ITV Sport is the

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

department of

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV (TV network), ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc ...

, which produces and presents sports programming for the

ITV network ITV, legally known as Channel 3, is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is b ...

and

ITVX ITVX is a British Over-the-top media services, over-the-top and ad-supported Streaming television, streaming service operated by ITV plc. The service offers original content from the broadcaster, livestreams of the ITV television channels, Free ...

. 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 Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Tele ...

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

to form ITV plc, after which the sports departments of Granada, Carlton, and

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 eac ...

were amalgamated to form ITV Sport. The majority of ITV Sport programmes are broadcast on

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which first aired on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV plc. The channel focuses primarily on general entertainment programming targeting a male audience, including action series and films, ...

although live football, major horse races and the Rugby World Cup are shown on the ITV network (ITV1, STV and UTV).

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

and

ITV3 ITV3 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first launched on Monday 1 November 2004 at 9 pm, replacing Plus (British TV channel), Plus ...

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 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 Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

Sport, Carlton's (previously Central's) sports department and LSN, the sport division of

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 (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

football and

ATP Masters Series The ATP 1000 events, also known as ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, are an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour since its inception in 1990. The ATP 1000 tournaments, sitting below the Grand ...

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 is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

football matches from

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

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 TVPlayer ...

, 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 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. Background ...

. 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 called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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 or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

, 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. ITV shared the rights for the FA Cup with the BBC from 1955 to 1988 and again since 2021 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 Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 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 available on

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

television for the first time since 1988. 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 The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...

matches.

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 (1993–94), Bob Wilson (1994–99),

Des Lynam Desmond Michael Lynam (born 17 September 1942) is an Irish-born British 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, pr ...

(1999–2004),

Gabby Logan Gabrielle Nicole Logan (''née'' Yorath; born 24 April 1973) is a Welsh television and radio presenter, and a former rhythmic gymnast who represented Wales and Great Britain. She hosted '' Final Score'' for BBC Sport from 2009 until 2013. She h ...

(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 fo ...

(2010–14).

Motorsport

The

British Touring Car Championship The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

is another series ITV won away from the BBC, doing so in 2002 and in 2004, ITV introduced live coverage of the

for the first time on network television. Previously the

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 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

as the terrestrial broadcaster of the

British Superbike The British Superbike Championship (BSB), known for sponsorship reasons as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, is a road racing championship for superbike class machines in the United Kingdom and acknowledged as the premier domestic s ...

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 Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

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,

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 The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

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 Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

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 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 A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

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, b ...

bids from

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

and BT for coverage of the

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

from 2017, the

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 The Women's 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 b ...

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 Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

, 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.

Cycling

ITV obtained the rights to the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

in 2002, replacing

as the UK terrestrial broadcaster. The intention behind the purchase was to provide live content for the

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. ...

during the football off-season. The coverage is shown on

, having aired in previous years on

and

. Initially, live coverage was only broadcast at the weekend but since the 2010 Tour de France,

has broadcast daily live coverage of every stage except the final which is shown on ITV. ITV4 also airs nightly highlights shows. Following the ratings success of the Tour de France, ITV invested in more cycling coverage and now shows the Women's Tour

Tour of Britain 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 th ...

and Tour de Yorkshire live. It shows highlights of La Vuelta, having previously showed that race live before it regularly clashed with the Tour of Britain. ITV has previously shown the Tour of Ireland. ITV also has highlights to the Tour Series cycling, and several of the classic French races, such as Paris-Roubaix.

Darts

ITV was the first broadcaster of darts in the United Kingdom 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 Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he was ranked world number one from January 2008 to June 2008. Nicknamed "Barney", he is a five-t ...

. 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 Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC used to invite the best performing players from its rival, the Briti ...

, comprising champions of both the BDO and PDC tournaments. ITV covered the event between 2007 and 2010 – coverage then moved to

. 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 Doubles Championship, also known as the Hofmeister World Doubles (1982–1986) or the Fosters World Doubles (1987) for sponsorship purposes, was a non-ranking team snooker tournament held from 1982 to 1987 as the major event. History ...

