Matt Smith (born 26 April 1967) is a British broadcaster who worked with

ITV Sport ITV Sport is the Broadcasting of sports events, sports department of ITV plc, which produces and presents sports programming for the ITV (TV network), ITV network and ITVX. The branding was originally introduced in 1985 as an umbrella title fo ...

between 2001 and 2015. He currently presents

TNT Sports TNT Sports is the brand name for sports television channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The name originates from the American cable television ...

' coverage of

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 ...

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 ...

, Champions League,

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 ...

, Conference Football and England Under 21 matches.

Early life

Smith is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985 to 1989.How to be ... Matt Smith
''The Guardian'', 28 February 2005 During that time, he spent a year in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

as part of his studies. He was then offered an internship with the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, before moving on to the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' as a television producer.

Career

Radio

After leaving the ''Financial Times'', Smith joined the Business Unit at

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, and presented business reports on

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 ...

's programme on

Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport i ...

. He gained his first sport–presenting role on Chris Evans' ''Radio 1 Breakfast Show''. Smith presented BBC Radio Four's final children's programme, '' Go 4 It''. Until May 2008, he presented ''Weekend Breakfast'' on

with Rachel Burden, along with occasional cover on the ''Drive'' 4pm–7pm weekday show.

Television

At 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 ...

, Smith worked initially on ''

Midlands Today ''BBC Midlands Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the West Midlands (region), West Midlands. It was launched in 1964 and is presented by Mary Rhodes, Nick Owen, Elizabeth Glinka, Rebecca Wood and Shefali Oza. Overview ...

'', ''

Breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night. Various "typical" or "traditional" breakfast menus exist, with food choices varying by regi ...

'', and

BBC News 24 The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air Public broadcasting, public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London, West End of ...

, before moving onto ''Football Fever'', ''World Snooker'', and international events including the

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and ''Euro 2000'', before joining ITV in the summer of 2001. Smith was one of the presenters on 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. ...

. After that he hosted coverage of UEFA Cup live matches and UEFA Champions League highlights. In the past, he has presented ''

The Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divis ...

'' highlights programme every Sunday on ITV, and UEFA Champions League Live matches 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, ...

until ITV lost the respective contracts. He has also occasionally presented

ITV Granada 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, ...

's weekly football show, ''

Soccer Night ''Soccer Night'' is a regional television football programme on ITV in United Kingdom between the 1990s and 2008. Early history The programme concept began in 1990 on Granada Television in North West England. ''Granada Soccer Night'', which wa ...

''. During the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, Smith hosted a panel-based show featuring debate and World Cup highlights every evening during the tournament. At Euro 2004, he was the senior reporter based with the England team. Smith has also hosted '' On The Ball'' and ''Speed Sunday'', and has reported at ITV's boxing coverage. He is also the main presenter of ITV's

Darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

coverage since the sport returned to the channel in 2007 after a long absence, presenting 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 ...

European Darts Championship The European Championship is a PDC darts tournament which was created to allow the top European players to compete with the highest ranked players from the PDC Order of Merit. Since 2016, the tournament has taken place at the end of October, and f ...

, UK Open, The Masters and The Players Championship alongside Chris Mason and Alan Warriner-Little. He also presented Snooker for ITV4 and was the main presenter of ITV coverage of IPL Cricket from 2010–2014 until they lost the rights to Sky Sports. Smith regularly appeared on

as well as the main ITV channel. However, he left ITV at the end of the 2015 football season as ITV lost the rights to live coverage of UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches. He was replaced by Jacqui Oatley. While at ITV, Smith covered 4 World Cups, 3 European Championships, hosted coverage of FA Cup Finals, Champions League Finals, Europa League Finals, England Internationals, European Qualifiers, International Friendlies,

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

, IPL Cricket, Snooker and Pdc Darts. After his contract finished with ITV in 2015, he became freelance. He now works for

working on

, Champions League,

, Conference Football, England Under 21 coverage as a presenter. He also hosted the

BDO World Darts Championship The BDO World Darts Championship was a professional darts tournament organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and held annually from 1978 to 2020. The championship was first held at the Heart of the Midlands Nightclub in the Englis ...

2017 for BT Sport. Since 2015 he has also returned to the BBC News Channel (formally BBC News 24) as a sports reporter/presenter and has also presented shows such as Kick Off and Weekend Sports Breakfast for

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 ...

Personal life

Smith is a fan of

Liverpool Football Club Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Matt Living people British television presenters English radio personalities British sports broadcasters BT Sport presenters and reporters 1967 births Television presenters from Liverpool Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University Darts people