20 years. His late father David Champion was the deputy headmaster of the independent school Bootham School, York...
, David Fairclough
David Fairclough
David Fairclough is a retired English footballer, most famous for playing for Liverpool as a striker during the 1970s and 80s.-Life and playing career:...
, Paul Walsh
Paul Walsh
Paul Anthony Walsh is a retired English footballer.Walsh was a diminutive and pacy centre forward who shot to fame in the 1980s during spells with Charlton, Luton, Liverpool and Tottenham.-Charlton Athletic:...
, Jim Beglin
Jim Beglin
James Martin "Jim" Beglin is a former Irish professional footballer.- Life and career :Beglin played schoolboy football in his native city with Bolton and Waterford Bohs before joining Shamrock Rovers in 1980...
, Simon Hill
Simon Hill
Simon Hill is an Australian-based association football commentator.-British-based work:After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 1990, Hill began his work in the field of journalism, initially writing for newspapers as a freelance author while studying for the NCTJ Pre-Entry Course in...
, Peter Stevenson
Peter Stevenson
Peter Stevenson is an All Star winning former Irish Gaelic footballer who played for Derry in the 1970s and 1980. Described as a "tower of strength", he won the Ulster Senior Football Championships on two/three? occasions. Stevenson played club football with a number of clubs throughout his career...
, Carrie Frais, Lisa Rogers
Lisa Rogers
Lisa Rogers is a Welsh television presenter and occasional actress. She has appeared in films, television programmes, theatre and radio.-Early life:...
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
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
. Whilst football was the mainstay of the channel, it showed the ATP Masters Series
ATP Masters Series
The ATP Masters Series was a series of nine tennis tournaments that formed part of the Association of Tennis Professionals tour, held annually throughout the year in Europe, North America...
, British basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and European Cup rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
. 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.
Current ITV Sport coverage
Football
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
game to be televised was broadcast on ITV in 1960. Billed as The Big Game, it featured Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
' visit to Blackpool
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
's Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...
on 10 September.
ITV holds joint rights for the 2014
2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament that will take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014....
FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
s, along with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The network broadcasts football from a range of competitions throughout the football season, with live coverage of one match each Wednesday from the UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
. They have shared the rights with Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
since 2003, having televised the competition exclusively prior to that. ITV gets first choice of Wednesday matches, and airs preview and highlights programmes for these matches. Both networks broadcast the final live. ITV share the rights for the UEFA Europa League with Channel 5 and ESPN
ESPN (UK)
ESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009...
and ITV will take over from Channel 5 as the principle rights holder for this tournament for three seasons beginning next season.
Previously, ITV held the rights to English top flight football highlights (both in its current iteration as the Premier League and as the old Football League First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
). It acquired the Premiership highlights in 2000, surprising the BBC, the previous holders, and ending Match of the Day
Match of the Day
Match of the Day is the BBC's main football television programme. Typically, it is shown on BBC One on Saturday evenings during the English football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in English football's top division, the Premier League...
(aside from FA Cup and England weekends, which coincidentally 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
The Goal Rush
The Goal Rush was a live ITV television programme that aired from 2001 to 2003 produced by Granada Television. The programme was broadcast on Saturdays as a rival show to Final Score on BBC One, and provided live football scores from the Premier League and the Football League...
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
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
but never achieved good ratings. The programme ended in 2003.
ITV had the rights to broadcast the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
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
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
rights. 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 round to quarter-finals, one semi-final and the final (shared with ESPN, the competition's pay-TV broadcaster), plus highlights of all other games. England coverage includes all home games and away friendlies.
An ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
error during their broadcast of the Everton vs. Liverpool FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
replay meant that millions of viewers missed Dan Gosling
Dan Gosling
Daniel "Dan" Gosling is an English footballer who plays for Premier League club Newcastle United as a centre midfielder, right midfielder or right fullback. Gosling is a versatile player, having operated as a box-to-box midfielder on several occasions and occasionally deputised at right back to...
's crucial winner for Everton late in extra time, except for certain regions where the picture came back just before the goal. Viewers across the country were left bemused when coverage was interrupted by advertisements in a mistake caused by a timed commencer for the commercial break, only to return to see the stadium celebrating. Thousands of complaints flooded in, with viewers questioning ITV's commitment to broadcasting quality football. It was later revealed that the adverts that evening were controlled by the same people who were responsible for a similar incident during the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix
2005 San Marino Grand Prix
The 2005 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One race held from April 22 to April 24, 2005 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.-Pre-race:Vitantonio Liuzzi replaced Christian Klien in the second Red Bull car, for this and the next two races; after unanimous agreement between the teams, Klien was...
. This was not the first mishap during the coverage — genitals were seen and fans' swearing was heard during a previous live match.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1090806/ITV-apologise-Histon-hero-shows-tackle-fans-turn-airwaves-blue-Leeds-FA-Cup-giant-killing.html
A similar incident occurred in England's opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...
when an advertisement was shown and then returning just after the opening goal of the game was scored. On this occasion, this only happened on ITV1's high definition channel, ITV1 HD and viewers watching the game in standard definition, including on Freeview, were unaffected. Nevertheless, the error still sparked thousands of angry complaints, some even demanding The FA to terminate their live football contract with ITV in case this happened again. As before, ITV apologised for the mistake.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10302816.stm The channel came under criticism for reporting on events at the England camp in Baden Baden during the 2006 World Cup at half time of all games not involving the team, as this meant less discussion of the game in question.
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
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
and West Germany
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900....
, ITV broadcast the event as well, with commentator Hugh Johns
Hugh Johns
Hugh Richard Lewis Johns was best known as a football commentator for ITV. During his career, he covered a thousand matches including four FIFA World Cup finals. - Early life and career :...
describing the winning England goal by Geoff Hurst
Geoff Hurst
Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst MBE is a retired England footballer best remembered for his years with West Ham. He made his mark in World Cup history as the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final. His three goals came in the 1966 final for England in their 4–2 win over West...
in extra time. Perhaps the biggest ITV football achievement was its live and exclusive coverage of the World Cup 98
1998 World Cup
1998 World Cup may refer to:*1998 IAAF World Cup*1998 Men's Hockey World Cup*1998 Women's Hockey World Cup*1998 FIFA World Cup*1998 Alpine Skiing World Cup...
second round match between England and Argentina
Argentina national football team
The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in association football and is controlled by the Argentine Football Association , the governing body for football in Argentina. Argentina's home stadium is Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti and their head coach is Alejandro...
. Argentina won the match on penalties and a record audience of almost 25 million viewers tuned in to ITV's coverage, fronted by Bob Wilson.
Other moments include the Champions League Final of 1999
1999 UEFA Champions League Final
The 1999 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match that took place on Wednesday, 26 May 1999. The match was played at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, to determine the winner of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League. The final was contested by Manchester United and Bayern Munich...
, when Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
won it in the dying seconds of the match. The final achieved an audience peaking at around 17 million viewers, but ITV came under fire from Manchester United supporters, as they cut to adverts instead of showing the players celebrating. Ironically German TV channel RTL Television
RTL Television
Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
, kept the coverage running which like ITV uses UEFA's live feed. The Champions League Final of 2005
2005 UEFA Champions League Final
The 2005 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club football competition. The showpiece event was contested between Liverpool of England and Milan of Italy at the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on 25 May 2005...
was also won by an English club, and live on ITV. Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
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
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
play Barcelona in the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final
2006 UEFA Champions League Final
The 2006 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club football competition. The showpiece event was contested between Barcelona of Spain and Arsenal of England at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, France, on Wednesday, 17...