, 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 is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

announced that ITV4 would televise the

Snooker Shoot Out The Snooker Shoot Out is a professional snooker tournament played under a variation of the standard rules. First staged in 1990 Shoot-Out, 1990 as the Shoot-Out, the event was revived in 2011 Snooker Shoot-Out, 2011 and renamed the Snooker Sho ...

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.

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 Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a m ...

Kelly Holmes Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British Middle-distance running, middle distance Track and field, athlete and television personality. Holmes specialised in the 800 metres, 800 and 1500 metres events and won gold medals for ...

, Fabrice Muamba,

Barry McGuigan Finbar Patrick "Barry" McGuigan MBE (born 28 February 1961) is an Irish boxing promoter and former professional boxer. Born in Clones, County Monaghan, McGuigan was nicknamed ''The Clones Cyclone'' and held the WBA and lineal featherweight ...

, Gareth Thomas,

Brian Lara Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely renowned as one of the greatest Batting (cricket), batsmen of all time. He holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest in ...

, Amir Khan and

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972) is an English retired rugby union player. He is a former captain of England, and a 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Dallaglio played as a flanker or number eight for London ...

. Series two first shown on ITV4 in 2013 included episodes on James Cracknell, David Weir,

Nicola Adams Nicola Virginia Adams OBE (born 26 October 1982) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2017 to 2019. She retired with an undefeated record and held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female flyweight title in 2019. As an ...

Jermain Defoe Jermain Colin Defoe (born 7 October 1982) is an English football coach and former professional player. He was most recently the under-18s coach at Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Defoe was a striker and began his career with Charlto ...

Eric Bristow Eric John Bristow (25 April 1957 – 5 April 2018), nicknamed "the Crafty Cockney", was an English professional darts player and one of the most recognisable and successful players of the 1980s. He was ranked World No. 1 by the World Darts Fed ...

Chris Eubank Christopher Livingstone Eubank (also Christopher Livingstone Eubank Sr. born 8 August 1966) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 1998. He held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) middleweight and super-middlewei ...

Didier Drogba Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He is the Top international association football goal scorers by cou ...

and

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

. Series 3 returns in February 2015. Reporters on the series have included Gabriel Clarke, Ned Boulting, Adam Darke and Leon Mann.

List of current ITV Sport rights

Football

Football *

: 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 ITV1) *

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

: 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 *

Men's Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the world champions of the sport. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, ...

: All matches Live on ITV1, ITV3 & ITV4 (to 2023) *

: Live on ITV1 and ITV4 until 2021 * World Rugby U20 Championship: Live on ITV4 until 2023 *

: ITV has covered all England, Ireland and Italy home games (2016–2025) plus those from France (2022-2025), since 2026 ITV will retain 9 matches from Italy, Ireland and France and additionally broadcast an England away game played in Scotland (2026 & 2028) or Wales (2027 & 2029). *

: 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 including final & highlights (to 2023/24) Motorsport *

: Live on ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 (to 2026) * MotoGP: 2 Races Live on ITV1, ITV3 & 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 road racing series based on heavily modified production sports motorcycles. The championship was founded in . The Superbike World Champio ...

: Highlights on ITV4 *

British Superbike Championship The British Superbike Championship (BSB), known for sponsorship reasons as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, is a road racing championship for superbike class machines in the United Kingdom and acknowledged as the premier domestic s ...

: 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 and June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907 Isle of Man TT, 1907. The event begins on the UK Spring Bank Holiday at the e ...

: 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 hillclimbing, hillclimb and other events, held in Goodwood House, West Sussex, in late June or early July. Th ...

, Goodwood Revival and Goodwood Members Meeting: Live on ITV1, ITV3 and ITV4 * British F3 Championship highlights *

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

: Highlights on ITV4 *

Extreme E Extreme E was an FIA-sanctioned international off-road racing series that used spec silhouette electric SUVs to race in remote parts of the world, such as the Saudi Arabian desert or the Arctic. All racing locations were chosen to raise awaren ...

: Live on ITV1 Boxing * Premier Boxing Champions: Live on ITV4 Snooker * World Mixed Doubles: Live on ITV1 and ITV4 * British Open: Live on ITV1, ITV3 and ITV4 * Champion of Champions: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 * World Grand Prix: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 * Players Championship: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 *

: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 Darts *

UK Open The Ladbrokes UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. The event is often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts" as it has an unseeded open dr ...

