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ITV Sport is a
sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
producer for
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.Carlton-Granada merger clears last hurdle
''The Guardian'', 2003 The majority of ITV Sport programmes are broadcast on
ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classic ...
although live football, major horse racing events and the
Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
are shown on the
ITV Network ITV is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the ol ...
(
ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...
, STV and UTV). The director of ITV Sport is Niall Sloane, who reports to ITV's director of television
Kevin Lygo Kevin Lygo (born 18 September 1957) is a British television executive, presently Director of Television at ITV. Early life Lygo is the son of Royal Navy officer Raymond Lygo. Educated at Cranbrook School, Kent, Lygo studied Psychology at Dur ...
.


History

ITV Sport was created as an umbrella brand for sport programmes on the
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network; no programmes were actually produced by ITV Sport during this time, but rather the 15 ITV companies each produced sports shows for the umbrella brand, such as '' World of Sport'' by
LWT London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...
and ''Midweek Sports Special'' by
Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...
. In 2004, Granada and Carlton merged, creating a single company for all ITV franchises in England and Wales. The current ITV sport department was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport, Carlton's (previously Central's) sports department and ISN, the sport division of
London News Network London News Network (or LNN) was a television news, production 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 ...
.


Former Sport channel

ITV used to have a dedicated sports channel on the
ITV 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. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...
network. Originally broadcasting
UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
football and
ATP Masters Series The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...
tennis under the brand ONsport, it was renamed as the ITV Sport Channel. Lasting for just one football season, the ITV Sport Channel launched on Saturday 11 August 2001 and closed on Saturday 12 May 2002.


Pay-per-view


ITV Sport Select

During the 2001–02 football season ITV showed the on-demand
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
football matches from
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
on a channel called ITV Sport Select.


ITV Box Office

ITV launched its pay-per-view channel,
ITV Box Office ITV Box Office was a pay-per-view channel from ITV plc launched in February 2017, and ceased operations in January 2020. The channel was available in HD-only on Sky, and events were also available on demand only on Virgin Media (UK) and TVPlaye ...
, on 4 February 2017 when it showed coverage of Chris Eubank Jr.'s world title boxing fight against
Renold Quinlan Renold Vatubua Quinlan (born 7 July 1989) is an Australian professional boxer of Indigenous and Fijian descent. Best known for knocking out former world champion Daniel Geale, Quinlan held the IBO super-middleweight title from 2016 to 2017. ...
. On 24 January 2020 the channel announced its closure via a message posted on the ITV Box Office web page: "The ITV Box Office service has ceased as of 24th January 2020. There are no further plans to show any future events on this channel."


Current ITV Sport coverage


Football

ITV holds joint rights for the
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and has shown every World Cup live since 1966, on a shared basis with the BBC. The same arrangement has been in place for many years for coverage of the
UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...
and both broadcasters shared coverage in 2016. ITV shared the rights for the FA Cup with the BBC from 1955 to 1988 and will again from 2021 to 2022 with both broadcasters covering the final live. This was generally the only UK match shown live on television every season. Both broadcasters started coverage from early morning trying to gain the upper hand on their rival. ITV regained the live rights to broadcast the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
exclusively on terrestrial television in 1997, showing each final with Sky from 1998 to 2001 while the BBC screened highlights on Match of the Day. The FA Cup then reverted to the BBC until 2008 when ITV regained the FA Cup and
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
rights. However, their coverage of the competition was criticised after a string of errors including poor camera angles, very short highlight shows and, most notably, the incident during the Fourth Round derby between Everton and Liverpool in the 2008–09 competition. After a goalless 90 minutes, the game went to extra-time. And when young midfielder
Dan Gosling Daniel Gosling (born 1 February 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder, right midfielder or right fullback for EFL Championship club Watford. Gosling is a versatile player, having operated as a box-to-box ...
scored the winner in the second half of extra-time, ITV accidentally cut to adverts, causing viewers to miss the goal. Eventually, ITV lost these rights from the end of the 2013–14 season to BBC Sport. On 23 May 2019, ITV regained the rights from BT Sport from 2021 to 2022 making the FA Cup fully free to air for the first time since 1988.


ITV football presenters

Since 2015, ITV's main football host is Mark Pougatch. Previous presenters of ITV's football coverage include
Jim Rosenthal Jim Rosenthal (born 6 November 1947) is an English sports presenter and commentator. In a long broadcasting career, Rosenthal has presented coverage of many sports including football, rugby, automotive racing, boxing and athletics. He has covere ...
(1983–88), Elton Welsby (1988–92),
Matthew Lorenzo Matthew Lorenzo is a British television presenter and film producer who has worked for Sky, BBC, ITV, Channel Four and GMTV. He is the son of the late former BBC and ITV sports commentator and journalist Peter Lorenzo. Broadcasting career Lorenzo ...
(1993–94), Bob Wilson (1994–99),
Des Lynam Desmond Michael Lynam, (born 17 September 1942) is an Irish-born television and radio presenter. In a broadcasting career spanning more than forty years, he has hosted television coverage of many of the world's major sporting events, presentin ...
(1999–2004),
Gabby Logan Gabrielle Nicole Logan (''née'' Yorath; born 24 April 1973) is a Welsh presenter and a former international rhythmic gymnast who represented Wales and Great Britain. She hosted '' Final Score'' for BBC Sport from 2009 until 2013. She has also ...
(2004–06), Steve Rider (2006–10) and
Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both ''The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for foo ...
(2010–14).


Motorsport

The
British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...
is another series ITV won away from the BBC, doing so in 2002 and in 2004, ITV introduced live coverage of the
British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...
for the first time on network television. Previously the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
had shown occasional races live, but not to this extent. All meetings have been broadcast live by ITV Sport since. The races are now shown live on ITV4 and highlights are shown on ITV on Tuesday early morning on the corresponding weekend.
Vicki Butler-Henderson Victoria Jemma Butler-Henderson (born 16 February 1972) is a British racing driver, former presenter of ''Top Gear'' and current presenter of ''Fifth Gear''. Biography Butler-Henderson was born into a racing family. Her grandfather used to race ...
and Ben Edwards were the presenters from 2002 to 2005, with
Ted Kravitz Ted Kravitz (born Theodore Joseph Nathaniel Slotover; 21 March 1974) is a British Formula One pit-lane reporter who works for Sky Sports F1. Early career Kravitz was born in Hammersmith, London. His mother is American and is from Union City, N ...
and
Louise Goodman Louise Goodman is a British reporter and presenter who worked on ITV's Formula One coverage until it ceased at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix. She now co-presents ITV's coverage of the British Touring Car Championship. Her late partner was Joh ...
taking over in 2006. Steve Rider replaced Kravitz in 2009. In 2006, ITV replaced
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
as the terrestrial broadcaster of the British Superbike Championship. From 2014 to 2016 ITV4 showed highlights of MotoGP which aired on the Monday night after the race, the BT Sport team contributed to the commentary and was in essence a BT Sport production for ITV. These rights were lost to Channel 5 for the 2017 season, then the rights went to Quest for the 2019 season. In 2021, ITV4 regained the rights to MotoGP highlights, and showed the French GP live, with the British GP due to be shown on ITV.