, despite the English side losing in the dying minutes of the match. The all English final
2008 UEFA Champions League Final
The 2008 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match that took place on Wednesday, 21 May 2008 at 20:45 CEST . The match was played at the Luzhniki Stadium, in Moscow, Russia, to determine the winner of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League...
of the UEFA Champions League between Manchester United and Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
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
Sweden national football team
The Swedish national football team represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for Football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Råsunda Stadium in Stockholms län and their head coach is Erik Hamrén. Sweden made their first...
, 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.
ITV Football Presenters
ITV's main football host is Adrian ChilesAdrian Chiles
Adrian Chiles is a British television and radio presenter, currently working for ITV Sport presenting football coverage....
, who presents the network's coverage of Champions League, FA Cup, and England games. Other ITV football presenters include Matt Smith
Matt Smith (broadcaster)
Matt Smith is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.-Early life:Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89. During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies...
. Smith presents Champions League highlights, secondary FA Cup games and Europa League matches. Angus Scott
Angus Scott
Angus Scott is a well-known and respected footballer for man united and Sports Television presenter. He previously worked for ITV Sport and Setanta Sports. He mainly covers football, but has also hosted Rugby Union and Motorsport coverage.- Early career :...
Presents the UEFA Super Cup and Europa League games, Kelly Cates is an occasional presenter and hosted early rounds of the Champions League.
Former ITV Football Hosts
Former ITV football hosts include Steve RiderSteve Rider
Stephen Rider is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage, which included the Champions League, England Internationals, the FA Cup and the 2006 World Cup. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010...
, who replaced Gabby Logan
Gabby Logan
Gabby Logan is a television presenter and radio presenter, as well as a former Wales international gymnast. She currently hosts programmes for BBC Sport, mainly focusing on football.- Early life :...
as the presenter of the UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
matches in 2006. Logan herself took over as the main presenter after Des Lynam
Des Lynam
Desmond Michael "Des" Lynam, OBE is an Irish television and radio presenter based in the UK.He has hosted television coverage of high profile events for many years...
'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
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....
and Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
at the Stade de France
Stade de France
The Stade de France is the national stadium of France, situated just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. It has an all-seater capacity of 80,000, making it the fifth largest stadium in Europe, and is used by both the France national football team and French rugby union team for...
. ITV Sport bosses made the decision to replace her with Rider, a former BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
host, for the main presenter role at the 2006 FIFA World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Logan left the network for the BBC in December 2006. Rider presented ITV's Champions League and FA Cup coverage until April 2010 after he quit the network, following the arrival of Adrian Chiles.
Previous ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
football presenters include Dickie Davies
Dickie Davies
Richard "Dickie" Davies is a British television presenter, best known for presenting World of Sport from 1968 until 1985....
, Brian Moore
Brian Moore (commentator)
Brian Moore was a British sports commentator.-Early life:Moore was born in Gillingham, Kent and educated at the Cranbrook School, Kent, which was also the school of fellow commentators Peter West and Barry Davies....
, Elton Welsby
Elton Welsby
Roger Elton Welsby is an English television sports presenter.-Education:Welsby was educated at the independent school Liverpool College in the city of Liverpool in Merseyside....
(late 1980s to 1992), Matt Lorenzo (1993 to 1994), Bob Wilson (1994 to 1999) and Des Lynam
Des Lynam
Desmond Michael "Des" Lynam, OBE is an Irish television and radio presenter based in the UK.He has hosted television coverage of high profile events for many years...
(1999 to 2004). Jim Rosenthal is now the main football presenter on Channel 5, however he continues to front the FA Cup draw.
Commentators
ITV's current lead commentator is Clive TyldesleyClive Tyldesley
Clive Tyldesley is an English sports commentator, who since 1998 has been the main football commentator for ITV. He has commentated on eleven Champions League finals, five FA Cup Finals and numerous World Cup and European Championship matches.-Career:Tyldesley was born in Radcliffe, Bury,...
(also one the voices of the FIFA Series since 2006), who has won several RTS sports awards for best commentator. Tyldesley is ITV's first choice commentator coverage and the voice of ITV's biggest games. He shares ITV's other big games from the FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League, and England internationals with ITV's other staff commentator, Peter Drury
Peter Drury
Peter Drury, born 1968, is ITV Sport's number two football commentator, a role he has held since joining the network in 1998.A politics graduate from Hull University, Peter began his career as a journalist with Hayters sports agency before joining BBC Radio Leeds in 1990 as a football and cricket...
.
ITV Sport's commentators are supplemented by a number of freelancers. Tom Skippings, Andy Bodfish, Ian Crocker
Ian Crocker (commentator)
Ian Crocker is a football commentator who works for Sky Sports.Crocker originally joined BSkyB in 1997. Prior to his television career, Crocker commentated for Capital Gold in London, alongside Jonathan Pearce and Steve Wilson...
and Steve Bower
Steve Bower
Steve Bower is an English football commentator, one of the main voices for BBC TV's Match of the Day, culminating in being part of the commentary teams for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa...
are among those used for FA Cup, Europa League, and World Cup games.
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
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900....
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
5-1. Former ITV commentators include Guy Mowbray (now with BBC Sport) and Jon Champion who moved to ESPN.
Pundits
ITV's main co-commentator is Jim BeglinJim Beglin
James Martin "Jim" Beglin is a former Irish professional footballer.- Life and career :Beglin played schoolboy football in his native city with Bolton and Waterford Bohs before joining Shamrock Rovers in 1980...
. Kevin Gallacher
Kevin Gallacher
Kevin William Gallacher is a Scottish former professional footballer and now a sports pundit.He is the grandson of the late Celtic forward Patsy Gallacher, who died before he was born.-Career:...
, Matt Holland
Matt Holland
Matthew Rhys "Matt" Holland is a former English-born Irish footballer, who represented Republic of Ireland at international level...
(now more usually seen on the BBC's Championship football coverage, including presenting Late Kick Off
Late Kick Off
Late Kick Off was a BBC One regional television football programme which was launched on 18 January 2010 and ran up to and including the 2010-2011 football season...
for BBC East) and Iain Dowie
Iain Dowie
Iain Dowie is a former footballer and manager. He is currently without a club. He has previously managed Hull City and Queens Park Rangers and was assistant manager of Newcastle United...
are also used for some games. David Pleat
David Pleat
David John Pleat is an English football player turned manager and sports commentator.He is remembered by his contemporaries primarily for his career as manager of Tottenham Hotspur and Luton Town football clubs, and for an oft-televised clip of him running onto the pitch in 1983 to celebrate after...
was ITV's lead co-commentator for a number of years until he was dropped in 2009.
ITV's two regular pundits are Andy Townsend
Andy Townsend
Andrew "Andy" David Townsend is a former professional footballer, who played in two World Cups for the Republic of Ireland and is now a television and radio pundit....
and Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate in Crawley, West Sussex is a retired English footballer and ex-manager. He is known as the "Penalty Misser of '96." He served as manager of Middlesbrough from June 2006, until he was dismissed in October 2009...
Marcel Desailly
Marcel Desailly
Marcel Desailly is a retired Ghanaian born French footballer and star of the France national football team squad, with whom he won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000...
is used frequently. ITV use guests as pundits when and if they are needed. These have included Dutch international and Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit
Ruud Gullit
OON is a Dutch football manager and former football player, who played professionally in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the captain of the Netherlands national team that was victorious at Euro 88 and was also a member of the squad for the 1990 World Cup. He was named the European Footballer of the...