: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 *

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 *

The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major golf championships, men's major championships in Professional golf tours, professional golf. Schedul ...

: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 * World Series of Darts Finals: Live on ITV3 and ITV4 * Players Championship Finals: Live on ITV3 and 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 ITV3 and ITV4 (Delayed coverage of events outside UK & Europe) Cycling *

: Live Coverage & Highlights on ITV4 *

La Course by Le Tour de France La Course by Le Tour de France was an elite List of women's road bicycle races, women's professional road bicycle race held in France. First held in 2014 as a one-day race on the Champs-Élysées stage in the Tour de France, Champs-Élysées in ...

: Live on ITV4 *

: Live coverage & Highlights on ITV4 * Women's Tour of Britain: Highlights on ITV4 * Tour de Yorkshire: Live on ITV4 * Vuelta a Espana: Highlights on ITV4 * British Road Race Championships: Highlights on ITV4 *

Tour Series 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 ...

: Highlights on ITV4 Horse Racing * Exclusive terrestrial rights to a minimum of 95 days of racing, live on ITV1, ITV3 and ITV4 including Cheltenham Festival,

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

, Derby & Royal Ascot American Football * Two London Games and the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

live plus weekly highlights until 2024/25 Wrestling *

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned and operated by Shahid Khan, Shahid and Tony Khan, with the latter serving as President (corporate title), president an ...

(2019–present, AEW Dynamite & Rampage reruns on ITV4 and highlights on ITV1)

List of current ITV Sport personnel

Football Presenters: * Mark Pougatch * Seema Jaswal (Also works for BBC Sport and Premier League Productions) * Laura Woods (also works for Amazon Prime Video & TNT Sports) Pundits: *

Eni Aluko Eniola Aluko (born 21 February 1987) is a British football executive, football broadcaster and former professional Football player, player who played as a Winger (association football), winger and Striker (association football), striker. Aluko ...

(Also works for Amazon Prime Video) * Ashley Cole *

Lee Dixon Lee Michael Dixon (born 17 March 1964) is an English pundit and retired professional footballer who played as a right-back. Dixon was also capped 22 times for England. His father Roy was a goalkeeper with Manchester City and many of Dixon's f ...

(Also works for Amazon Prime Video and

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

) *

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, former coach, and former professional player. He is best known for his career in the Premier League, in particular his captaincy of Manchester United. He is the joint most ...

(Also works for Sky Sports) *

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former association football, footballer who has since worked as a Manager (association football), manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Jo ...

(Also works for Amazon Prime Video, Viaplay Sports, TNT Sports, Sky Sports and

talkSPORT Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

) *

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English media personality and former professional footballer. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal as a forward, spending six years with the former and seven year ...

(Also works for BBC Sport) * Karen Carney (Also works for Sky Sports and Amazon Prime Video) *

Emma Hayes Emma Carol Hayes (born 18 October 1976) is an English professional football manager who is the head coach of the United States women's national team. She was previously manager of Chelsea Women from 2012 to 2024, winning seven Women's Super ...

Commentators: * Sam Matterface (Also works for talkSPORT and Premier League Productions) * Seb Hutchinson (Also works for BBC Radio 5 Live, Sky Sports and

Premier League Productions Premier League Productions is an IMG (company), 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, ...

) * Joe Speight (Also works for TNT Sports, Premier League Productions and

) * Tom Gayle (Also works for BBC Sport and Premier League Productions) Reporters: * Gabriel Clarke (Also works for Amazon Prime Video) * Katie Shanahan (Also works for Sky Sports) Cycling Presenter: * Gary Imlach Pundits: * Chris Boardman (Also works for BBC Sport) * Peter Kennaugh Commentators: *

Ned Boulting Norris Edward "Ned" Boulting (born 11 July 1969) is a British sports journalist, television presenter and podcaster best known for his coverage of football, cycling and darts. Early life and education Boulting was born in Andover, Hampshire, b ...

