ITV Sport Channel was a digital

Digital

A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...

 sport television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 channel, that was owned by Carlton Communications

Carlton Communications

Carlton Communications was a British media company. It was led by Michael Green and listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1983 until 2 February 2004, when it taken over by Granada plc to form ITV plc with Carlton gaining 32% of the new company....

 and Granada plc. It was launched on 11 August 2001 and it closed down on 12 May 2002, following ITV Digital

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 as ONdigital in 1998 and briefly re-branded as ITV Digital in July 2001, before the service ceased in May 2002. Its main shareholders...

'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

Matt Smith (broadcaster)

Matt Smith is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.-Early life:Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89. During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies...

, Tony Dorigo

Tony Dorigo

Anthony Robert Dorigo is a retired English football player who played for Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leeds United and the England national side as a left-back.-Career:...

, Russell Osman

Russell Osman

Russell Charles Osman is a retired England international footballer.-Playing career:Osman was born in Repton, Derbyshire, the son of Rex Osman who played a handful of games for Derby County in the early 1950s...

, John Hendrie

John Hendrie

John Grattan Hendrie is a Scottish former professional association footballer who played on the right wing or in attack....

, Garry Nelson

Garry Nelson

Garry Paul Nelson is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Southend United, Swindon Town, Plymouth Argyle, Brighton & Hove Albion, Charlton Athletic and Torquay United between 1979 and 1997. He played as a striker or on the left wing...

, Guy Havord, Guy Mowbray

Guy Mowbray

Guy Mowbray is a football commentator on British television, who supports York City FC, and is currently with the BBC. Whilst working for Eurosport at the 1998 World Cup, he became the youngest ever television commentator on a World Cup Final, aged 26...

, Peter Drury

Peter Drury

Peter Drury, born 1968, is ITV Sport's number two football commentator, a role he has held since joining the network in 1998.A politics graduate from Hull University, Peter began his career as a journalist with Hayters sports agency before joining BBC Radio Leeds in 1990 as a football and cricket...

, Jon Champion

Jon Champion

Jon Champion is ESPN UK's number one football commentator. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the past 20 years. His late father David Champion was the deputy headmaster of the independent school Bootham School, York...

, David Fairclough

David Fairclough

David Fairclough is a retired English footballer, most famous for playing for Liverpool as a striker during the 1970s and 80s.-Life and playing career:...

, Paul Walsh

Paul Walsh

Paul Anthony Walsh is a retired English footballer.Walsh was a diminutive and pacy centre forward who shot to fame in the 1980s during spells with Charlton, Luton, Liverpool and Tottenham.-Charlton Athletic:...

, Jim Beglin

Jim Beglin

James Martin "Jim" Beglin is a former Irish professional footballer.- Life and career :Beglin played schoolboy football in his native city with Bolton and Waterford Bohs before joining Shamrock Rovers in 1980...

, Simon Hill

Simon Hill

Simon Hill is an Australian-based association football commentator.-British-based work:After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 1990, Hill began his work in the field of journalism, initially writing for newspapers as a freelance author while studying for the NCTJ Pre-Entry Course in...

, Peter Stevenson

Peter Stevenson

Peter Stevenson is an All Star winning former Irish Gaelic footballer who played for Derry in the 1970s and 1980. Described as a "tower of strength", he won the Ulster Senior Football Championships on two/three? occasions. Stevenson played club football with a number of clubs throughout his career...

, Carrie Frais, Lisa Rogers

Lisa Rogers

Lisa Rogers is a Welsh television presenter and occasional actress. She has appeared in films, television programmes, theatre and radio.-Early life:...

 and Dave Beckett commentated for the channel.

History

The channel launched on 11 August 2001 with Man City

Manchester City F.C.

Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...

 v Watford

Watford F.C.

Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. It is often referred to as Watford F.C., Watford, or by the team's nickname The Hornets . Watford Rovers, Founded in 1881, entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1886, and the Southern League a decade...

 in the First Division

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

.

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

Sky Sports

Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...

. Whilst football was the mainstay of the channel, it showed the ATP Masters Series

ATP Masters Series

The ATP Masters Series was a series of nine tennis tournaments that formed part of the Association of Tennis Professionals tour, held annually throughout the year in Europe, North America...

, British basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 and European Cup rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

.

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 with the ITV Sport Channel. Most subscription channels ceased broadcasting on ITV Digital on 1 May 2002. The collapse caused severe financial difficulties for lower-division football clubs who had budgeted for large incomes from the television contract.

The Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 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.

The channel closed on 12 May 2002 with the Division 2

Football League Second Division

From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...

 Play Off Final between Brentford

Brentford F.C.

Brentford Football Club are a professional English football club based in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow. They are currently playing in Football League One....

 and Stoke

Stoke City F.C.

Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...

.