, Sam Allardyce
Sam Allardyce
Samuel "Sam" Allardyce , nicknamed "Big Sam", is an English football manager and former professional player. In June 2011 he was appointed as manager of West Ham United....
, Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce OBE is an English football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of the England national under-21 team and the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic football team...
and Alan Curbishley
Alan Curbishley
Llewellyn Charles "Alan" Curbishley is an English football manager and former professional player....
. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Jerrel Hasselbaink usually known as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is a Dutch former football striker who played for various clubs in the Netherlands, Portugal, England, and Spain, as well as the Dutch national team. He scored more than 200 career goals...
, Terry Venables
Terry Venables
Terence Frederick "Terry" Venables , often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England...
and Ally McCoist
Ally McCoist
Alistair Murdoch "Ally" McCoist, MBE ; 24 September 1962) is a Scottish football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Rangers in Scotland....
were all regular pundits before quitting to take other jobs involved with football. Robbie Earle
Robbie Earle
Robert Fitzgerald "Robbie" Earle MBE is an English-born Jamaican former international footballer who played as a midfielder. He played 578 league games in senior club football, scoring 136 goals....
was a regular pundit on ITV for over 10 years, until his contract was terminated during the 2010 World Cup due to Earle failing to abilde by ticket allocation rules.
ITV's sports reporters are Gabriel Clarke, Ned Boulting and Andy Kerr. Freelance reporters such as Dave Beckett, Richard Henwood, Tom Skippings, Jed Pitman, Chris Hall and Trevor Harris are also used.
Motorsport
The British Touring Car ChampionshipBritish Touring Car Championship
The British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom. The Championship was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and has run to various rules over the years – "production cars", then FIA Group 1 or 2 in the late 1960s...
is another series ITV won away from the BBC, doing so in 2002. Coverage was initially hosted by Vicki Butler-Henderson
Vicki Butler-Henderson
Victoria "Vicki" Butler-Henderson is a racing driver and television presenter.-Biography:Butler-Henderson was born into a racing family. Her grandfather used to race a Frazer Nash at Brooklands, her father was in the British karting team and her brother Charlie is a racing driver. She has an older...
and Ben Edwards
Ben Edwards
Ben Edwards is a British motor racing commentator. At the moment, he is the voice of Superleague Formula and the British Touring Car Championship, in addition to Formula One DVD Reviews for Duke Video. In the past, he has worked for Eurosport, ESPN, and F1 Digital +...
, with Edwards joined in the commentary box by various guest colour commentators during the 2002 season. These included Will Hoy
Will Hoy
William Ewing Hoy , was a British racing driver and the 1991 British Touring Car Champion, the highlight of a 20-year career in motor racing. Born in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, Hoy did not begin racing until his late 20s and first raced at international level in 1985, taking on the full World...
, Chris Goodwin
Chris Goodwin
Chris Goodwin is a British auto racing driver. Presently he works as Chief Test Driver for Mclaren Automotive. Additionally he manages the racing career of Bruno Senna and continues to race in International GT Endurance events....
and Kelvin Burt
Kelvin Burt
Kelvin Burt is a British auto racing driver. After attending the Jim Russell Racing Drivers' School in 1987 he turned to Formula Ford racing, battling hard against David Coulthard for the championship...
. Tim Harvey
Tim Harvey
Tim Harvey is a racing driver from England. He was the 2008 and 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain Champion. A household name in the 1990s, Harvey won the prestigious BTCC title in 1992, and was a frontrunner for most of the late 80s and early 90s...
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
British Touring Car Championship
The British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom. The Championship was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and has run to various rules over the years – "production cars", then FIA Group 1 or 2 in the late 1960s...
for the first time on network television. Previously the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
had shown occasional races live, but not to this extent. All meetings have been broadcast live by ITV Sport since. Angus Scott
Angus Scott
Angus Scott is a well-known and respected footballer for man united and Sports Television presenter. He previously worked for ITV Sport and Setanta Sports. He mainly covers football, but has also hosted Rugby Union and Motorsport coverage.- Early career :...
joined as a second presenter for the 2006 season, but both he and Vicki Butler-Henderson
Vicki Butler-Henderson
Victoria "Vicki" Butler-Henderson is a racing driver and television presenter.-Biography:Butler-Henderson was born into a racing family. Her grandfather used to race a Frazer Nash at Brooklands, her father was in the British karting team and her brother Charlie is a racing driver. She has an older...
were replaced for 2007 by Louise Goodman
Louise Goodman
Louise Goodman is a British commentator and reporter from Alresford who worked on ITV's Formula One coverage until it ceased at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix...
and Ted Kravitz. Kravitz took up the role as lead host for 2008 although Steve Rider
Steve Rider
Stephen Rider is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage, which included the Champions League, England Internationals, the FA Cup and the 2006 World Cup. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010...
and Jane Omorogbe
Jane Omorogbe
Jaine Grace Omorogbe is an English model and actress, perhaps best known as "Rio" on ITVs "Gladiators"; she is now a TV presenter and motorcycling journalist.-Early life:...
were 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.
2009 saw Steve Rider
Steve Rider
Stephen Rider is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage, which included the Champions League, England Internationals, the FA Cup and the 2006 World Cup. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010...
anchor coverage, with Louise Goodman
Louise Goodman
Louise Goodman is a British commentator and reporter from Alresford who worked on ITV's Formula One coverage until it ceased at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix...
doing the pitlane reports (as she did on the F1 Coverage) and Ben Edwards
Ben Edwards
Ben Edwards is a British motor racing commentator. At the moment, he is the voice of Superleague Formula and the British Touring Car Championship, in addition to Formula One DVD Reviews for Duke Video. In the past, he has worked for Eurosport, ESPN, and F1 Digital +...
commentating
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
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. It is an entry-level series to motor racing....
and Formula Renault
Formula Renault
Formula Renault is a class of formula racing founded in 1971. It is popular in Europe and other countries. Regarded as an entry-level series to motor racing, it is a respected series where drivers can learn advanced racecraft before moving on to Formula Three, World Series by Renault, GP2 or...
championships. It was presented in the first year by Rachel Whatley with commentary from Richard John Neil. Diana Binks
Diana Binks
Diana Binks is a British TV presenter, mainly specialising in motorsports programming.Born in Scotland, Binks worked as a press officer for the BAR Formula One team, before making the switch into broadcasting in 1999...
was used as a reporter, before she took over as presenter for the 2003 season, remaining until the end of 2005. Fran Robinson presented in 2006, while Louise Goodman
Louise Goodman
Louise Goodman is a British commentator and reporter from Alresford who worked on ITV's Formula One coverage until it ceased at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix...
took over in 2007. Ben Edwards
Ben Edwards
Ben Edwards is a British motor racing commentator. At the moment, he is the voice of Superleague Formula and the British Touring Car Championship, in addition to Formula One DVD Reviews for Duke Video. In the past, he has worked for Eurosport, ESPN, and F1 Digital +...
replaced Richard John Neil as commentator in 2004. In 2005 he was joined by Simon Hill
Simon Hill
Simon Hill is an Australian-based association football commentator.-British-based work:After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 1990, Hill began his work in the field of journalism, initially writing for newspapers as a freelance author while studying for the NCTJ Pre-Entry Course in...
as co-commentator. For the 2006 and 2007 seasons the commentators were John Hindhaugh
John Hindhaugh
John Hindhaugh is a sports commentator and broadcaster from Sunderland, England.He is most closely associated with Radio Le Mans, where he debuted in 1989, however his voice can also be heard on motorsport commentary on Eurosport, ITV, Motors TV, Mobil 1 The Grid, XM Satellite Radio and the video...
and Simon Hill. The SEAT Cupra Championship
SEAT Cupra Championship
The SEAT Cupra Championship was a one make series that ran for six years between 2003 and 2008, the last five of which ran as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship. The series will not continue for 2009, due to SEAT UK ending its racing activities...
and Formula BMW UK were added to the series covered by Motorsport UK in 2004, replacing Formula Ford
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. It is an entry-level series to motor racing....