Rugby Union

The network has broadcast every
Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
live since 1991, being host broadcaster in 1991, 1999 and 2015. The only tournament that ITV has not shown has been the inaugural tournament held in 1987. During the eighties and nineties, ITV showed a variety of rugby, including the
1993 British Lions tour to New Zealand In 1993 the British Lions rugby union team toured New Zealand. This was the last Lions tour in the sport's amateur era. The Lions were managed by Geoff Cooke, coached by Ian McGeechan and Dick Best, and captained by Gavin Hastings. The Lions ...
, Autumn Internationals and even some club rugby, though this was restricted to certain regions. When
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
controversially won the rights to show highlights of England home internationals, including the Five Nations, ITV sub-licensed highlights rights to those games. At the same time ITV started coverage of the international Rugby Sevens series. This took the form of highlights of most tournaments, with live coverage of those held in England and Wales. ITV lost those rights to Sky Sports in 2006, but between 2015 has been showing highlights once again. ITV acquired shared rights to the Heineken Cup for a single season in 2001, when Premium TV failed to launch its channel on time. These games were shown on the ITV Sport Channel. Between the 2008/09 and 2016/17 seasons, ITV showed highlights of
Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
and the
Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...
. From 2022 coverage of the Premiership will return with ITV showing 5 live matches in the 2021–22 season including the final. The weekly highlights show will also return. From 2016, in reaction to
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...
pay-TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...
bids from
Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...
and BT for coverage of the Six Nations Championship from 2017, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
agreed to lose exclusive rights to the tournament two years early in order for the BBC and ITV to jointly bid for the rights of the tournament to keep the Six Nations on free-to-air television. On 9 July 2015, the bid was accepted, and ITV and BBC became joint broadcasters of the Six Nations in the UK from 2016 to 2021. ITV would broadcast all England, Ireland and Italy home matches live, while BBC would broadcast all France, Scotland and Wales home matches live. Mark Pougatch and
Jill Douglas Jill Alison Douglas (born December 1969), also known as Jill Douglas Hogg, is a Scottish sports presenter, who appears on ITV, BBC and BT Sport. She grew up in Bonchester Bridge in the Scottish Borders. She was educated at Jedburgh Grammar Sc ...
present ITV's coverage of the Six Nations. Prior to the 2022 tournament, ITV extended their contract up and including 2025. The new deal would see them continue to broadcast home matches from England, Ireland and Italy and additionally broadcast those from France. The new deal also means they would broadcast matches in
peak time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
for the first time. On 4 February 2017, it was announced that ITV had extended its contract for the Rugby World Cup until the 2023 tournament. The deal also includes live coverage of the
Women's Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is the women's rugby union world championship which is organised by World Rugby. The first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991, but it was not until the 1998 tournament that the tournament received official backing ...
for the first time and the Under 20 World Cup. ITV previously showed highlights of the WRWC in 2001.


Horse Racing

Until the mid-1980s, horse racing was shown regularly on ITV. Racing was a mainstay of World of Sport throughout the programme's run with the ITV Seven featuring almost every week. ITV also showed racing during the week. ITV showed many of racing's showpiece events, including all the flat racing classics, although the channel never showed The Grand National as this event was covered by the BBC. In the mid-1980s coverage was switched to Channel 4. In March 1984, ITV's midweek action was moved with Saturday's racing coverage making the switch in October 1985 a week after the final edition of World of Sport was broadcast. ITV continued to broadcast coverage of The Derby, simulcasting Channel 4's coverage, but stopped doing so after the 1988 event and this was the last time that horse racing was broadcast on ITV until 2017. On 1 January 2016 it was announced ITV Sport had won rights to be the exclusive free to air home of British Horse Racing from 1 January 2017 taking over from Channel 4 which had taken ITV rights previously in the 1980s. ITV deal encompassed Horse Racing every Saturday Afternoon on ITV or ITV4 as well as covering the major festivals on ITV. This deal meant ITV were able to cover festivals such as The Grand National, Cheltenham and Royal Ascot which they previously were not allowed to cover when they covered Horse Racing on World of Sport and also meant The Derby returning to the channel in 2017 for the first time since 1988. ITV's Racing coverage encompasses coverage of approximately 100 days of racing each year with 41 days on ITV and 60 days on ITV4. ITV main Racing Presenter is
Ed Chamberlin Edward Alan Chamberlin (born 6 February 1974) is an English sports broadcaster who has been working for ITV since January 2017. Presenting career Chamberlin was born in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. As a boy he attended Ludgrove School, where he ...
who signed for coverage from Sky Sports and Francesca Cumani who hosts during the Flat season. Oli Bell also joined ITV as a presenter of the Opening Show and which is broadcast live every Saturday Morning on ITV4. Oli also covers main presenter duties for Chamberlain when he is off.


Cycling

ITV obtained the rights to the
Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
in 2002, replacing
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
as the UK terrestrial broadcaster. The coverage is shown on
ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classic ...
, having aired in previous years on ITV2 and ITV3. Initially, live coverage was only broadcast at the weekend but since the 2010 Tour de France,
ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classic ...
has broadcast daily live coverage of every stage except the final which is shown on
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
, ITV4 have the nightly highlights show. Following the ratings success of the Tour de France, ITV invested in more cycling coverage and now shows the
Women's Tour A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
Tour of Britain The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time. The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after the S ...
and
Tour de Yorkshire The Tour de Yorkshire is a road cycling race in the historic county of Yorkshire, England which first took place in May 2015. It is promoted by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and is rated as a 2.HC event as part of the UCI Europe Tour. ...
live. It shows highlights of
La Vuelta LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...
, having previously showed that race live before it regularly clashed with the Tour of Britain. ITV has previously shown the
Tour of Ireland The Tour of Ireland (Irish: Turas na hÉireann, known from 1985 to 1992 as the Nissan Classic) was a bicycle stage race held in August, which ran for 35 editions over a 56-year period. Irish rider Seán Kelly recorded the most wins, four. Th ...
. ITV also has highlights to the Tour Series cycling, and several of the classic French races, such as Paris-Roubaix


Darts

ITV was the first broadcaster of darts in the United Kingdom back in 1972. They covered many tournaments on World of Sport, including the News of the World Championship and the Winmau World Masters. When World of Sport ended ITV scaled back its darts coverage and dropped darts altogether in 1988 and with the exception of a single one-off event, the 1999 Match of the Century between PDC World Champion Phil Taylor and BDO World Champion Raymond van Barneveld. It would be almost 20 years before ITV resumed coverage of the sport when in 2007, ITV Sport announced they would be covering a new darts tournament, the
Grand Slam of Darts The Grand Slam of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is known as the Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC also invited the best performing players from its rival, the British Dart ...
, comprising champions of both the BDO and PDC tournaments. ITV covered the event between 2007 and 2010 – coverage then moved to
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
. In 2011 ITV signed a new contract with the PDC to show the European Darts Championship in July and the Second Players Championship Finals of 2011. On 14 June 2013 the PDC and ITV announced they had signed a new deal to cover four tournaments a year from 2013 to 2015. The tournaments are The Players Championship which they had covered from 2009 to 2010 and from December 2011 – present, The European Championship which they covered previously in 2008 and 2011, a new tournament called the Masters where the top 16 face in other in a three-day tournament, and the UK Open, otherwise known as the FA Cup of Darts, which had previously been shown on Sky. In late 2014 it was announced ITV signed a deal to cover five darts tournaments in 2015 covering a new tournament entitled the World Series of Darts Finals. This means that in 2015 ITV will cover the Masters in January, the UK Open in March, the European Championship in October, the World Series of Darts Finals and Players Championship Finals in November.


