A History of Sport on Commercial Television, 1955-1992

This thesis explores the relationship between sport and the United Kingdom's first two commercial television channels, Independent Television (ITV) and Channel Four. It is the first comprehensive study of the history of British television sport to focus on commercial broadcasters and is based on extensive research carried out in the archive of ITV's regulatory bodies and the Channel Four Written Archive. The period it covers, from 1955 to 1992, begins with the launch of ITV and ends as BSkyB’s subscription-based Sky Sports begins airing live matches from the newly formed Premier League.

It is argued that ITV's capacity to broadcast sport was determined by a combination of internal tensions and external fetters. The contradictions within ITV - a commercial broadcaster with a public service remit; a regional structure with a tendency towards centralisation - conditioned its sports output. It was also subject to state intervention, the preferences of sports governing bodies, and, crucially, its ongoing rivalry with the BBC. Further, this thesis argues that Channel Four, which only began broadcasting in 1982, constructed an identity, through both necessity and design, as a broadcaster of niche sports in an increasingly global media sports complex.

Central to this thesis is the notion that television sport operates as a distinct cultural form, one with its own formats, conventions, and styles, Thus, consideration is given to the ways in which ITV and Channel Four have contributed to evolution of television sport, and the degree to which their approaches were conditioned by their commercial nature. The role of ITV and Channel Four in the wider developments of the sponsorship and the mediatization of sport is also investigated.

This thesis is divided into five main chapters, with those focusing on ITV structured by periodisation. Key themes are developed within each chapter, and four case studies on specific programmes are used to illustrate the history of sport on commercial television.