. The Porsche Carrera Cup
Porsche Carrera Cup
Porsche Carrera Cup is a number of one-make sports car racing series competed with Porsche 911 Carreras, including the following:-Regional:...
was not shown in 2003 or 2004, but had its own programming on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. It returned to Motorsport UK in 2005. John Hindaugh was then lead commentator for a while and then Richard John Neil returned as lead commentator with Ben Edwards again in 2010.
In 2006, ITV broadcasted the British round of the World Touring Car Championship
World Touring Car Championship
For the video game, known as World Touring Car Championship in Japan, see TOCA World Touring CarsThe FIA World Touring Car Championship is an international Touring Car championship sanctioned by the FIA.-History:...
from Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit near West Kingsdown in Kent, England. First used as a dirt track motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently holds many British and international racing events...
and well as the World Superbike Championship meeting at the same venue.
In 2004 ITV broadcast a brand new magazine show for motorsport fans called Speed Sunday. The show was mainly presented by Matt Smith
Matt Smith (broadcaster)
Matt Smith is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.-Early life:Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89. During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies...
and Vicki Butler-Henderson. Other presenters included Lee McKenzie
Lee McKenzie
Lee McKenzie is a reporter for BBC's Formula One coverage. McKenzie is also a presenter for Sky Sports and Sky Sports News. McKenzie is the daughter of Bob McKenzie, the well known sport and motorsport journalist....
, Angus Scott
Angus Scott
Angus Scott is a well-known and respected footballer for man united and Sports Television presenter. He previously worked for ITV Sport and Setanta Sports. He mainly covers football, but has also hosted Rugby Union and Motorsport coverage.- Early career :...
and Jason Plato
Jason Plato
Timothy Jason Plato is a British racing car driver currently competing in the BTCC for Silverline Chevrolet. He is a two time BTCC champion having previously won the series in 2001 when driving for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He has finished in the top 3 in the championship 8 times...
. 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
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
as the terrestrial broadcaster of the British Superbike
British Superbike
The British Superbike Championship is the leading road racing superbike championship in the United Kingdom.The championship is managed and organised by MotorSport Vision. The Series and Race Director is Stuart Higgs. Event marshals are provided by the Racesafe Marshals Association.Two annual...
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
Angus Scott
Angus Scott is a well-known and respected footballer for man united and Sports Television presenter. He previously worked for ITV Sport and Setanta Sports. He mainly covers football, but has also hosted Rugby Union and Motorsport coverage.- Early career :...
and Jane Omorogbe
Jane Omorogbe
Jaine Grace Omorogbe is an English model and actress, perhaps best known as "Rio" on ITVs "Gladiators"; she is now a TV presenter and motorcycling journalist.-Early life:...
were the presenters in 2006. Scott was replaced by James Cracknell
James Cracknell
James Cracknell, OBE is a British rowing champion and double Olympic gold medalist and adventurer. Cracknell is married to TV and radio presenter Beverley Turner; they have three children. In the New Year Honours List, 2004, he was appointed OBE for services to sport...
for 2007. Barry Nutley and James Whitham
James Whitham
Michael James 'Jamie' Whitham , is a former professional motorcycle road racer. He raced in most major British and international championships, winning the British championship twice...
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
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
signing a deal for highlights. ITV regained the rights for highlights from 2009 onwards. In 2011, coverage was presented by James Haydon
James Haydon
James Richard Barnaby Haydon , was a world class motorcycle racer. He raced in 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix, MotoGP and the World Superbike Championship. He retired in 2008....
while commentary (shared with Eurosport) came from Jack Burnicle and James Whitham
James Whitham
Michael James 'Jamie' Whitham , is a former professional motorcycle road racer. He raced in most major British and international championships, winning the British championship twice...
.
Rugby Union
The network has broadcast every Rugby World CupRugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
live since 1991, being host broadcaster in 1991 and 1999. The only tournament that ITV has not shown has been the inaugural tournament held in 1987. In 2003, England finally triumphed in the final against Australia
Australia national rugby union team
The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
, at the Telstra Stadium
Telstra Stadium
Stadium Australia, currently also known as ANZ Stadium due to naming rights, formerly known as Telstra Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sydney Olympic Park precinct of Homebush Bay...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. 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
Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal is a sports presenter on British television.-Early life:Rosenthal grew up in Oxford and attended Josca's Preparatory School before going to Magdalen College School...
, Angus Scott
Angus Scott
Angus Scott is a well-known and respected footballer for man united and Sports Television presenter. He previously worked for ITV Sport and Setanta Sports. He mainly covers football, but has also hosted Rugby Union and Motorsport coverage.- Early career :...
and Gabby Logan with pundits including Francois Pienaar
Francois Pienaar
Jacobus Francois Pienaar is a South African former rugby union player. He played flanker for South Africa from 1993 until 1996, winning 29 international caps, all of them as captain. He is best known for leading South Africa to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup...
and Will Carling
Will Carling
William David Charles Carling, OBE is a former Rugby union player for Harlequins, and a former captain of England from 1988 to 1996, winning 72 caps.-Early life:...
. The network received some criticism for relegating coverage of England's
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...
pool match against Uruguay
Uruguay national football team
The Uruguayan national football team represents Uruguay in international association football and is controlled by the Uruguayan Football Association, the governing body for football in Uruguay. The current head coach is Óscar Tabárez...
and the New Zealand
All Blacks
The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....
v South Africa
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
quarter final to ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
, then a channel which the majority of UK households did not receive.
ITV held joint UK rights to the 2007 Rugby World Cup
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...
along with S4C
S4C
S4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fifth oldest British television channel .The channel - initially broadcast on...
and showed all games live on either the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
Network or ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
, with two games - Scotland
Scotland national rugby union team
The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...
v Romania
Romania national rugby union team
The Romania national rugby union team , nicknamed The Oaks , is the representative side of Romania in rugby union. Long considered one of the stronger European teams outside the Six Nations, they have participated in all six Rugby World Cups, and currently compete in the first division of the...
and Wales
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...
v Japan
Japan national rugby union team
The Japan national rugby union team represent Japan in international rugby union competitions. Japan is traditionally the strongest rugby union power in Asia but has both enjoyed and endured mixed results against non-Asian teams over the years...
- on ITV3
ITV3
ITV3 is an entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom that is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004. ITV3 is the second largest UK multi-channel, second only to ITV2.-History:...
due to UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
and UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
football coverage on both ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
and ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
on the same night. While all of England's matches were broadcast live on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
(English regions), many of the other home nations' matches were "relegated" to ITV's digital services (though they were be simulcast on ITV1 Wales/STV/UTV
UTV
UTV is a television channel based in the UK region of Northern Ireland. The channel is the Channel 3 or Independent Television licensee for Northern Ireland and is operated by UTV Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of UTV Media.- Terrestrial :* Analogue: Normally tuned to 3 * Freeview : 3...
in their respective nation).
Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal is a sports presenter on British television.-Early life:Rosenthal grew up in Oxford and attended Josca's Preparatory School before going to Magdalen College School...
and Martin Bayfield
Martin Bayfield
Martin Christopher Bayfield is an English former rugby union footballer who played lock forward for Northampton Saints, Bedford Blues and England, gaining 31 England and 3 Lions caps.Bayfield was born in Bedford...
were the main studio presenters for the 2007 World Cup
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, although they hosted some coverage from a studio in London. Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
commentators Miles Harrison
Miles Harrison
Miles Harrison is the principal rugby union commentator for British television network Sky Sports. After obtaining a degree in Radio studies at City University London he found work in the early 1990s working on BBC Radio, commentating on rugby union and also occasional football matches...
and Stuart Barnes
Stuart Barnes
Stuart Barnes is a former English rugby union footballer, and now rugby commentator for Sky Sports. Barnes played fly-half for Newport RFC, Bristol, Bath; and represented England and the British Lions at international level.-Biography:Born in Essex, Barnes was educated at Rougemont and Bassaleg...
were 'loaned' out to ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
for the duration of the tournament and teamed up for major matches, including the final. They returned to Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
once the tournament had finished. Other commentators included veteran ITV commentators John Taylor
John Taylor (rugby player)
John Taylor is a Welsh former rugby union player and current commentator. Nicknamed "Basil Brush" thanks to his wild hair and beard, he played as a flanker for London Welsh , and represented Wales 26 times between 1967 and 1973.-Rugby career:Perhaps his most famous moment was in the Five Nations...
(who covered the Finals from 1991
1991 Rugby World Cup
The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France; at that time, the five European countries that participated in the Five Nations Championship making it the first Rugby World Cup to be staged in the...
, to 2003
2003 Rugby World Cup
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World...
) and Bob Symonds (former editor of rugby for HTV), Jon Champion
Jon Champion
Jon Champion is ESPN UK's number one football commentator. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the past 20 years. His late father David Champion was the deputy headmaster of the independent school Bootham School, York...
and Murray Mexted
Murray Mexted
Murray Graham Mexted is a New Zealand rugby union player who played 34 tests for the All Blacks from 1979 to 1983. He also played 38 non-test game including 7 as captain. During his time with the All Blacks, he wore the Number eight jersey and was considered an excellent ball winner and an...
. Reporters included veteran ITV Sport reporters Gabriel Clarke and Ned Boulting, who were joined by ITV News
ITV News
ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. Since 1955, ITV's news bulletins have been produced by Independent Television News . The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and BAFTAs. Between 2004 and 2008, the...
sports correspondent Geraint Vincent
Geraint Vincent
Geraint Vincent is a British journalist, currently employed by ITN as a special correspondent for the ITV News at Ten. Vincent lives in Cardiff.-Early life:...
and Will Greenwood
Will Greenwood
William John Heaton "Will" Greenwood, MBE is an English former rugby union footballer of the 1990s and 2000s.-Career:...
, World Cup winner with England in 2003.
The 2011 Rugby World Cup
2011 Rugby World Cup
The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa at a meeting in Dublin on 17 November 2005...
was presented by Steve Rider
Steve Rider
Stephen Rider is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage, which included the Champions League, England Internationals, the FA Cup and the 2006 World Cup. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010...
and Craig Doyle
Craig Doyle
Craig Doyle is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV...
. Studio analysts came from Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh is a former Australian rugby union footballer who played as a Fly-half.Lynagh represented Australia from 1984 to 1995, playing at both inside centre and fly half. Lynagh was capped 72 times for Australia, and was captain from 1993 to 1995. He was the world points scoring record...
, Sean Fitzpatrick
Sean Fitzpatrick
Sean Fitzpatrick MNZM is a former rugby union footballer who represented New Zealand, and is widely regarded as one of the finest players ever to come from that country. He is also the son of former player Brian Fitzpatrick....
, Francois Pienaar
Francois Pienaar
Jacobus Francois Pienaar is a South African former rugby union player. He played flanker for South Africa from 1993 until 1996, winning 29 international caps, all of them as captain. He is best known for leading South Africa to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup...
, Lawrence Dallaglio
Lawrence Dallaglio
Lorenzo Bruno Nero "Lawrence" Dallaglio, OBE is a retired English rugby union player and former captain of the English national team. He played as a flanker or number eight for London Wasps and never played for another club, having arrived at Sudbury as a teenager...
, Girvan Dempsey
Girvan Dempsey
Girvan Dempsey is a retired rugby union footballer who played at full back for Leinster and Ireland.- Rugby career :...
and Gareth Thomas as well as injured players Danny Care and Thom Evans
Thom Evans
Thom Evans is a former Scottish international rugby union player. He last played on the wingfor Glasgow Warriors in the Magners League. His rugby career ended aged 24 on his 10th appearance for Scotland when he incurred a serious neck injury.-Career:Evans was educated at Wellington College,...
. Martyn Williams
Martyn Williams
Martyn Elwyn Williams is a Welsh international rugby union player. A flanker, he plays for Cardiff Blues and the Wales national rugby union team as an open-side flanker...
was an analyst for Wales' semi final against France and the third place playoff match against Australia. Commentators were Nick Mullins
Nick Mullins
Nick Mullins is a British rugby union commentator for ESPN's live Guinness Premiership coverage. He previously covered Six Nations Championship, Guinness Premiership and Anglo-Welsh Cup matches for the BBC. He is the main commentator for the Wimbledon championship for BBC Radio 5 Live...
, Martin Gillingham
Martin Gillingham
Martin Gillingham is an English sports commentator and journalist. He commentates on rugby union for Sky Sports, ITV, ESPN and on athletics for Eurosport....
, Simon Ward
Simon Ward
Simon Ward is an English stage and film actor.-Early life:Simon Ward was born in Beckenham, Kent, near London, the son of a car dealer. From an early age he wanted to be an actor. He was educated at Alleyn's School, London, the home of the National Youth Theatre, which he joined at age 13 and...
and Bob Symonds. Co-commentators were Phil Vickery, Andy Gomarsall
Andy Gomarsall
Andrew Charles Thomas Gomarsall MBE is a rugby union player who plays at scrum-half for Leeds Carnegie and England.He previously played for Gloucester Rugby, Bedford and Wasps...
, Alan Quinlan
Alan Quinlan
Alan Quinlan is an Irish rugby union player. He played for Munster and is registered to the AIB League side Shannon. He retired from rugby in May 2011.-Career:...
, Scott Hastings
Scott Hastings
Scott Hastings may refer to:*Scott Hastings , American baseball player*Scott Hastings , American basketball player*Scott Hastings , Scottish rugby player-See also:...
and Michael Owen
Michael Owen (rugby player)
Michael Owen , was educated at Bryn Celynnog Comprehensive school in Beddau and was a Welsh rugby union player. He played for Saracens at club level and Wales internationally, having previously represented Newport Gwent Dragons in the Magners League. Owen, who is , most often played Number 8, but...
. Reporters were Gabriel Clarke and Martin Bayfield
Martin Bayfield
Martin Christopher Bayfield is an English former rugby union footballer who played lock forward for Northampton Saints, Bedford Blues and England, gaining 31 England and 3 Lions caps.Bayfield was born in Bedford...
.
ITV will broadcast the 2015 Rugby World Cup
2015 Rugby World Cup
The 2015 Rugby World Cup is scheduled to be the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament is scheduled to be hosted by England from 4 September to 17 October 2015. In addition, Cardiff's 74,500-seater Millennium Stadium in Wales will also be used...