Snooker

In the 1980s and early 1990s, ITV broadcast up to four Major Snooker Tournaments per season including The Jameson International, The World Doubles Championship, The World Matchplay (which replaced the World Doubles in 1988), The Lada/Mercantile Credit Classic and The British Open. Daytime action was sometimes shown on Channel 4 until 1988. However, ITV decided to axe all of its snooker after the 1993 British Open and apart from a brief return to the green baize in 2000 and 2001, the sport was absent from ITV screens for more than 20 years. ITV started to broadcast snooker again in February 2013. ITV4 broadcast the World Open. It was announced in June 2013 that ITV4 will cover the new tournament entitled the Champion of Champions from November 2013. In summer 2014 ITV and Barry Hearn announced they had signed a 5-year deal to cover 2 Snooker Tournaments per year, keeping coverage of the Champion of Champions and a new tournament called the World Grand Prix. In August 2015,
World Snooker The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...
announced that ITV4 would televise the
Snooker Shoot Out The Snooker Shoot Out is a professional ranking snooker tournament played under a variation of the standard rules. The 2017 event was the first time the tournament was staged as a ranking event. Hossein Vafaei is the current champion. History ...
in a three-year deal through to 2018. As of 2021 ITV4 shows the Champion of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship,
Tour Championship The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 ...
and the new
British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
.


Sports Life Stories

ITV Sport's award-winning documentary strand has featured the stories of many sporting greats. Sports Life Stories series one was first shown on ITV4 in 2012 and included episodes on Ronnie O'Sullivan, Dame Kelly Holmes, Fabrice Muamba, Barry McGuigan, Gareth Thomas, Brian Lara, Amir Khan and Lawrence Dallaglio. Series two first shown on ITV4 in 2013 included episodes on James Cracknell, David Weir, Nicola Adams, Jermain Defoe, Eric Bristow, Chris Eubank, Didier Drogba and Jimmy White. Series 3 returns in February 2015. Reporters on the series have included
Gabriel Clarke Gabriel Clarke is a British TV journalist and documentary filmmaker. Clarke earned an English Literature degree from the University of London and began his journalistic career with local newspapers in Somerset and Bristol. He started his spo ...
, Ned Boulting, Adam Darke and Leon Mann.


List of current ITV Sport rights


Football

Football *
FIFA World Cup Finals FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
: All matches live on BBC Sport & ITV Sport (2018–2022) * UEFA European Championship Finals: All matches live on BBC Sport & ITV Sport (Until 2028) * FA Community Shield: (2021–present) * EFL Championship, League One, League Two, EFL Cup & EFL Trophy Highlights (2022–present: EFL League highlights on ITV4 and repeated on ITV) * FA Youth Cup: Semi-finals and final are shown live on ITV4 *England National Women's Team: 2021–present * Arnold Clark Cup: 2022–present * La Liga - 10 live matches per season Rugby Union * Rugby World Cup (men's): All matches Live on ITV & ITV4 (to 2023) *
Rugby World Cup (women's) The Rugby World Cup is the women's rugby union world championship which is organised by World Rugby. The first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991, but it was not until the 1998 tournament that the tournament received official backing ...
: Live on ITV and ITV4 until 2021 * Under 20 Rugby World Cup: Live on ITV4 until 2023 * Six Nations Championship: ITV has rights to England, France, Ireland and Italy home games (2022–2025) *
Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
: 5 live matches in 2021–22 to include the final plus a weekly highlights show. Coverage increasing to seven live matches in 2022–23 and 2023–24. * European Rugby Champions Cup - 8 live matches per season & highlights (to 2023/24) Motorsport * British Touring Cars Championship: Live on ITV4 (to 2026) * MotoGP: 2 Races Live on ITV & ITV4 with highlights of all races on ITV4 *
World Superbike Championship Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette-class road racing series based on heavily modified production motorcycles, also known as superbike racing. The championship was founded i ...
: Highlights on ITV4 *
British Superbike Championship The British Superbike Championship (BSB), currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, is the leading road racing superbike championship in the United Kingdom, and was once widely acknowledged as the p ...
: Highlights on ITV4 *
Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May/June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907. The event is often called one of the most dangerous racing events in the world ...
: Highlights on ITV4 *
Goodwood Festival of Speed The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in late June or ...
,
Goodwood Revival The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September at Goodwood Circuit since 1998 for the types of racing cars and motorcycles that would have competed during the circuit's original period—1948–1966. History The first Revival t ...
and Goodwood Members Meeting: Live on ITV * British F3 Championship highlights *
World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
: Highlights on ITV4 *
Extreme E Extreme E is an FIA-sanctioned international off-road racing series that uses spec silhouette electric SUVs to race in remote parts of the world, such as the Saudi Arabian desert or the Arctic. All racing locations are chosen to raise awarenes ...
: Live on ITV Boxing *
Premier Boxing Champions ''Premier Boxing Champions'' (PBC) is an ongoing series of televised boxing events connected to manager Al Haymon. PBC was initially promoted as an effort to return boxing to mainstream broadcast and cable television, as opposed to premium chann ...
: Live on ITV4 Snooker * World Mixed Doubles: Live on ITV and ITV4 *
British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
: Live on ITV4 * Champion of Champions: Live on ITV4 * World Grand Prix: Live on ITV4 * Players Championship: Live on ITV4 *
Tour Championship The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 ...
: Live on ITV4 Darts *
UK Open The Cazoo UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. Often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts", the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedin ...
: Live on ITV4 * European Championship: Live on ITV4 *
The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first ma ...
: Live on ITV4 *
World Series of Darts Finals The World Series of Darts Finals is a non-ranking darts tournament held by the Professional Darts Corporation. It is classed as a PDC premier event. The tournament was held annually in November, but in 2020, it moved to September, and moved to O ...
: Live on ITV4 *
Players Championship Finals The Players Championship Finals is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament originally featured the top 32 players from the Players Championship Order of Merit, a separate ranking system that only takes int ...
: Live on ITV4 *
World Series of Darts The World Series of Darts is a series of darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. Beginning in 2013, the World Series has comprised between two and seven tournaments across the world, where a mixture of the top-ranked P ...
: Delayed and live coverage of 6 events on ITV4 (Delayed coverage of events outside UK & Europe) Cycling *
Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
: Live Coverage & Highlights on ITV4 *
La Course by Le Tour de France La Course by Le Tour de France was an elite women's professional road bicycle race held in France. First held in 2014 as a one-day race on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, it has been part of the UCI Women's WorldTour since 2016 as a one or two ...
: Live on ITV4 *
Tour of Britain The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time. The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after the S ...
: Live coverage & Highlights on ITV4 * Women's Tour of Britain: Highlights on ITV4 *
Tour de Yorkshire The Tour de Yorkshire is a road cycling race in the historic county of Yorkshire, England which first took place in May 2015. It is promoted by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and is rated as a 2.HC event as part of the UCI Europe Tour. ...
: Live on ITV4 *
Vuelta a Espana Vuelta, Spanish for "lap" or "roundtrip", is used in the name of a number of cycling races in Spanish speaking countries, as well as a few other contexts: Cycling races * Vuelta a Andalucía * Vuelta a Aragón, Spain * Vuelta a Asturias, Spain * V ...
: Highlights on ITV4 * British Road Race Championships: Highlights on ITV4 *
Tour Series The Tour Series is an annual series of cycling criterium races held in the United Kingdom since 2009. It is televised by ITV4 in the UK. The competition emphasises team effort with individual wins deemed less important. The races are held over 1 ...
: Highlights on ITV4 Horse Racing * Exclusive terrestrial rights to a minimum of 95 days of racing, live on ITV, ITV3 and ITV4 including
Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Ra ...
,
Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...
, Derby & Royal Ascot American Football * Two London Games and Superbowl live plus weekly highlights until 2024/25 Wrestling *
All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, ...
(2019–present, AEW Dynamite & Rampage reruns on ITV4 and highlights on ITV)