* David Millar Darts Presenter: * Jacqui Oatley Pundits: * Chris Mason (Also works for Online Live League Darts & talkSPORT) * Alan Warriner-Little * Mark Webster (Also works for Sky Sports) Commentators: * Stuart Pyke (Also works for Sky Sports) * John Rawling (Also works for talkSPORT and Eurosport/Quest) Reporter: *

Dan Dawson Dan Dawson (born December 11, 1981) is a Canadian former professional box lacrosse player formally playing for the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League, Brampton Excelsiors (MSL) of Major Series Lacrosse, and is currently a free agent ...

Horse Racing Presenters: * Ed Chamberlin * Francesca Cumani * Oli Bell Pundits: * Jason Weaver *

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 ...

* Jane Mangan * Leona Mayor *

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 Britain, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners and was Champion Jockey a recor ...

Ruby Walsh Rupert "Ruby" Walsh (born 14 May 1979) is an Irish former jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen. Widely regarded as one of the greatest National Hunt racing, National Hunt ...

* 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, Order of the British Empire, 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 First World War, Great War ...

* Andrew Thornton *

Hayley Turner Hayley Turner (born 3 January 1983) is a retired England, English jockey who competed in flat racing. Originally from Nottingham, she was based in Newmarket, Suffolk, Newmarket for much of her career. In 2008 Turner became the first woman to ...

Commentators: * Richard Hoiles * Mark Johnson * Ian Bartlett Reporters: * Matt Chapman (Also works for Sky Sports Racing) *

* Brian Gleeson * Sally-Ann Grassick * Luke Harvey * Rishi Persad * Alice Plunkett * Adele Mullrennan * Natalie Green * Charlotte Hawkins *

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 ...

Chris Hughes Christopher 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 ...

* Lucy Verasamy Motorsport * David Addison * Louise Goodman * Tim Harvey * Barry Nutley (Also works for Eurosport) * Niall Mackenzie (Also works for Eurosport) * Steve Rider * Paul O'Neill * Richard John-Neil * Phil Glew * Jade Edwards Rugby Union Presenters: * Martin Bayfield (also works for TNT Sports) *

Craig Doyle Craig Doyle (born 17 December 1970) is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently TNT Sports; Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One chat show ...

(also works for TNT Sports) * Jill Douglas (also works for BBC Sport) * Mark Pougatch * David Flatman (also a commentator and also working for Amazon Prime & TNT Sports) * Topsy Ojo (also works for TNT Sports) * Hugh Woozencroft (also works for talkSPORT) Pundits: *

Maggie Alphonsi Margaret Omotayo Sanni Alphonsi (born 20 December 1983) is an English former rugby union player who played as a flanker for Saracens W.R.F.C. and England before retiring in 2014. She was Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year in 2010, and was i ...

(also works for BBC Sport & Sky Sports) *

Marco Bortolami Marco Bortolami (; born 12 June 1980) is a rugby union coach and retired Italy, Italian international player, whose career includes experience playing in the national top-level Italian (Petrarca Padova), French (RC Narbonne), and English (Glouces ...

(also works for TNT Sports) * Gordon D'Arcy (also works for RTE Sport & BBC Radio 5 Live) * Sean Fitzpatrick (also works for Sky Sports) *

George Gregan George Musarurwa Gregan AM (born 19 April 1973) is a former rugby union player who played as scrum-half. Born in Lusaka, Zambia, Gregan represented Australia at an international level, and is Australia's second most capped player. He played S ...

* Bryan Habana * Jim Hamilton (also works for BBC Sport) * Scott Hastings (also works for Sky Sports) * Ben Kay (also works for TNT Sports) *

Michael Lynagh Michael Patrick Thomas Lynagh, (born 25 October 1963) is an Australian former rugby union player who played 66 tests at Fly-half (rugby union), fly-half and six tests at inside centre between 1984 and 1995. Lynagh was Cap (sport), capped 72 time ...

(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 (rugby union), centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster Rugby, Leinster and for Ireland national rugby union te ...

(also works for TNT Sports) * Mike Phillips * Jamie Roberts (also works for Amazon & S4C) * Jason Robinson * Gareth Thomas *

Sam Warburton Sam Kennedy Warburton (born 5 October 1988), is a Wales, Welsh former international rugby union player. Warburton played rugby for Cardiff Rugby and was first capped for Wales national rugby union team, Wales in 2009. He usually played as an F ...