Previously, ITV had broadcast highlights of England's home internationals at Twickenham
Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...
in the Six Nations (during a period when Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
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
Rugby sevens
Rugby sevens, also known as seven-a-side or VIIs, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches. Rugby sevens is administered by the International Rugby Board , the body responsible for rugby union worldwide...
tournament from 2001 to 2006. These rights were obtained by BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
for the 2006/7 season.
ITV also shows Guinness Premiership club rugby highlights and has done so since the 2008-9 season. A one hour-highlights show presented by Craig Doyle airs on ITV4 on Sunday nights at 8.00 pm, with a repeat on ITV1 later the same evening and again on ITV4 on Mondays at 6pm. Martin Bayfield returned as the pundit and fill in presenters. In 2011 the channel has also shown a highlights package of the Heineken Cup and the LV Cup.
Cricket
Highlights of the 2010/11 Ashes series, which saw England retain The Ashes, were shown on free-to-air on digital ITV4. ITV announced they had agreed terms with Cricket Australia and IMG Media to show the 2010-11 series on their digital channel, on 17th Nov 2010. However, the highlights were not shown until late in the evening when the following day's live action was about to get under way.The same channel - which ITV say is available "to 93% of homes" - also showed highlights of the Twenty20 and one-day series which ran in January and February.
ITV controller of sport, Niall Sloane said: "There is huge demand to see England defend the Ashes and I'm delighted that we have secured highlights, free-to-air for UK viewers."
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 Nimbus Communications for the UK broadcast rights to the IPL. Under the new agreement, live coverage of IPL matches will be broadcast free-to-air on ITV4 and simulcast live on ITV.com. The fourth season of the IPL runs from 8 April over 74 matches to 28 May. ITV4 coverage will be produced by ITV Sport with the presenting team due to be announced shortly.
These events had been the first cricket coverage on ITV since 1987.
Cycling
ITV obtained the rights to the prestigious Tour de France in 2002, replacing Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
as the UK terrestrial broadcaster. Daily highlights and live weekend coverage is featured on ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
, having aired in previous years on ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
and ITV3
ITV3
ITV3 is an entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom that is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004. ITV3 is the second largest UK multi-channel, second only to ITV2.-History:...
.
Coverage is fronted by Gary Imlach
Gary Imlach
Gary Imlach is a British author, journalist and broadcaster, specialising in sport. Imlach is particularly associated with non-mainstream sports, working for many years as the face of Channel 4's coverage of American Football and the Tour de France, having transferred to ITV when the station...
, who is normally accompanied by a former competitor as a pundit (such as Chris Boardman
Chris Boardman
Christopher "Chris" Boardman MBE is a former English racing cyclist who won an individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and broke the world hour record three times, as well as winning three stages and wearing the yellow jersey on three separate occasions at the Tour de France...
). Commentary comes from Phil Liggett
Phil Liggett
Phil Liggett, MBE is a British commentator and journalist who covers professional cycling. He currently commentates on the Tour de France and bike races for Versus, ITV and SBS...
and Paul Sherwen
Paul Sherwen
Paul Sherwen is an English former professional racing cyclist. He is now a broadcaster on cycling, notably the Tour de France. He raced in seven editions of the Tour, finishing five, and gained a reputation for his ability to suffer over long mountain stages.-Cycling career:Born in Widnes,...
(who also broadcast for other English-language channels around the world), thus re-uniting the former Channel 4 broadcast team. Eurosport
Eurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...
also broadcasts the event, covering every stage live.
For the 2010 Tour de France, ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
broadcast daily live coverage of every stage for the first time, as well as the nightly highlights show.
ITV will broadcast the Tours of Britain, France and Ireland until 2013, bringing their coverage of the Tour de France to 11 years. http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/Pressreleases/Programmepressreleases/ITV4tobroadcastliveTourDeFrancecoverage/default.html
In 2011 ITV 4 began to broadcast the Vuelta a Espana
Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España is a three-week road bicycle racing stage race that is one of the three "Grand Tours" of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages...
, the last of the three cycling Grand Tours.
Darts
In March 2007, ITV Sport announced they would be covering an all new darts tournament, the Grand Slam of DartsGrand Slam of Darts
The Grand Slam of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is known as the William Hill Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC also invites the best performing players from its rival the British Darts Organisation...
, comprising champions of both the BDO and PDC tournaments. ITV had covered the event between 2007 and 2010. In 2010 Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
announced they would be covering the Grand Slam of Darts
Grand Slam of Darts
The Grand Slam of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is known as the William Hill Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC also invites the best performing players from its rival the British Darts Organisation...
in a new contract with the PDC.
ITV Sport had also aired the inaugural PDC European Championships.
ITV's darts presenter was Matt Smith
Matt Smith (broadcaster)
Matt Smith is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.-Early life:Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89. During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies...
, pundits included Steve Beaton
Steve Beaton
Steve Beaton is an English professional darts player for the Professional Darts Corporation...
(who did the first two Grand Slam of Darts and the European Championship), Chris Mason
Chris Mason (darts player)
Christopher John Mason is an English darts player who plays in the Professional Darts Corporation. He uses the nickname Mace the Ace for his matches.- BDO and first PDC spell :...
and Alan Warriner-Little
Alan Warriner-Little
Alan Warriner-Little is an English professional darts player. He currently lives in Crosby, Cumbria and plays with the nickname The Iceman...
. ITV Sport's Darts commentators were boxing and football commentator John Rawling
John Rawling
John Rawling is a Boxing and Athletics commentator. Currently commentating for boxing on Sky Television and BoxNation, he was the lead commentator for Channel 4 in their coverage of the 2011 IAAF World Championship in Korea. He is also lead commentator on yachting for the Americas Cup World Series...
, Sky darts commentator Stuart Pyke and football commentator Peter Drury. Nigel Pearson initially freelanced, but is now working exclusively for Sky Sports. Reports came from Ned Boulting and Janie Omorogbe, who had featured on ITV Sport's coverage of the British Superbike Championship.
ITV signed a new contract with the PDC in 2011 to show the European Darts Championship in July. Following on from this, the PDC announced that the Second Players Championship Finals of 2011
2011 Players Championship Finals (2)
The 2011 Players Championship Finals will be the fourth edition of the PDC tournament, the Players Championship Finals, which saw the top 32 players from the 2011 PDC Players Championship Order of Merit taking part...
will be televised on ITV4, having been shown on the channel in 2009 and 2010.
Tennis
In November 2008 ITV Sport acquired the rights to the Black Rock Tennis Masters. Live coverage and highlights of the tournament air on ITV4 and ITV.com. Originally, Craig DoyleCraig Doyle
Craig Doyle is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV...
presented the coverage with commentary from John Lloyd and Simon Reed but in 2010, Matt Smith
Matt Smith (broadcaster)
Matt Smith is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.-Early life:Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89. During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies...
was the presenter with commentary from Simon Reed and Annabel Croft
Annabel Croft
Annabel Croft is a former professional tennis player and current radio and television presenter. As a tennis player she won the WTA Tour event Virginia Slims of San Diego and represented Great Britain in the Fed Cup and the Wightman Cup.After retiring from tennis, she turned to television...
.
ITV Sport will show the next three French Open tennis tournaments (2012 to 2014). The bulk of the coverage - expected to be around six hours per day - will be on ITV4 although both singles finals plus two other matches will be shown on ITV1.
Athletics
In 1985 ITV won the rights to show Major Briitsh Athletics from the BBC. ITV also broadcast the 1983 and 1987 World Championships and the European Athletics Championships during the 1980s and also in 1990. Jim Rosenthal presented the coverage with commentary from Alan ParryAlan Parry
Alan Parry is a British sports commentator, born and raised in Garston, Liverpool, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all three main broadcasters of football in the UK - the BBC, ITV and Sky TV, as well as for both BBC and commercial radio.Starting his career at BBC...