List of current ITV Sport personnel

Football Presenters: * Mark Pougatch *
Seema Jaswal Seema Jaswal is a British television and radio presenter from West London. Jaswal hosts the Premier League's worldwide coverage for Premier League Productions which includes flagship shows ''Kick Off'' and ''Fanzone''. Jaswal also presents BBC ...
(Also works for BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video) * Laura Woods (also works for Amazon Prime & talkSPORT) Pundits: *
Eni Aluko Eniola Aluko (born 21 February 1987) is a football executive, commentator, and former professional player. She is the first Sporting Director for Angel City FC of the American National women's soccer league and formerly held the position of Spo ...
(Also works for Amazon Prime Video) *
Ashley Cole Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980) is an English football coach and former player who is currently a first-team coach at Premier League club Everton. As a player, he played as a left-back, most notably for Arsenal and Chelsea. Cole is cons ...
*
Lee Dixon Lee Michael Dixon (born 17 March 1964) is an English retired professional footballer and pundit who played as a right-back for Arsenal. Dixon was also capped 22 times for England. A childhood Manchester City fan, Dixon began his footballing ...
(Also works for Amazon Prime Video and NBC Sports) * Roy Keane (Also works for Sky Sports) *
Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland in ...
(Also works for Amazon Prime Video, Premier Sports, BT Sport, Sky Sports and talkSPORT) *
Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer. He works as a pundit for BBC Sport and ITV Sport. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal ...
(Also works for BBC Sport) Commentators: *
Sam Matterface Samuel Peter Matterface (born 21 April 1978) is an English sports broadcaster currently working for TalkSPORT and ITV Sport. Career Matterface started working in sports radio in 1992 for local hospital radio station OHR, before moving into com ...
(Also works for talkSPORT) * Clive Tyldesley (Also works for Amazon Prime Video,
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
and talkSPORT) * Seb Hutchinson (Also works for BBC Radio 5 Live, Sky Sports and
Premier League Productions Premier League Productions is an IMG produced company with studio shows and commentators for worldwide viewers of Premier League association football. English-language broadcast team The company has a group of UK based commentators, pundits, and pr ...
) * Joe Speight (Also works for BT Sport, Premier League Productions and NBC Sports) * Tom Gayle (Also works for BBC Sport) Reporters: *
Gabriel Clarke Gabriel Clarke is a British TV journalist and documentary filmmaker. Clarke earned an English Literature degree from the University of London and began his journalistic career with local newspapers in Somerset and Bristol. He started his spo ...
(Also works for Amazon Prime Video) * Katie Shanahan Cycling Presenter: *
Gary Imlach Gary Imlach (born 1960, at West Bridgford in Nottinghamshire) is a British author, journalist and broadcaster, specialising in sport. After first being known as a sports presenter on TV-am, Imlach has particularly become associated with non-main ...
Pundits: *
Chris Boardman Christopher Miles Boardman, (born 26 August 1968) is a British former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 1 ...
(Also works for BBC Sport) *
Peter Kennaugh Peter Robert Kennaugh MBE (born 15 June 1989) is a Manx former professional racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2010 and 2019 for and . In 2012 he won the gold medal as part of the Great Britain Team Pursuit team at the 2012 Summ ...
Commentators: *
Ned Boulting Norris Edward Boulting (born 11 July 1969) is a British sports journalist and television presenter best known for his coverage of football, cycling and darts. Early life and education Boulting was born in Andover, Hampshire but moved to Bedfo ...
*
David Millar David Millar (born 4 January 1977) is a Scottish retired professional road racing cyclist. He rode for Cofidis from 1997 to 2004 and Garmin-Sharp from 2008 to 2014. He has won four stages of the Tour de France, five of the Vuelta a España an ...
Darts Presenter: * Jacqui Oatley Pundits: * Chris Mason (Also works for Online Live League Darts & talkSPORT) *
Alan Warriner-Little Alan Warriner-Little (born Warriner; 24 March 1962) is an English former professional darts player. Nicknamed The Iceman, he is a former World Grand Prix champion and a former runner-up at the World Professional Darts Championship. Darts car ...
* Mark Webster (Also works for Sky Sports) Commentators: * Stuart Pyke (Also works for Sky Sports) *
John Rawling John Rawling is a British boxing, track and field, darts and yachting commentator, currently working for BT Sport, ITV and Talksport. He has become known as one of the best known voices of boxing commentary. With BT, John commentates alongside ...
(Also works for talkSPORT and Eurosport/Quest) Reporter: *
Ned Boulting Norris Edward Boulting (born 11 July 1969) is a British sports journalist and television presenter best known for his coverage of football, cycling and darts. Early life and education Boulting was born in Andover, Hampshire but moved to Bedfo ...
*
Dan Dawson Dan Dawson (born December 11, 1981) is a Canadian professional lacrosse player for the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League, Brampton Excelsiors (MSL) of Major Series Lacrosse, and is currently a free agent in Major League Lacrosse. Daws ...
Horse Racing Presenters: *
Ed Chamberlin Edward Alan Chamberlin (born 6 February 1974) is an English sports broadcaster who has been working for ITV since January 2017. Presenting career Chamberlin was born in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. As a boy he attended Ludgrove School, where he ...
* Francesca Cumani *
Oli Bell Oli or OLI may refer to: Places * Oli-ye Jonubi, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Oli-ye Shomali, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran People * Óli, a Faroese and Icelandic given name * Oliver (given name), nickname * Oli (footballer) ...
Pundits: *
Jason Weaver Jason Michael Weaver (born July 18, 1979) is an American actor and singer best known for his roles as Marcus Henderson on The WB sitcom ''Smart Guy,'' Jerome Turrell on the short-lived sitcom '' Thea'' from 1993 to 1994, and the pre-teenaged ...
*
Mick Fitzgerald Michael Fitzgerald (born 10 May 1970) is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey and current television racing pundit. Fitzgerald rode for the majority of his career in Great Britain and less often Ireland. Career as a Jockey Mick Fitzgerald's ca ...
* Jane Mangan *
Leona Mayor Leona is a female given name derived from the Latin word ''leo'' for "lion". People and fictional characters named Leona include: People * Leona (wrestler) (born 1980), Japanese professional wrestler *Leona Aglukkaq, Canadian politician *Leona ...
*
AP McCoy Sir Anthony Peter McCoy (born 4 May 1974), commonly known as AP McCoy or Tony McCoy, is a Northern Irish former National Hunt horse racing jockey. Based in Ireland and the UK, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners, and was Champion Jockey a reco ...
*
Ruby Walsh Rupert Walsh (born 14 May 1979 in Kill, County Kildare, Ireland) is an Irish former jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen. Walsh is the third most prolific winner in Brit ...
* Megan Nicholls *
Johnny Murtagh Johnny Murtagh (born 14 May 1970) is an Irish flat racing trainer and former jockey from Bohermeen, near Navan, Kells, County Meath. As a jockey he won many of the major flat races in Europe, including all the Irish Classi ...
*
Brough Scott John Brough Scott, MBE (born 12 December 1942) is a British horse racing journalist, radio and television presenter, and former jockey. He is also the grandson and biographer of the noted Great War soldier "Galloper Jack" Seely. Scott was ed ...
*
Andrew Thornton Andrew Thornton is a retired National Hunt jockey. Early life He was born on 28 October 1972 in Cleveland and schooled at Barnard Castle School in County Durham. He is not related to another English jockey, Robert Thornton. Riding career He ro ...
*
Hayley Turner Hayley Turner (born 3 January 1983) is an English jockey who competes in flat racing. Originally from Nottingham, she is based in Newmarket. In 2008 Turner became the first woman to ride 100 UK flat race winners during a calendar year. She ...
Commentators: * Richard Hoiles * Mark Johnson *
Ian Bartlett Ian Bartlett is a horse racing commentator and occasionally was an analyst for the BBC. He has also commentated for Channel 4 Racing. Bartlett has always been associated with his role at Aintree. He commentated for SIS's feed of their Grand Nati ...
Reporters: * Matt Chapman (Also works for Sky Sports Racing) *
Mick Fitzgerald Michael Fitzgerald (born 10 May 1970) is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey and current television racing pundit. Fitzgerald rode for the majority of his career in Great Britain and less often Ireland. Career as a Jockey Mick Fitzgerald's ca ...
* Brian Gleeson * Sally-Ann Grassick * Luke Harvey *
Rishi Persad Rishi Persad (born May 25, 1974) is an Indian, UK based sports television presenter. Early life Persad grew up in the 1980s on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean a keen cricket and horse racing fan. His parents were Indian, his mother w ...
*
Alice Plunkett Alice Plunkett (also known by her married name, Alice Fox-Pitt) is a former eventer and National Hunt jockey and current presenter on ITV Racing in the UK. She is the only female to have ridden at both Badminton Horse Trials and over the Grand N ...
