ITV Sport

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ITV Sport is a sport producer owned by ITV plc.

The company produces Champions League Football, Carling Cup Football and Football League Highlights. ITV Sport shows live and exclusive coverage of the full Formula 1 season, and produces live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship and British Superbike Championship. Big Fight Boxing is another pivital part of ITV Sport's portfolio.

ITV Sport programmes are usually broadcast on its main channel ITV1, and digital channel ITV4.

ITV Sport's main rivals are BBC Sport and Sky Sports.

Sports which ITV Sport holds rights to show

Football

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ITV Sport opening sequence

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

ITV holds joint rights for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, along with the BBC. The network broadcasts top-quality football from a range of competitions throughout the football season, with live coverage of two matches each matchday from the UEFA Champions League. They share the rights with Sky Sports, who have a dominant share of the matches. Both networks broadcast the final live.

ITV holds rights to the UEFA Cup finals. In June 2006, the network announced that it had picked up live and exclusive coverage of the last three rounds of the competition for 3 seasons, starting from the 2006/2007 season. The network also broadcasts terrestrial highlights of the Football League; its main programme is 'The Championship', and the Carling Cup.

ITV's main football host for the 2006/2007 season will be Steve Rider, who takes over from Gabby Logan as the presenter of the Tuesday night Champions League matches on ITV1. Logan took over as the main presenter after Des Lynam's departure in July 2004. However she received some harsh criticism from the British press after her performance fronting the network's Champions League final coverage between Barcelona and Arsenal at the Stade de France. ITV Sport bosses made the decision to replace her with Steve Rider, a former BBC Sport frontman, for the main presenter role at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Other presenters include ITV veteran Jim Rosenthal and Matt Smith.

Previously, ITV has held the rights to English Premiership football and the FA Cup. ITV won the rights to broadcast the FA Cup exclusively on terrestrial television in 1997, showing each final with Sky from 1998 to 2001. ITV lost the rights to the FA Cup and England matches in 2001, but obtained Premiership highlights rights in 2000, stunning the BBC, the previous holders and ending Match Of The Day. The ITV premiership programme was imaginatively titled 'The Premiership' and was presented by Des Lynam. The show originally went out 7pm, but this was unpopular and a huge commercial risk by ITV. The show was moved to 10.30pm only a few months later. ITV then lost the rights in 2003 to the BBC, bringing back Match Of The Day for the 2004/2005 season.

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

Other moments include the Champions League Final of 1999, when Manchester United won it in the dying seconds of the match. The final achieved an audience peaking at around 17 million viewers. The Champions League Final of 2005 was also won by an English club, and live on ITV. Liverpool beat AC Milan on penalties, with a peak audience of around 15 million tuning in to ITV's coverage. Around 12.5 million tuned in to see Arsenal play Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final, despite the English side losing in the dying minutes of the match. Sky Sports also broadcast the final as part of the joint Champions League deal signed in 2002.

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

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

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

ITV's current lead commentator is Clive Tyldesley (who is also the voice of FIFA 06), who has won several RTS sports awards for best commentator. Other commentators include Peter Drury, Jon Champion and Peter Brackley.

The main pundits are Terry Venables, Andy Townsend, Ally McCoist and Robbie Earle. ITV employed former Dutch international and Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit for the 2006 World Cup, along with Sam Allardyce, Stuart Pearce, Alan Curbishley, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Jay-Jay Okocha.

ITV's main reporter is Gabriel Clarke. Others include Ned Boulting and Alistair Mann.

Motorsport

ITV has covered Formula 1 from 1997, when the BBC lost the exclusive rights. The network promised to revolutionise the sport, by offering extended pre and post race analysis and complete live coverage of qualifying, thanks to a multi-million pound deal negotiated with the FOM's Bernie Ecclestone.

Coverage was originally presented by Jim Rosenthal from 1997 to 2005 with Tony Jardine as analyst until 2001 when he shared the role with Mark Blundell. ITV also managed to secure Murray Walker to continue comentating as he had done with the BBC, his new co-commentator was ex F1 driver Martin Brundle.

The 2001 US Grand Prix was Walker's very last having missed 4 other races that season. James Allen moved up from his former role as pitlane reporter to replace Murray in the comentry box with Brundle still comentating as usual. Ted Kravitz then inherited Allen's old role.

In 2006, ex-BBC Sport presenter Steve Rider left the corporation to join ITV, and front the grand prix programmes. North One Television now solely produce ITV's grand prix coverage. Mark Blundell is the main analyst alongside Rider, with James Allen and Martin Brundle providing commentary, and Ted Kravitz and Louise Goodman on hand to provide updates from the pit lane. About 10-15 minutes before the start of each race Martin Brundle does his very famous and popular grid walk. He walks around the grid interviewing drivers and F1 personal. Since 1997, Brundle has given the viewers a guided tour of the race track that the race is being held at using on - board cammera footage and himself presenting the feature standing at key points on the track.

ITV have been recognised for its world class coverage of Formula 1, and won countless awards including several BAFTA nominations and RTS awards, including best sports presenter (Jim Rosenthal) and best sports analyst (Martin Brundle).

At the 2005 Belgian Grand Prix, ITV's coverage was not fronted by Jim Rosenthal, instead Angus Scott presented as Jim was covering boxing for ITV. This was the first time anyone other than Rosenthal had presented F1 while on ITV. Angus presented again in 2006, this time for the U.S Grand Prix, as Steve Rider was presenting ITV's coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

However, ITV's coverage has been critised by viewers for showing commercial breaks during races. Five 3-minute commercial breaks have to be taken during the race. Whilst most of the time no key action is missed, in 2005 the network made a serious blunder at the San Marino Grand Prix. In one of the most thrilling races in years, with 3 laps to go, ITV took a commercial break, missing those key laps and almost missing the finish of the race. After the race, they repeated the last 3 laps again. ITV were inundated with complaints from angry viewers and the server on their website crashed due to the overload of complaints through it. The reactions of viewers was extraordinary and it was no surprise that ITV were fined by the regulator Ofcom afterwards. An on-screen apology was made by Rosenthal before the start of the next race in Spain two weeks later.