, Peter Matthews and Steve Ovett
Steve Ovett
Stephen Michael James "Steve" Ovett OBE , is a former middle distance runner from England. He was gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, U.S.S.R., and set world records for 1500 metres and the mile run...
. ITV decided to axe all Athletics in 1997.
The Boat Race
In 2004, ITV won the rights to the annual Varsity Boat RaceThe Boat Race
The event generally known as "The Boat Race" is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights each spring on the River Thames in London. It takes place generally on the last Saturday of March or the first...
from the BBC. The contract ran to 2009. Hosts of the coverage were initially Gabby Logan and Mark Durden Smith. Craig Doyle
Craig Doyle
Craig Doyle is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV...
took over as presenter, while Peter Drury commentated. James Cracknell acted as a co presenter and pundit.
The opening titles, commissioned by Paul McNamara and directed by Victor Martinez, won a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
award in 2006 for best Sport based titles, whilst the overall race coverage directed by John Watts, was nominated for two BAFTAs and also won at the RTS Awards.
ITV Sport did not renew its contract for The Boat Race after its contract ended due to wanting to concentrate on football. The rights reverted back to the BBC.
Boxing
ITV Sport has broadcast many boxingBoxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
matches over the years, and broadcasts some of the biggest fights featuring UK fighters under the Big Fight Live
The Big Fight Live
The Big Fight Live is a British boxing television programme, broadcast by ITV Sport regularly until 1995 and again since 2005.-History:ITV's boxing coverage had largely been confined to big fights from the USA in the 1970s and early 80s, which were covered as part of World of Sport and as separate...
banner.
In 2005, the network obtained the main share of Frank Warren's
Frank Warren (promoter)
Frank Darren Warren is an English boxing manager and promoter.-Early life and early career:The son of a bookmaker, Warren trained as a solicitor's clerk with J Tickle & Co on Southampton Row in London....
Sports Network fights (that, for the last decade, had previously been aired by Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
) and as a result broadcasts fights involving Amir Khan
Amir Khan (boxer)
Amir Iqbal Khan , is a British Pakistani professional boxer who is currently the unified WBA & IBF light welterweight champion....
, Joe Calzaghe
Joe Calzaghe
Joseph William Calzaghe, CBE, MBE is a Welsh former professional boxer. He is the former WBO, WBA, WBC, IBF, The Ring & British super middleweight champion and The Ring light heavyweight champion....
, Danny Williams
Danny Williams (boxer)
Daniel "Danny" Williams is an English professional heavyweight boxer.-Amateur:As an amateur boxing out of the famous Lynn AC boxing gym in SE London, Williams learned his trade quickly, often sparring with the likes of clubmates Henry Akinwande and Derek Angol...
, Audley Harrison
Audley Harrison
Audley Harrison is a British professional boxer from Harlesden, England who fights in the heavyweight division. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney he became the first British fighter to win an Olympic gold medal in the superheavyweight division. He stands and usually weighs around .Harrison turned...
and others. Former high-profile fighters on ITV included Naseem Hamed
Naseem Hamed
Naseem Hamed is an English former professional boxer.He is the former WBO, WBC, IBF, & Lineal featherweight champion, and European bantamweight champion....
, Nigel Benn
Nigel Benn
Nigel Benn , known as "The Dark Destroyer", is a British former boxer who held world titles in the middleweight and super middleweight divisions....
and Chris Eubank
Chris Eubank
Chris Eubank, Lord of the Manor of Brighton is a retired British boxer who held world titles at middleweight and super middleweight...
.
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
Jeff Lacy
Jeffrey Scott Lacy is an American boxer. He is a former International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion.-Amateur career:...
for the WBO
World Boxing Organization
The World Boxing Organization is a sanctioning organization currently recognizing professional boxing world champions. The organization is recognized as one of the four major world championship groups by the IBHOF alongside the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Council and the...
and IBF
International Boxing Federation
The International Boxing Federation or IBF is one of four major organizations recognized by IBHOF which sanction world championship boxing bouts, alongside the WBA, WBC and WBO.- History :...
super-middleweight world title at the Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
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.
The main host of ITV Boxing was Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal is a sports presenter on British television.-Early life:Rosenthal grew up in Oxford and attended Josca's Preparatory School before going to Magdalen College School...
, with analysis from Barry McGuigan
Barry McGuigan
Finbarr Patrick McGuigan MBE , known as Barry McGuigan and nicknamed The Clones Cyclone, is a former Irish and British professional boxer who became a world featherweight champion.-Background:...
and commentary from John Rawling
John Rawling
John Rawling is a Boxing and Athletics commentator. Currently commentating for boxing on Sky Television and BoxNation, he was the lead commentator for Channel 4 in their coverage of the 2011 IAAF World Championship in Korea. He is also lead commentator on yachting for the Americas Cup World Series...
and Duke McKenzie
Duke McKenzie
Duke McKenzie MBE is a British former professional boxer, now a boxing commentator for broadcaster ITV.-Boxing career:Previously a highly successful professional boxer, McKenzie has been British champion at two weights, a European champion once and World champion at three different weights...
. Gabriel Clarke provided reports and also presented and co-produced a recent documentary on Joe Calzaghe
Joe Calzaghe
Joseph William Calzaghe, CBE, MBE is a Welsh former professional boxer. He is the former WBO, WBA, WBC, IBF, The Ring & British super middleweight champion and The Ring light heavyweight champion....
- No Average Joe, shown on ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
.
On September 6, 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 was 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.
Formula 1
ITV covered Formula OneFormula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
from to , after the BBC lost the 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
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...
. 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
Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal is a sports presenter on British television.-Early life:Rosenthal grew up in Oxford and attended Josca's Preparatory School before going to Magdalen College School...
from 1997 to 2005 with Tony Jardine
Tony Jardine
Tony Jardine is a motorsport pundit and Sky Sports presenter who has a varied background in motorsport.Jardine began career as a teacher in the United States, United Kingdom and the Middle East, where he was Head of Art at the New English School in Kuwait. It was whilst in Kuwait that he first...
as analyst until 2001 when he shared the role with Mark Blundell
Mark Blundell
Mark Blundell is a Formula One, sports car, and CART racing driver. He was a Formula One presenter for the British broadcaster ITV until the end of the 2008 season when the TV broadcasting rights switched to the BBC....
. Jardine and Rosenthal both left ITV's coverage at the end of the 2005 season, with ex-BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
presenter Steve Rider
Steve Rider
Stephen Rider is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage, which included the Champions League, England Internationals, the FA Cup and the 2006 World Cup. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010...
replacing the latter as the presenter of the coverage. ITV also managed to secure Murray Walker
Murray Walker
Graeme Murray Walker, OBE is a former Formula One motorsport commentator...
to continue commentating as he had done with the BBC, his new co-commentator was ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle
Martin Brundle
Martin John Brundle is a British racing driver from England, known as a Formula One driver and as an F1 commentator for ITV Sport from 1997 to 2008, the BBC from 2009 to 2011 and Sky Sports from 2012....