* Adele Mullrennan *
Natalie Green This is a list of characters from the NBC sitcom '' The Facts of Life''. Characters table Edna Garrett Edna Ann Garrett Gaines, known as Mrs. Garrett or Mrs. G, was played by the actress Charlotte Rae from 1978 to 1986. Garrett was the you ...
*
Charlotte Hawkins Charlotte Mary Hawkins (born 16 May 1975) is an English television and radio presenter, newsreader and journalist. Hawkins joined ITV's ''Meridian Tonight'' in 2003, hosting its main news programme, leaving in 2006 to become co-presenter of ...
*
Mark Heyes Mark Heyes (born 24 January 1977) is a British fashion journalist, fashion presenter, writer and broadcaster who is known for his appearances on ''Lorraine''. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a BA (Hons) degree in design, and br ...
*
Chris Hughes Chris Hughes (born November 26, 1983) is an American entrepreneur and author who co-founded and served as spokesman for the online social directory and networking site Facebook until 2007. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of ''The New R ...
* Lucy Verasamy Motorsport * David Addison *
Louise Goodman Louise Goodman is a British reporter and presenter who worked on ITV's Formula One coverage until it ceased at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix. She now co-presents ITV's coverage of the British Touring Car Championship. Her late partner was Joh ...
*
Tim Harvey Tim Harvey (born 20 November 1961) is a British racing driver, best known for being the 1992 British Touring Car Champion, and the 2008 and 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain champion. A household name in the 1990s, Harvey won sixteen rac ...
* Barry Nutley (Also works for Eurosport) * Niall Mackenzie (Also works for Eurosport) * Steve Rider * Paul O'Neill * Richard John-Neil *
Phil Glew Philip Glew (born 28 June 1983 in Grimsby) is a British auto racing driver. He has previously competed in the British Touring Car Championship and British GT Championship. He is currently a commentator for ITV Sport's coverage support races on t ...
Rugby Union Presenters: *
Martin Bayfield Martin Christopher Bayfield (born 21 December 1966) is an English actor, broadcaster, and former rugby union player who played lock forward for Northampton Saints, Bedford Blues and England, gaining 31 England and 3 Lions caps. Early life a ...
(Also works for BT Sport) *
Craig Doyle Craig Doyle (born 17 December 1970, Dublin) is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently BT Sport. Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One cha ...
(Also works for BT Sport) *
Jill Douglas Jill Alison Douglas (born December 1969), also known as Jill Douglas Hogg, is a Scottish sports presenter, who appears on ITV, BBC and BT Sport. She grew up in Bonchester Bridge in the Scottish Borders. She was educated at Jedburgh Grammar Sc ...
(Also works for BBC Sport) * Mark Pougatch *
David Flatman David Luke Flatman (born 21 January 1980) is an English sports pundit and former rugby union player who played prop. Flatman represented eight times between 2000 and 2002, playing club rugby for Saracens and Bath. Flatman is routinely refer ...
(Also a commentator and also working for Amazon Prime & BT Sport) *
Topsy Ojo Temitope "Topsy" Ojo (born 28 July 1985) is an English rugby union player for London Irish , and has represented England at International level. He is London Irish's all-time leading try scorer, with 73 tries in all competitions. Career Lon ...
(Also works for BT Sport) * Hugh Woozencroft (Also works for talkSPORT) Pundits: *
Maggie Alphonsi Margaret Alphonsi (born 20 December 1983) is an English former women's rugby union, rugby union player who played as a Flanker (rugby union), flanker for Saracens W.R.F.C. and England women's national rugby union team, England before retiring i ...
(Also works for BBC Sport & Sky Sports) *
Marco Bortolami Marco Bortolami (; born 12 June 1980) is a rugby union coach and retired Italian international player, whose career includes experience playing in the national top-level Italian ( Petrarca Padova), French (RC Narbonne), and English (Gloucester Ru ...
*
Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972), known as Lawrence Dallaglio, is an English retired rugby union player, former captain of England, and 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He played as a flanker or number eight ...
(Also works for BT Sport) *
Gordon D'Arcy Gordon William D'Arcy (born 10 February 1980, in Ferns, County Wexford) is a retired Irish rugby player who played most of his career at inside centre. He played for Irish provincial side Leinster for his entire professional career and is seco ...
(Also works for RTE Sport & BBC Radio 5 Live) *
Sean Fitzpatrick Sean Brian Thomas Fitzpatrick (born 4 June 1963) is a former rugby union player who represented New Zealand, and is widely regarded as one of the finest players ever to come from that country. Early life and family Fitzpatrick was born in Auc ...
(Also works for Sky Sports) *
George Gregan George Musarurwa Gregan AM (born 19 April 1973) is a retired Australian rugby union player, and is currently Australia's most capped international player. Gregan was born in Lusaka, Zambia. He played Super 12 (now Super Rugby) for the Brumbies ...
*
Bryan Habana Bryan Gary Habana OIS (born 12 June 1983) is a South African former professional rugby union player who initially played as an outside centre but later on, he shifted to the wing. He most recently played for Toulon in the French Top 14 compet ...
* Jim Hamilton (Also works for BBC Sport) * Scott Hastings (Also works for Sky Sports) *
Ben Kay Benedict James Kay MBE (born 14 December 1975) is a retired English international rugby union footballer who played Second row forward for Leicester Tigers and . Background Kay was born in Liverpool, the only son of Lord Justice of Appeal Si ...
(Also works for BT Sport) *
Michael Lynagh Michael Patrick Thomas Lynagh, AM (born 25 October 1963) is an Australian former rugby union player who played mainly as a fly-half. Lynagh represented Australia from 1984 to 1995, playing at both inside centre and fly half. Lynagh was capped ...
(Also works for Sky Sports) * Sir Ian McGeechan *
Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster and for Ireland. He captained Ireland from 2003 until 2012, and captained the ...
(Also works for BT Sport) * Mike Phillips *
Jamie Roberts Jamie Huw Roberts (born 8 November 1986) is a former Wales, Welsh rugby union player, who most recently played for the New South Wales Waratahs, Waratahs. His usual position is Rugby union positions#Centre, centre. Beginning in 2005, Roberts ...
(Also works for Amazon & S4C) * Jason Robinson * Gareth Thomas * Sam Warburton (Also works for BBC Sport & Amazon Prime) *
Danielle Waterman Danielle "Nolli" Waterman (born 20 January 1985) is a retired professional English rugby union, rugby sevens player and current rugby commentator. As a member of England's national rugby union team, she became a multiple Six Nations Championsh ...
*
Shane Williams Shane Mark Williams, (born 26 February 1977) is a Welsh rugby union player most famous for his long and successful tenure as a wing for the Ospreys and the Wales national team. He also played scrum-half on occasion. Williams is the record tr ...
(Also works for BBC Radio 5 Live) *
Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, CBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scoring the w ...
*
Sir Clive Woodward Sir Clive Ronald Woodward (born 6 January 1956) is an English former rugby union player and coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He also coached the 2005 British & Irish Lion ...
Commentators: * Nick Mullins (Also works for BT Sport) * Miles Harrison (Also works for Amazon Prime & Channel 4) * Martin Gillingham * Simon Ward Reporters: * Gabriel Clarke * Jill Douglas * David Flatman Snooker Presenters: *
Jill Douglas Jill Alison Douglas (born December 1969), also known as Jill Douglas Hogg, is a Scottish sports presenter, who appears on ITV, BBC and BT Sport. She grew up in Bonchester Bridge in the Scottish Borders. She was educated at Jedburgh Grammar Sc ...
*
Rishi Persad Rishi Persad (born May 25, 1974) is an Indian, UK based sports television presenter. Early life Persad grew up in the 1980s on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean a keen cricket and horse racing fan. His parents were Indian, his mother w ...
(Also works for BBC Sport) *
Oli Bell Oli or OLI may refer to: Places * Oli-ye Jonubi, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Oli-ye Shomali, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran People * Óli, a Faroese and Icelandic given name * Oliver (given name), nickname * Oli (footballer) ...
Pundits: *
Neal Foulds Neal Foulds (born 13 July 1963) is an English former professional snooker player and six-time tournament winner, including the 1986 International Open, the 1988 Dubai Masters and the 1992 Scottish Masters, as well as the invitational Pot Blac ...
(Also works for Eurosport/Quest) *
Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and current commentator who works for Eurosport. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has won two ranking events, the 1994 Du ...
(Also works for Eurosport) *
Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
(Also works for BBC Sport) *
Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...
(Also works for BBC Sport) * Joe Perry (Also works for BBC Sport) Commentators: * David Hendon (Also works for Eurosport/Quest) * Phil Yates (Also works for Eurosport/Quest) Reporters: * Rob Walker (Also works for BBC Sport) * Laura Winter


