ITV Sport Channel

ITV Sport Channel was a digital sport television channel, that was owned by Carlton Communications and Granada plc. It was launched on 11 August 2001 and it closed down in 20 May 2002, following ITV Digital's collapse, on which the channel was available on. ITV Sport Channel had 2 sister channels, ITV Sport Plus and ITV Sport Select.

Matt Smith, Tony Dorigo, Russell Osman, 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 commentated for the channel.

History

The channel launched on 11 August 2001 with Man City v Watford in the First Division.

There were two spinoff channels, ITV Sport Plus and ITV Sport Select, the latter used to show the on-demand Premier League football matches from Sky Sports. Whilst football was the mainstay of the channel, it showed the ATP Masters Series, British basketball and European Cup rugby union.

Indeed, the cost of the Football League deal proved one too many a burden for ITV Digital, and it was placed into administration on 27 March 2002, after the League refused to accept a £130m pay cut in its £315m deal...
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