 | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Carlton Communications (50%) Granada plc (50%) |
| Sister channels | ITV Sport Plus ITV Sport Select |
| History | |
| Launched | 11 August 2001; 24 years ago (2001-08-11) |
| Closed | 11 May 2002; 23 years ago (2002-05-11) |
| Availability at time of closure | |
| Terrestrial | |
| ITV Digital | Channel 20 |
ITV Sport Channel was a short-lived sporttelevision channel that was owned byCarlton Communications andGranada plc. It was launched on 11 August 2001 and closed on 12 May 2002, precipitatingITV Digital's collapse over a month later.
The channel was mostly devoted to football, but also included other sports, and it had two sister channels - ITV Sport Plus and ITV Sport Select.
Matt Smith,Tony Dorigo,Russell Osman,Bob Wilson,John Hendrie,Garry Nelson, Guy Havord,Guy Mowbray,Peter Drury,Jon Champion,David Fairclough,Paul Walsh,Jim Beglin,Simon Hill,Peter Stevenson, Carrie Frais,Lisa Rogers and Dave Beckett presented and commentated for the channel.
In February 1999, ONdigital announced that it had secured a four-year exclusive deal to screen every match from the UEFA Champions League, supplementing ITV's existing coverage of the competition.[1][2] and at the end of September 1999, two channels were launched to show the games, entitledChampions on 28 andChampions on 99, with the numbers at the end reflecting the channel numbers they were broadcast on.[3] Champions on 99 aired full time on its own transponder but Champions on 28 timeshared withCarlton Cinema and only aired on Tuesday evenings to allow for a second Champions League match to be shown. Eventually, Champions on 28 was moved to Channel 98 to be next to its sister channel, and was rebranded asChampions on 98, and the broadcasting capacities for both networks were swapped over.
As 2000 rolled by, the channels were rebranded asONsport 1 andONsport 2, after ONdigital had purchased rights toATP Masters Series tennis.
In June 2000, ONdigital successfully outbid BSkyB for the rights to show live matches from The Football League and the League Cup, for a massive £315m over three seasons, at least five times more than any broadcaster had previously bid for it and April 2001 was the announcement of a stand-alone subscription channel, the ITV Sport Channel, to host these rights, along with the Champions League coverage that OnDigital had been showing.
The ITV Sport Channel officially launched on 11 August 2001 withManchester City vWatford in theFirst Division[4] as the game shown. The channel was also available onNTL cable[5] but it did not broadcast on Sky[6][7] or onTelewest.
The former ONsport 1 and ONsport 2 networks were renamed asITV Sport Plus andITV Sport Select, and remained exclusive to the service. ITV Sport Select showed the on-demandPremier League football matches fromSky Sports and ITV Sport Plus was available without additional charge to allow viewers to watch a match or sport event if there was a scheduling conflict.[8]
The cost of the Football League deal proved one too many a burden for the struggling ITV Digital. TheFootball League refused to accept a £130m pay cut in its £315m deal with the network, and this financial burden would cause ITV Digital itself to be placed into administration on 27 March 2002. The collapse caused severe financial difficulties for lower-division football clubs who had budgeted for large incomes from the television contract.[9]
Despite the closure of the majority of the subscription channels on ITV Digital on 1 May 2002, the ITV Sport Channel continued to broadcast, and was re-designated as a free-to-air channel. The closure of the channel was announced two days later, and closed as planned on 11 May, after its coverage of theDivision 2 play-off final betweenBrentford andStoke.[10][11] Following the end of the match, a closedown slide was displayed stating "The ITV Sport Channel has ceased transmission".[12]
On 1 August 2002 theFootball League sued ITV Digital's parent companies, Carlton and Granada, claiming that the firms had breached their contract in failing to deliver the guaranteed income. The League lost the case, with the judge ruling that it had "failed to extract sufficient written guarantees". The League then filed a negligence claim against its lawyers for failing to press for a written guarantee at the time of the deal with ITV Digital. This time it was awarded a paltry £4 in damages of the £150m it was seeking.[13]
Throughout its time on air, football was the mainstay of the channel. In addition to live Football League coverage, the channel showed Saturday night primetime highlights from all three divisions. TheUEFA Champions League coverage previously shown on ONsport moved to ITV Sport Channel to help to fill out the channel's schedule. However, other sports did receive some coverage, including the tennis coverage previously shown on OnSport 1, snooker,[14] theBritish Basketball League and boxing from the United States. The channel also acquired secondary rights to European Cuprugby union.
In 2017, ITV would launch another sport channel,ITV Box Office, showingpay-per-view boxing and wrestling events; that service also shut down shortly after, in early 2020.[15]
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