Previous ITV Sport coverage


Athletics

In 1985, ITV won the rights to show British Athletics from the BBC. As well as broadcasting UK athletics, the channel also showed many of the major European evening meetings whereby ITV showed the first hour with the second hour broadcast on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
. ITV also broadcast the 1983 and 1987 World Championships and the European Athletics Championships during the 1980s and in 1990. Again, some of the coverage was broadcast on Channel 4. Jim Rosenthal presented the coverage with commentary from
Alan Parry Alan Parry (born 1948 in Garston, Liverpool) is an English sports commentator, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all four main broadcasters of football in the UK – the BBC, BT Sport, ITV and Sky TV, as well a ...
, Peter Matthews and Steve Ovett. ITV scaled back its coverage of the sport in the early 1990s and decided to axe all remaining athletics coverage in 1997 and the sport has subsequently never been seen on the channel.
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
briefly took the baton from ITV, showing UK meetings in 1997 and 1998, before coverage reverted to the BBC in 1999.


The Boat Race

In 2004, ITV won the rights to the annual Varsity Boat Race from the BBC. The contract ran to 2009. Hosts of the coverage were initially
Gabby Logan Gabrielle Nicole Logan (''née'' Yorath; born 24 April 1973) is a Welsh presenter and a former international rhythmic gymnast who represented Wales and Great Britain. She hosted '' Final Score'' for BBC Sport from 2009 until 2013. She has also ...
and Mark Durden Smith.
Craig Doyle Craig Doyle (born 17 December 1970, Dublin) is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently BT Sport. Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One cha ...
took over as presenter, while Peter Drury commentated.
James Cracknell James Edward Cracknell, (born 5 May 1972) is a British athlete, rowing champion and double Olympic gold medalist. Cracknell was appointed OBE for "services to sport" in the 2005 New Year Honours List. Biography Cracknell began rowing whilst ...
acted as a co presenter and pundit. ITV Sport did not renew its contract for The Boat Race after its contract ended due to wanting to concentrate on football and the rights reverted to the BBC.


