ITV Sport


ITV Sport is the sports department of ITV plc, which produces and presents sports programming for the ITV network and ITVX. The branding was originally introduced in 1985 as an umbrella title for networked sports programming produced by ITV's regional franchises. The division took its current form in 2004 amid the acquisition of Carlton Television by Granada Television to form ITV plc, after which the sports departments of Granada, Carlton, and London News Network were amalgamated to form ITV Sport.
The majority of ITV Sport programmes are broadcast on ITV4 although live football, major horse races and the Rugby World Cup are shown on the ITV network. ITV2 and ITV3 are only used when ITV are showing sport on both ITV1 and ITV4.

History

ITV Sport was created as an umbrella brand for sport programmes on the ITV network; no programmes were actually produced by ITV Sport during this time, but rather the 15 ITV companies each produced sports shows for the umbrella brand, such as World of Sport by LWT and Midweek Sports Special by Thames Television.
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 sports department and LSN, the sport division of London News Network.

Former Sport channel

ITV used to have a dedicated sports channel on the ITV Digital network. Originally broadcasting UEFA Champions League football and ATP Masters Series tennis under the brand ONsport, it was renamed as the ITV Sport Channel. Lasting for just one football season, the ITV Sport Channel launched on Saturday 11 August 2001 and closed on Saturday 12 May 2002.

Pay-per-view

ITV Sport Select

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

ITV Box Office

ITV launched its pay-per-view channel, ITV Box Office, on 4 February 2017 when it showed coverage of Chris Eubank Jr.'s world title boxing fight against Renold Quinlan. 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 with the BBC and has shown every World Cup live since 1966, on a shared basis with the BBC. The same arrangement has been in place for many years for coverage of the UEFA European Championship, which ITV first covered in 1972. Since 2020, ITV has also shared the tournament with the BBC, with the most recent agreement running until Euro 2028.
In 2024, ITV acquired the rights for the Carabao Cup semi-finals and final sharing the rights with Sky Sports.
In 2024, ITV Sport commissioned pianist, composer, and singer Hania Rani to create the music featured in the opening credits of their football coverage for England national football team matches.

ITV football presenters

Since 2015, ITV's main football host is Mark Pougatch. Previous presenters of ITV's football coverage include Jim Rosenthal, Elton Welsby, Matthew Lorenzo, Bob Wilson, Des Lynam, Gabby Logan, Steve Rider and Adrian Chiles.

Motorsport

The British Touring Car Championship is another series ITV won away from the BBC, doing so in 2002 and in 2004, ITV introduced live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship for the first time on network television. Previously the BBC had shown occasional races live, but not to this extent. All meetings have been broadcast live by ITV Sport since. The races are now shown live on ITV4 and highlights are shown on ITV on Tuesday early morning on the corresponding weekend. Vicki Butler-Henderson and Ben Edwards were the presenters from 2002 to 2005, with Ted Kravitz and Louise Goodman taking over in 2006. Steve Rider replaced Kravitz in 2009.
In 2006, ITV replaced Channel 4 as the terrestrial broadcaster of the British Superbike Championship.
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 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.
When, in 1996, Sky Sports controversially won the rights to show highlights of England home internationals, including the Five Nations, ITV sub-licensed highlights rights to those games.
At the same time ITV started coverage of the international Rugby Sevens series. This took the form of highlights of most tournaments, with live coverage of those held in England and Wales. ITV lost those rights to Sky Sports in 2006, but between 2015 has been showing highlights once again.
ITV has shown coverage of the Heineken Cup at various points during the tournament's history. ITV showed live coverage of semi-finals and final of the very first and for a single season in 2001, when Premium TV failed to launch its channel on time, which it used to bolster the ITV Sport Channel. ITV resumed its coverage of the tournament in 2022 when it replaced Channel 4 as the event's terrestrial broadcaster.
Between the 2008–09 and 2016–17 seasons ITV Sport showed a weekly highlights programme of all Premiership Rugby and Anglo-Welsh Cup matches. These rights went to Channel 5, who also broadcast five live matches between 2017 and 2021. In 2022, coverage of the Premiership returned with ITV showing seven live matches a season including the final. This continues for the 2023–24 season.
From 2016, in reaction to satellite pay-TV bids from Sky and BT for coverage of the Six Nations Championship from 2017, the BBC agreed to lose exclusive rights to the tournament two years early in order for the BBC and ITV to jointly bid for the rights of the tournament to keep the Six Nations on free-to-air television. On 9 July 2015, the bid was accepted, and ITV and BBC became joint broadcasters of the Six Nations in the UK from 2016 to 2021. ITV 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 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 for the first time. Prior to the 2026 tournament the deal was further extended to the 2029 tournament in a deal which sees ITV continue to broadcast 10 matches including every match featuring England.
On 4 February 2017, it was announced that ITV had extended its contract for the Rugby World Cup until the 2023 tournament. The deal also includes live coverage of the Women's Rugby World Cup for the first time and the Under 20 World Cup. ITV previously showed highlights of the WRWC in 2001.

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, including many of racing's showpiece events, such as 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.
On 1 January 2016, it was announced that ITV Sport had won rights to be the exclusive free-to-air broadcaster of British Horse Racing from 1 January 2017, taking over from Channel 4. The ITV deal encompassed Horse Racing every Saturday afternoon on ITV1 or ITV4, as well as covering the major festivals on ITV1. This deal meant ITV Sport was able to cover festivals such as The Grand National, Cheltenham and Royal Ascot and also meant the Derby returned to the channel in 2017 for the first time since 1988.
ITV Sports coverage of horse racing encompasses approximately 100 days of racing each year, with 41 days on ITV1 and 60 days on ITV4. The main presenter is Ed Chamberlin, with Francesca Cumani hosting during the Flat season. Oli Bell joined ITV Sport as a presenter of The Opening Show, which is broadcast every Saturday morning on ITV4. Bell also covers main presenter duties for Chamberlain when he is off.

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, comprising champions of both the BDO and PDC tournaments. ITV covered the event between 2007 and 2010 – coverage then moved to Sky Sports.
In 2011 ITV signed a new contract with the PDC to show the European Darts Championship in July and the Second Players Championship Finals of 2011.
On 14 June 2013 the PDC and ITV announced they had signed a new deal to cover four tournaments a year from 2013 to 2015. The tournaments are The Players Championship which they had covered from 2009 to 2010 and from December 2011 – present, The European Championship which they covered previously in 2008 and 2011, a new tournament called the Masters where the top 16 face in other in a three-day tournament, and the UK Open, otherwise known as the FA Cup of Darts, which had previously been shown on Sky.
In late 2014 it was announced ITV signed a deal to cover five darts tournaments in 2015 covering a new tournament entitled the World Series of Darts Finals. This means that in 2015 ITV will cover the Masters in January, the UK Open in March, the European Championship in October, the World Series of Darts Finals and Players Championship Finals in November.