, who would act as a summariser, similar to the position James Hunt
James Hunt
James Simon Wallis Hunt was a British racing driver from England who won the Formula One World Championship in . Hunt's often action packed exploits on track earned him the nickname "Hunt the Shunt." After retiring from driving, Hunt became a media commentator and businessman...
and Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan Palmer
Dr. Jonathan Charles Palmer is an entrepreneur and former racing driver from England. Educated at Brighton College, he won the 1981 British Formula Three Championship and the 1983 European Formula Two Championship. He participated in 87 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on September 25, 1983...
had when the BBC televised the sport. On several occasions, different people would stand in for Brundle on commentary, including Derek Warwick
Derek Warwick
Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick is a British former racing driver from England. He raced for many years in Formula One, but never won a Grand Prix. During the early 1980s he was thought more likely to achieve World Championship success than his contemporary Nigel Mansell, but a series of wrong...
, Jody Scheckter
Jody Scheckter
Jody David Scheckter is a South African former auto racing driver, the Formula One World Drivers Champion.-Career:Scheckter was born in East London, South Africa and educated at Selborne College.-Formula One:...
, Anthony Davidson
Anthony Davidson
Anthony Denis Davidson is a British former Formula One racing driver from England, born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. He has raced for Minardi, Super Aguri and been a test and/or reserve driver for the British American Racing, Honda and Brawn GP teams...
and Drivers' Champion Damon Hill
Damon Hill
Damon Graham Devereux Hill OBE is a retired British racing driver. In 1996 Hill won the Formula One World Championship. As the son of the late Graham Hill, he is the only son of a world champion to win the title...
.
The 2001 United States Grand Prix
2001 United States Grand Prix
The 2001 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on September 30, 2001 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. This was the first international sport/race event held in USA after the September 11, 2001 attacks.__FORCETOC__...
was Walker's last in the ITV commentary booth, having missed four other races that season. James Allen
James Allen (Formula One commentator)
James Allen is a British commentator who worked on ITV's Formula One coverage until it ceased at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix. Formerly a pupil at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby, and student of English and Modern Languages at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford...
moved up from his former role as pitlane reporter to replace Walker in the commentary box with Brundle still commentating as usual and Ted Kravitz
Ted Kravitz
Ted Kravitz is a British Formula One pit-lane reporter working as part of the BBC's coverage.-Early career:...
inheriting Allen's old role. ITV also introduced Martin Brundle's hugely popular gridwalk (a role he still continues on the BBC), where roughly 10–15 minutes before the start of the race Brundle would walk around the grid interviewing drivers, team personnel, celebrities and whoever else he could find. One such interview was with the King of Spain.
ITV drew criticism for airing advertisement breaks during the races - they were obliged to take five three-minute commercial breaks during each race. In the network angered fans by running adverts during the tense conclusion to the San Marino Grand Prix
2005 San Marino Grand Prix
The 2005 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One race held from April 22 to April 24, 2005 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.-Pre-race:Vitantonio Liuzzi replaced Christian Klien in the second Red Bull car, for this and the next two races; after unanimous agreement between the teams, Klien was...
. ITV repeated the last three laps after the race but were inundated with complaints from angry viewers. As a result of these complaints, the server on their website crashed and they were fined by regulator Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
. An on-air apology was made by Rosenthal before the start of the next race in Spain
2005 Spanish Grand Prix
The 2005 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One race, held from May 6 to May 8, 2005, at Circuit de Catalunya.Kimi Räikkönen started on pole position ahead of Mark Webber, who set a blistering lap during the second qualifying session to claim the front row, leaving championship leader Fernando Alonso...
two weeks later.
They were also criticised for showing adverts including crashes, race-changing overtakes and dramatic Championship moments, such as Alonso
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso Díaz is a Spanish Formula One racing driver and a two-time World Champion, who is currently racing for Ferrari....
's engine failing during the 2006 Italian Grand Prix
2006 Italian Grand Prix
The 2006 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 10 September 2006 at Autodromo Nazionale Monza. It was the fifteenth round of the 2006 Formula One season, and was won by Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari car....
, and missing Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg
Nico Erik Rosberg is a racing driver for the Mercedes GP Formula One team. He races under the German flag in Formula One, although he competed for Finland earlier in his career...
's 100 mph crash at the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix
2008 Monaco Grand Prix
The 2008 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on May 25, 2008, at the Circuit de Monaco; contested over 76 laps, it was the sixth race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race was won by the season's eventual Drivers' Champion, Lewis Hamilton, for the McLaren team...
.
However, ITV were also recognised positively for their coverage of Formula 1, and won several awards including several BAFTA nominations and RTS
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
awards. Jim Rosenthal won an award for best sports presenter, and Brundle won an award for best sports analyst. ITV Sport won a British Academy Television Award
British Academy Television Awards 2007
The 2007 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 20 May at the London Palladium Theatre in London. They were broadcast live on BBC One in the UK...
in 2007 for its coverage of the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix
2006 Hungarian Grand Prix
The 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on August 6, 2006 at the Hungaroring, Budapest. It was the 13th race of the 2006 Formula One season...
, where Jenson Button
Jenson Button
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE is a British Formula One driver currently signed to McLaren. He was the 2009 World Drivers' Champion.Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success, before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British...
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 sessions, with qualifying, race coverage, and extra features also broadcast on their website for UK-based users. However, they later announced that they had enacted a clause within their contract enabling them to leave F1 coverage after the 2008 season. It is believed this was done for commercial reasons and to allow more money to be spent on securing coverage of the UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
. The BBC retained coverage from 2009 onwards. Ironically, ITV F1's highest ever broadcast rating came in its final race, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 2, 2008, at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos, in São Paulo, Brazil. It was the 18th and final race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 71 laps, was won by Ferrari driver Felipe Massa...
(the first season in which ITV had aired a British Championship victory), which attracted 8.8 million viewers, peaking at 12.5 million viewers. On 17 November 2008, BBC announced that Martin Brundle would continue his commentary role alongside Jonathan Legard
Jonathan Legard
Jonathan Legard , is a sports journalist, best known as the lead commentator for the BBC's Formula One TV coverage in 2009 and 2010....
during the 2009 season
2009 Formula One season
The 2009 Formula One season was the 60th FIA Formula One World Championship season. The season took place over 17 rounds, and started with the on 29 March 2009. It ended on 1 November 2009 with the inaugural ....
, while Ted Kravitz would continue his pit-lane reporter role alongside Lee McKenzie
Lee McKenzie
Lee McKenzie is a reporter for BBC's Formula One coverage. McKenzie is also a presenter for Sky Sports and Sky Sports News. McKenzie is the daughter of Bob McKenzie, the well known sport and motorsport journalist....
.
Motorsport
As part of the F1 contract, the network showed the GP2 SeriesGP2 Series
The GP2 Series, GP2 for short, is a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecclestone also has the rights to the name GP1...
, the feeder series to F1. These programmes were broadcast a week after the event (until 2007). From 2008, live coverage was shown on ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
, presented by Charlotte Webster
Charlie Webster
Charlotte "Charlie" Webster is an English television presenter.-Early life:Webster attended Tapton School in Sheffield where she participated in elite junior athletics and went on to study Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University...
with commentary from BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
s' David Croft. ITV lost coverage of the GP2 Series from 2009 following the loss of the F1 contract to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
ITV used to broadcast the World Rally Championship
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
between 2004 and 2007, the rights to which it picked up from Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
(who, in turn, had picked them up from the BBC in 2001). Coverage was hosted by Angus Scott
Angus Scott
Angus Scott is a well-known and respected footballer for man united and Sports Television presenter. He previously worked for ITV Sport and Setanta Sports. He mainly covers football, but has also hosted Rugby Union and Motorsport coverage.- Early career :...
, with Jon Desborough (of Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
) 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
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...
, and Jon Desborough returned to present sports round-ups on Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
. The rights to the WRC for 2008 were poached from ITV by Dave (formerly UKTV G2).