Boxing

ITV Sport has broadcast many
boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
matches over the years under the '' Big Fight Live'' banner and the sport was a regular fixture on ITV screens until the mid-1990s when ITV lost its two premier contracts – in mid-1994 Barry Hearn took
Chris Eubank Christopher Livingstone Eubank (born 8 August 1966) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 1998. He held the WBO middleweight and super-middleweight titles between 1990 and 1995, and is ranked by BoxRec as the th ...
and his stable of fighters to
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
and at the start of 1995,
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
won the rights to show Sports Network fights. This left ITV with only occasional boxing for the following ten years. Their only networked boxing during this period were a few fights involving
Shea Neary James Patrick "Shea" Neary ( ; born 18 May 1968) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2000. He held the WBU light-welterweight title from 1996 to 2000, and challenged once for the Commonwealth light-welterweight ti ...
, thanks to a contract with Merseyside promoter John Hyland. Other bouts were shown on ITV2 and the ill-fated
ITV Sport Channel ITV Sport Channel was a short-lived digital sport television channel, that was owned by Carlton Communications and Granada plc. It was launched on 11 August 2001 and closed on 12 May 2002, precipitating ITV Digital's collapse over a month later. ...
and some boxing was shown on a regional basis, but this was rare. In May 2005, ITV returned to the ring with live coverage of Amir Khan's last fight before becoming professional against
Mario Kindelan is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
. It achieved a peak audience of 6.3 million viewers, encouraging ITV to reach a long-term agreement to broadcast the main share of Frank Warren's Sports Network fights and as a result broadcast fights involving Amir Khan,
Joe Calzaghe Joseph William Calzaghe ( ; born 23 March 1972) is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, '' Ring'' magazin ...
, Danny Williams, Audley Harrison,
Derek Chisora Derek Chisora (born 29 December 1983) is a British professional boxer. He has challenged twice for the WBC heavyweight title in 2012 and 2022. At regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight championships, including the British and Common ...
and others. Other highlights included Joe Calzaghe's emphatic victory over
Jeff Lacy Jeffrey Scott Lacy (born May 12, 1977) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2015. He held the IBF super middleweight title from 2004 to 2006, and the IBO super middleweight title from 2005 to 2006. Lacy rose to p ...
for the WBO and
IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
super-middleweight world title at the
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
MEN Arena Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. The arena has the ...
in March 2006. During this period the main event was usually shown on the
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
Network while undercard matches were often televised on
ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classic ...
. On 6 September 2008, Amir Khan switched to Sky from ITV, signalling the end of ITV's contract with Frank Warren's Sports Network promotion. Later that month, ITV announced a 2-year, 26-fight deal with Hennessy Sports. The majority of fights were screened on ITV4 and was once again hosted by Jim Rosenthal, who made an unexpected return to ITV having previously been axed in early 2008. Amir Khan moved back to ITV in 2010, when his fight against
Paulie Malignaggi Paul "Paulie" Malignaggi (; ; born November 23, 1980) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017 and has since worked as a boxing commentator and analyst. He held world championships in two weight classes, including ...
was broadcast live in the early hours of Sunday 15 May 2010. ITV also broadcast delayed coverage of at least one
Carl Froch Carl Martin Froch, (born 2 July 1977) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2014, and has since worked as a boxing analyst and commentator. He held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the W ...
fight in America the night after it took place. ITV then decided to stop covering the sport as ITV thought that boxing was no longer commercially viable. ITV made a return to boxing in 2015, covering Belfast world champion
Carl Frampton Carl Frampton (born 21 February 1987) is a former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 2009 to 2021. He is a former two-weight world champion, having held the WBA (Unified) and IBF super-bantamweight titles between 2014 a ...
live. In 2017 ITV showed Chris Eubank Jr.'s world title boxing fight against
Renold Quinlan Renold Vatubua Quinlan (born 7 July 1989) is an Australian professional boxer of Indigenous and Fijian descent. Best known for knocking out former world champion Daniel Geale, Quinlan held the IBO super-middleweight title from 2016 to 2017. ...
. The event launched ITV's new pay-per-view channel
ITV Box Office ITV Box Office was a pay-per-view channel from ITV plc launched in February 2017, and ceased operations in January 2020. The channel was available in HD-only on Sky, and events were also available on demand only on Virgin Media (UK) and TVPlaye ...
. In 2017/18, ITV broadcast the inaugural
World Boxing Super Series The World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) is a professional boxing tournament organised by Comosa AG. Each weight class features eight boxers competing in an annual knockout competition with the champion from each weight class taking the Muhammad Al ...
tournament. ITV didn't renew the contract for the 2018–19 event and the rights moved to
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
. The main host of ITV Boxing was
Jim Rosenthal Jim Rosenthal (born 6 November 1947) is an English sports presenter and commentator. In a long broadcasting career, Rosenthal has presented coverage of many sports including football, rugby, automotive racing, boxing and athletics. He has covere ...
and until 1996 the main commentators were
Reg Gutteridge Reginald George Gutteridge, (29 March 1924 – 24 January 2009) was a British boxing journalist and television commentator. Gutteridge was born into a boxing family in Islington, London. His grandfather, Arthur, was the first professional ...
and Jim Watt, both of whom moved to Sky while continuing to commentate for the few boxing shows ITV televised in the late 1990s, which were presented by Russ Williams. Graham Beecroft commentated on boxing on a regional basis during the late 1990s. When boxing returned to ITV on a regular basis in 2005 Jim Rosenthal resumed presenting duties and
Barry McGuigan Finbar Patrick McGuigan MBE (born 28 February 1961) is an Irish boxing promoter and former professional boxer. Born in Clones, Ireland, McGuigan was nicknamed ''The Clones Cyclone'' and held the WBA and lineal featherweight titles from 198 ...
left Sky Sports to continue his role as a pundit on ITV.
John Rawling John Rawling is a British boxing, track and field, darts and yachting commentator, currently working for BT Sport, ITV and Talksport. He has become known as one of the best known voices of boxing commentary. With BT, John commentates alongside ...
and
Duke McKenzie Duke McKenzie (born 5 May 1963) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 1998.. Retrieved 13 December 2016. He is a three-weight world champion, having held the IBF flyweight title from 1988 to 1989; the WBO bantamwei ...
were the commentators and Gabriel Clarke provided reports and conducted interviews with the boxers.


Commonwealth Games

The only ITV coverage of the
Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
has been of the 1958 Games in
Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
, which was shared with the BBC. Otherwise this event has been shown exclusively on the BBC.


Cricket

Cricket has only been shown very occasionally on ITV with the Gillette Cup between 1963–1969 and England home test matches with alternative rotation of coverage with the BBC between 1966 and 1968. The BBC had been the major broadcaster of cricket during the 20th century until it lost all of its cricket coverage to Channel 4 in 1999. However, during the BBC's dominance of coverage of the sport ITV occasionally broadcast cricket on a regional basis, such as the Roses matches between Yorkshire and Lancashire which were shown in the north of England. ITV also showed highlights of England's overseas tour of New Zealand in 1988. There was to be no further cricket on ITV until in 2010 the broadcaster signed a deal to show the 2010 Indian Premier League and encouraged by the success of having aired the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2010, on a one-year contract, UK broadcaster ITV has signed a new four-year deal with
Sony Entertainment Sony Entertainment, Inc. is an American entertainment company established in 2012. It focuses on most of Sony's motion picture, television and music businesses. It is a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony Group Corporation, managed by Sony's Americ ...
for the UK broadcast rights to the IPL. In February 2014 ITV lost coverage of the IPL from the 2015 season to Sky Sports. ITV also broadcast highlights of the 2010/11 Ashes series and the 2015 Cricket World Cup.