ITV's coverage also missed the incident when Neil Horan ran onto the track at the 2003 British Grand Prix due to a commercial break. Another example of this poor service from ITV is when they missed the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix when Damon Hill made an epic pass on Michael Schumacher for the lead. This was significant because Hill was driving for the highly uncompetative Arrows team. The latest miss because of commercial breaks was Michael Schumacher's engine failure in the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, which gave Fernando Alonso a 10-point lead in the championship with a race to go.

They have also drawn criticism for failing to show all of the pre-race qualifying sessions, which take place on Saturdays, live on their only terrestrial channel, ITV1. In 2006 they broadcast the Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying session live on ITV3.

As part of the F1 contract, the network also shows highlights of the GP2 Series, the feeder series to F1. These programmes are usually broadcast a week after the events. It is presented by either Ted Kravitz or Louise Goodman, with commentary from James Allen.

ITV also broadcasts the World Rally Championships, after BBC lost the rights to Channel 4 in 2001, and Channel 4 then lost the rights to ITV. Coverage was hosted by Angus Scott, with Jon Desborough and Robbie Head in 2004 and 2005. However as a cost cutting measure, ITV decided in 2006 to take the international WRC programmes produced by ISC, therefore removing the ITV presenters.

The British Touring Car Championship is another series the BBC lost the broadcasting rights to ITV in 2002. Coverage is hosted by Angus Scott and Vicki Butler-Henderson. Races 1 and 2 of each meeting are broadcast as highlights, with Race 3 live. ITV's live BTCC coverage has been regarded as a big success, with regular audiences of between 1 and 1.5 million viewers for its live coverage on Sunday afternoons. ITV started its live coverage in 2004, and now broadcasts all meetings live. Commentary comes from Ben Edwards and 1992 BTCC champion Tim Harvey. Motors TV also broadcast full coverage of each BTCC/Toca Tour meeting. In 2006, ITV broadcast the British leg of the World Touring Car Championship from Brands Hatch.

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

In 2006, ITV picked up the rights to live coverage of the British Superbike Championship from Sky Sports. Sky still show replays of the races on the evenings of the meetings. Live coverage of all 13 rounds is also fronted by Angus Scott, with motorbike columnist Janie Omorogbe. Barry Nutley and 1992 BSB champion James Whitham provide commentary. In May, ITV also broadcast live coverage of the British World Superbike meeting at Silverstone. In August they will broadcast the European round at Brands Hatch.

Boxing

ITV Sport has broadcast many boxing matches over the years, and now jointly holds the rights with Sky Sports.

In 2005, the network obtained the main share of Frank Warren's Sports Network fights from Sky Sports. The network broadcasts fights involving Amir Khan, Joe Calzaghe, Danny Williams and Scott Harrison. This ended a 10 year exile from the sport. Former fighters on ITV included Frank Bruno and Chris Eubank.

In May 2005, ITV returned to the ring in style, with live coverage of Amir Khan's last fight before becoming professional against Mario Kindelan. It achieved a peak audience of 3-5 million viewers, encouraging ITV to return to boxing full time, which it did.

The main host of ITV Boxing is Jim Rosenthal, with analysis from Barry McGuigan and commentary from John Rawling and Duke McKenzie.

Rugby Union

ITV hold joint UK rights to the 2007 Rugby World Cup along with S4C and show all games live on either ITV1 or ITV4.

The network has broadcast every Rugby World Cup live and exclusively since 1991, being host broadcaster in 1991 and 1999. In 2003, England finally triumphed in the final against Australia, at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney. ITV1 broadcast the event live, with a peak audience of around 12-14 million viewers, a record for any rugby match broadcast to a UK audience. The action was anchored by Jim Rosenthal.

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

Previously, ITV have broadcast highlights of England's home internationals at Twickenham in the Six Nations and the Autumn International test matches.

ITV also held the rights to the IRB Sevens tournament from 2002 to 2006. However, it appears that these rights have obtained by the BBC for the new 2006/7 season, according to the BBC Sport Grandstand website, which displays that they will show the first IRB Sevens tournament in Dubai in December.

According to reports, it is likely that Steve Rider will be the main anchor for the 2007 RWC in France. Their main rugby commentators are John Taylor and Jon Champion.

The Boat Race

ITV snatched the rights to the annual University Boat Race in 2004 from the BBC, who regarded the event as one of their sporting 'crown jewels'. The contract runs to 2009. Gabby Logan fronts ITV's live coverage of the event, with former Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell. ITV's Peter Drury is the main commentator.

Tour de France

ITV obtained the rights to this prestigious cycling event in 2002. The rights were previously held by Channel 4. Live coverage came at weekends, this year on ITV3, with daily highlights shows in the evenings on ITV4, and late night weekly highlights on ITV1. Coverage was fronted by Gary Imlach. Eurosport also broadcast the event.

NFL Super Bowl

America's biggest sporting showpiece is also broadcast live on ITV1. The network obtained the rights to the playoffs and the final from Five, who now only broadcast the regular season. ITV broadcast highlights of the playoffs preceding the final, with the Super Bowl itself live on ITV1, presented by Gabby Logan and Gary Imlach.

External links

• itv.com - Sport