(also works for BBC Sport & Amazon Prime) * Danielle Waterman * Shane Williams (also works for BBC Radio 5 Live) *

Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and French side Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scori ...

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 Lio ...

Commentators: *

Nick Mullins Nick Mullins (born 31 January 1966) is a British journalist and sports commentator, primarily working on BT Sport's English Premiership (rugby union), Premiership Rugby coverage and BBC One's The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon coverage. Ea ...

(also works for TNT Sports) * Miles Harrison (also works for Amazon Prime) * Martin Gillingham * Simon Ward Reporters: * Gabriel Clarke * Jill Douglas * David Flatman Snooker Presenters: * Jill Douglas * Rishi Persad (also works for BBC Sport) * Oli Bell 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 Bla ...

(also works for Eurosport/Quest) * Alan McManus (also works for Eurosport) *

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and a current Sports commentator, commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, ag ...

(also works for BBC Sport) *

Ken Doherty Kenneth Joseph Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player who also works as a commentator and pundit on televised snooker broadcasts. From Ranelagh in Dublin, he is the sport's only World Snooker Championship, wor ...

(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

. 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 as ...

, Peter Matthews and

Steve Ovett Stephen Michael James Ovett, (; born 9 October 1955) is a retired British track athlete. A middle-distance runner, he was the gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Ovett set five world records for 1500 metre ...

. 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.

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

and Mark Durden Smith.

took over as presenter, while Peter Drury commentated. James Cracknell acted as a co presenter and pundit. ITV Sport did not renew its contract for The Boat Race after its contract ended due to wanting to concentrate on football and the rights reverted to the BBC.

Boxing

ITV Sport has broadcast many

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

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 Barry Maurice William Hearn (born 19 June 1948) is an English sports promoter who is founder and president of Matchroom Sport. Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many sports including boxing, snooker, darts, pool, tenpin bowling, gol ...

took

and his stable of fighters to

and at the start of 1995,

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 t ...

, thanks to a contract with Merseyside promoter John Hyland. Other bouts were shown on

and the ill-fated

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 Mario (; ) is a character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Japanese video game company Nintendo. ...

. 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 multiple world championships in two weight classes, including unified and lineal titles at super-middleweight, and ...

, Danny Williams,

Audley Harrison Audley Hugh Harrison, (born 26 October 1971) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2013. As an amateur, he represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympics, winning a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division and ...

, Derek Chisora and others. Other highlights included Joe Calzaghe's emphatic victory over Jeff Lacy for the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

and IBF

super-middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...

world title at the

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

MEN Arena Manchester Arena (currently known as AO Arena for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. Pr ...

in March 2006. During this period the main event was usually shown on the ITV Network while undercard matches were often televised on

. 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 Malignaggi (; ; born November 23, 1980) is an Italian-American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017 and has since worked as a boxing commentator and analyst, currently with BYB Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting Series and P ...

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 world championships in the super-middleweight division, i ...

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 live. In 2017 ITV showed Chris Eubank Jr.'s world title boxing fight against

. The event launched ITV's new pay-per-view channel

. 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

. The main host of ITV Boxing was

and until 1996 the main commentators were Reg Gutteridge and Jim Watt, both of whom moved to Sky while continuing to commentate for the few boxing shows ITV televised in the late 1990s, which were presented by Russ Williams. Graham Beecroft commentated on boxing on a regional basis during the late 1990s. When boxing returned to ITV on a regular basis in 2005 Jim Rosenthal resumed presenting duties and

left Sky Sports to continue his role as a pundit on ITV. John Rawling 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 International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight title fro ...

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 is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

has been of the 1958 Games in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, 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 the umbrella entertainment division of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation and managed by its American subsidiary, established in 2012 to oversee the corporation's ventures in film, televisio ...

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

and as the old

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

). 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 Association football, football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights during the Premier League season. ''Match of the Day'' is one of the BBC's longest-runn ...