Football

Previously, ITV held the rights to English top flight football highlights (both in its current iteration as the
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
and as the old Football League First Division). It acquired the Premiership highlights in 2000 for the 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, surprising the BBC, the previous holders, and ending ''
Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary ...
'' as a weekly programme. The ITV programme was titled '' The Premiership'' and was presented by Des Lynam (himself formerly a presenter for ''Match of the Day''), Matt Smith or Gabby Logan. 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. During this period, ''
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 ...
'' 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 is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
but never achieved good ratings. The programme ended in 2003. ITV held the Premiership rights for one three-year contract – the rights returned to the BBC for the start of the 2004–05 season. ITV had a long-standing association with European club football, which dates back to the earliest days of ITV in the 1950s. broadcasting the
UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
every year from 1992 through to 2015, exclusively from 1992 to 2003, before shared it with Sky Sports since 2003. From 1997, ITV began the habit of broadcasting additional matches from the competition, at first showing one extra match per week on either the
Granada Plus Plus was a digital channel run by Granada Sky Broadcasting. It was launched on 1 October 1996 under the original name of Granada Plus, and during its availability it underwent successive rebrands as G Plus, G+ and then simply Plus. However, it ...
or
Carlton Select Carlton Select was a British digital television channel, owned by Carlton Television. It was originally launched in June 1995 as SelecTV, by the independent production company of the same name, before being purchased by Carlton in 1997 who re ...
cable channels before, following the launch of On Digital, it showed every key match through special bespoke channels Champions on 28 and Champions on 99, later ONsport 1 and ONsport 2, as well as on ITV2. This practice continued until 2009, when ITV reduced its output to just one live match per set in the competition. Live coverage ended in 2015 when BT Sport took over as exclusive broadcaster of the UEFA Champions League and
UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...
, although ITV's involvement with the competition remained through showing highlights of both competitions every matchweek. However ITV lost these rights in 2017 meaning that their coverage of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup ceased after the 2017/18 season as BT Sport won exclusive rights for live matches, highlights and online clip rights. From 2008 until 2022 ITV covered all of England's international home friendlies and qualifiers for the European Championship and World Cup, the deal was extended to include away friendlies in 2009 and qualifiers from 2010 until it lost the rights to Channel 4 in 2022. Latterly, the deal also included highlights of the new
UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...
tournament were also obtained. ITV also cover one other European qualifier per round not involving a home nation on ITV4 as well, as showing highlights of the rest of the games including those of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. ITV also showed coverage of the African Cup of Nations on ITV4 from 2010 to 2015 with both live coverage and highlights, these rights were lost after 2015 to British Eurosport who show the tournament exclusively. ITV also showed highlights of the UEFA Champions League & Europa League from 2015 to 2018 after they lost their live rights but it was transferred to BT Sport after the 2018 final. In February 2019, ITV acquired the rights to show LaLiga Santander, the top flight of Spanish football alongside
Eleven Sports Eleven Sports is a multinational sports and entertainment media group. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, it is owned by Andrea Radrizzani's sports and media investment platform Aser Ventures. Eleven Sports' business model initially centred a ...
and
Premier Sports Viaplay Sports and Premier Sports are a group of pay television sports channels owned by Viaplay Group. Viaplay Sports holds exclusive live UK and Republic of Ireland TV rights to La Liga, Scottish League Cup, Elite Ice Hockey League, NHL an ...
. The deal means ITV will show 1 weekly live fixture, and a mid-week highlights program until the end of the 2018/19 season. From the start of the
2019–20 La Liga The 2019–20 La Liga season, also known as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, was the 89th since its establishment. The season began on 16 August 2019 and was originally scheduled to conclude on 24 May 2020. Barcelona were the two-time ...
season,
Premier Sports Viaplay Sports and Premier Sports are a group of pay television sports channels owned by Viaplay Group. Viaplay Sports holds exclusive live UK and Republic of Ireland TV rights to La Liga, Scottish League Cup, Elite Ice Hockey League, NHL an ...
became the exclusive UK broadcaster.


Formula 1

ITV covered
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
during the 1976 and 1977 seasons and 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. 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 The San Marino Grand Prix () was a Formula One championship race which was run at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the town of Imola, near the Apennine mountains in Italy, between 1981 and 2006. It was named after nearby S ...
. 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 before the start of the next race in Spain two weeks later. In March 2008, ITV 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 UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
. The BBC retained coverage from 2009 until 2015. In December 2015, ITV were rumoured to be broadcasting Formula One again from the 2016 season. However, the contract instead went to
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
, who would cover half of the races live like the BBC did from 2012 to 2015.


Golf

In the mid-1970s, ITV held the rights to golf's Ryder Cup and broadcast the event on three occasions -
1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
,
1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
, and
1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...
cups. ITV had the
1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
rights but the
1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
cup was not televised in the UK due to the
1979 ITV strike The history of ITV, the United Kingdom " Independent Television" commercial network, goes back to 1955. Independent Television began as a network of independently-owned regional companies that were both broadcasters and programme makers, beginn ...
. The rights to the event reverted to the BBC in 1981.
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
also broadcast the 1972 and 1973 Scottish Open.


Motorsport

For the 2014–2015 and 2015–2016 seasons ITV and ITV4 showed live coverage of Formula E, the races were presented by Jennie Gow from London and commentary was provided by the world feed of Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti. Again, these rights were lost to Channel 5 for the 2016–2017 season, then for the 2018–19 season the rights went to the BBC, Quest, and BT Sport. ITV4 also showed coverage of the World Rally Championship in the mid-2000s under their speed Sunday banner and again from 2012 to 2015 again losing the rights to Channel 5.


Olympic Games

ITV covered the summer
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
1968, 1972, 1980 and 1988. Costs associated with staff working overseas prevented coverage of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics but the Games returned to ITV screens for one last time in 1988, sharing the coverage with Channel 4 – Channel 4 showing the overnight and breakfast coverage with ITV covering the daytime action as well as broadcasting early evening highlights programmes. ITV has never fully broadcast the
Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
.


Power Snooker

In 2010 and 2011 ITV introduced a new
cue sport Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...
called
Power Snooker Power Snooker is a cue sport, that is a variant format of snooker. The sport was conceived in 2010. Its concept was derived from the game of snooker and the game of nine-ball pool, with racks being used and the nine red balls which featured one ...
. These were the only two occasions on which the sport was played. Power Snooker was a hybrid between snooker and pool.


Rugby Union

Between the 2008–09 and 2016–17 seasons ITV Sport showed a weekly highlights programme of all
Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
and
Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...
matches. These rights went to Channel 5 who also broadcast 5 live matches between 2017 and 2021.


Tennis

In 2011, ITV Sport won the rights from the BBC to show the French Open and started televising the event in 2012. The bulk of the daily coverage was broadcast on ITV4 although both singles finals plus other weekend matches were shown on ITV. In 2018, ITV renewed its deal to show the tournament for another 3 years. From 2022, Eurosport won exclusive rights to the French Open, ending a 10-year spell of the French Open being on ITV. For the final year ITV broadcast the French Open,
John Inverdale John Inverdale (born 27 September 1957) is an English broadcaster who works for both the BBC and ITV. During his radio career, he has presented coverage of many major sporting events including the Olympic Games, Wimbledon, the Grand Nationa ...
hosted the coverage with commentators including Nick Mullins and
Jonathan Overend Jonathan Overend is an English presenter, commentator and reporter working for ITV Sport, BBC Sport, Times Radio, ATP Media and Premier League Productions. He also runs his own production company, NinetyFour19 Ltd. Overend began his radio career ...
. Analysts and Co-commentators included
Marion Bartoli Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title after previously being runner-up in 2007, and was a semifinalist at the 2011 French Open. She also ...
,
Jim Courier James Spencer "Jim" Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals of ...
,
Anne Keothavong Anne Viensouk Keothavong (born 16 September 1983) is a retired British tennis player. During her career, she won a total of 28 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 48 (achieved on 23 Febru ...
, Mark Petchey,
Fabrice Santoro Fabrice Vetea Santoro (born 9 December 1972) is a French retired tennis player. Successful in both singles and doubles, he had an unusually long professional career, with many of his accomplishments coming toward the end of his career, and he is ...
and
Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single " Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...
.


Wimbledon

During the 1960s ITV covered the
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...
tennis tournament alongside the BBC.


Wrestling

Was shown as part of ITV's flagship sports programme ''World of Sport'' until the programme was cancelled in 1985. After that, wrestling was shown as a programme in its own right, moving to a lunchtime slot. This continued until 1988. Its many stars included Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, and it received viewing figures of 8 million every week. ''
World of Sport Wrestling ''World of Sport Wrestling'' (frequently shortened to ''WOS Wrestling'') was a British professional wrestling television series and occasional professional wrestling promotion, promotion. It was promoted as a re-launch of the popular wrestling ...
'' returned on New Year's Day 2017 with a new generation of British Wrestlers and commentary from legendary WWE commentator Jim 'JR' Ross and former British Wrestler Alex Shane.


References


External links

*
ITV Sport
on
ITVX ITVX (formerly ITV Hub) is a British online video-on-demand service operated by ITV. The service offers predominantly features content from ITV1, as well as ITV Digital channels and some licensed content. The service was known as ITV Player fr ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:ITV Sport ITV Sport, ITV (TV network) Sports television in the United Kingdom