'' 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'' 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

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

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 or Carlton Select cable channels before, following the launch of On Digital, it showed every key match through special bespoke channels Champions on 28 and Champions on 99, later ONsport 1 and ONsport 2, as well as on

. When

launched, one match would be aired on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

with another on ITV4. This practice continued until 2009, when ITV reduced its output to just one live match per set in the competition on ITV1. This was due to ITV gaining rights for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

where 2 back to back games would be broadcast free to air on ITV4 with the final on ITV1. Live coverage ended in 2015 when BT Sport took over as exclusive broadcaster of the UEFA Champions League and

, 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 an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

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 occasionally broadcasts England football matches on

as well as

when England and another home nation plays at the same time. ITVs local stations such as STV, would broadcast the home nation in that area with English viewing on

. If people in Scotland want to watch an England match would need to switch to

. 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 and Premier Sports. 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 became the exclusive UK broadcaster.

Formula 1

ITV covered

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

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 Bernard Charles Ecclestone (born 28 October 1930) is a British business magnate, motorsport executive and former racing driver. Widely known in journalism as the "F1 Supremo", Ecclestone founded the Formula One Group in 1987, controlling the c ...

. 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, Apennine mountains in Italy, between 1981 and 2006. It was nam ...

. 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 The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

. 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

. The BBC took over the contract, providing coverage from 2009 until 2015. In December 2015, ITV was rumoured to be making a potential return to Formula One from the 2016 season. However, the contract instead went to Channel 4 F1, 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 The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

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 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

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 – 1977 Moscow bombings, 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 (no ...

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 song ...

rights but the

cup was not televised in the UK due to the 1979 ITV strike. The rights to the event reverted to the BBC in 1981. ITV also broadcast the 1972 and 1973 Scottish Open. Golf coverage switched from ITV to Channel 4 when it launched in 1982 before disappearing from ITV Sport altogether by the mid-1980s.

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 George Dario Marino Franchitti (born 19 May 1973) is a British motorsport commentator and retired motor racing driver from Scotland. Franchitti won the IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011; the Indianapolis 500 in ...

. 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 (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

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 (), also known as the Winter Olympics, 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 held i ...

Power Snooker

In 2010 and 2011 ITV introduced a new

cue sport Cue or CUE may refer to: Event markers * Sensory cue, in perception (experimental psychology) ** Cueing (medicine), rehabilitation techniques for Parkinson's disease patients to improve walking * Cue (theatrical), the trigger for an action to be c ...

called Power Snooker. These were the only two occasions on which the sport was played. Power Snooker was a hybrid between snooker and pool.

Rugby Union

On the back of its successful broadcasting of the 1991 World Cup, 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 Lio ...

, Autumn Internationals and even some club rugby, though this was restricted to certain regions. This ended in 1996 when

increased its rugby union coverage, which included Sky taking over as broadcaster of the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

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 Ballantyne 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 Gran ...

hosted the coverage with commentators including

and Jonathan Overend. 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 – Women's singles, 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in 2007 Wimbledo ...

Jim Courier James Spencer Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 58 ...

Anne Keothavong Anne Viensouk Keothavong (born 16 September 1983) is a British former tennis player. In 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 February 2009). Sh ...

Mark Petchey Mark Rodney James Petchey (born 1 August 1970) is a former tennis player from England, who turned professional in 1988. He now works as a tennis commentator and analyst for Amazon Prime, ITV Network, ITV, the BBC, the Tennis Channel, Tennis Aus ...

Fabrice Santoro Fabrice Vetea Santoro (; born 9 December 1972) is a French former professional tennis player. Successful in both singles and doubles, he had an unusually long professional career, with many of his accomplishments coming towards the end of his ca ...

and

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2012, they rose to prominence when they featured on Disclosure (band), Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch (song), Latch", which peaked at number eleven on ...

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 * W ...

tennis tournament alongside the BBC.

Wrestling

Wrestling was shown as part of ITV's flagship sports programme ''World of Sport'' until the programme was cancelled in 1985. Its many stars included Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, and it received viewing figures of 8 million every week. After that, wrestling was shown as a programme in its own right, moving to a lunchtime slot. This continued until ITV decided to end its coverage of wrestling at the end of 1988. ''

World of Sport Wrestling ''WOS Wrestling'' (originally an acronym for ''World of Sport Wrestling'') is a British professional wrestling television series and promotion. It was marketed as a relaunch of the wrestling segment from the ITV sports programme '' World of Sp ...

'' 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:ITV Sport ITV (TV network) Sports television in the United Kingdom