ITV win horse racing rights from 2017

Good appointment. But the ITV press office could have chosen a better photo for the announcement tweet. He looks like he's dropping off to sleep.

What's the odds he will be hosting ITV football coverage of England matches at least come September 2016?

That's really the best pic they could find of him?

Series of tweets from Chamberlin himself starting with this one just issued ....

Thank you for all the kind messages. I'm thrilled to be joining @ITV & really looking forward to the new challenge. Exciting times ahead

— Ed Chamberlin (@chamberlinsport) June 8, 2016

Another presenter signed up, one presumably not too familar to UK audiences. According to her bio she hows CNN Winning Post and its Spanish equivalent and co-hosts Sevens coverage of the Melbourne Cup.

Thanks @ITVSport for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime to co-host UK flat season racing coverage. Can't wait for 2017!

— Francesca Cumani (@francescacumani) July 19, 2016

More on ITV Horse Racing coverage.

In today's edition of 'the bookies wallpaper' (Racing Post) columnist Lee Mottershead (like Charlie Sale, only more accurate and reliable) who predicted both Ed Chamberlain, and Francesca Cumami appointments to the presenting team, days ahead of the official ITV press office tweet, today claims that At The Races presenter and Five Live and racecourse commentator, John Hunt, is the favourite to be offered the main commentator role.

Behind the scenes, Richard Willoughby will be coverage editor, having come from Racing UK, and his number two is Paul Cooper who is currently working for At The Races (which may explain the John Hunt instead of Simon Holt as main race caller link)

So, looks like ITV are not recruiting from the existing IMG Channel 4 team - hopefully this means some fresh ideas for the coverage is on the cards..

That always goes down well.

Look chaps, it's dead simple. You introduce a race, you tell us what the odds are, you show the race, you fill before the next race by interviewing jockeys using microphones on long sticks, occasionally you show classical highlights, mention Red Rum a few times, rinse, repeat and get on with it. Your television audience are mostly middle-aged men with a few pints inside them at a social club clutching a copy of the Racing Post. The illusion of racing fans being sophisticated society types has long been busted. Race-goers themselves may be hooray henries and henriettas, but the folks on the other end of the cathode ray tube just want to see their picks come in. They're not interested in anything else.

It isn't that simple though. Although I think ITV are absolutely right to be doing their own thing C4 have lost the rights partly because they got it wrong by dumping an established presenting team and long term production partner back in 2013. The change in style was very noticeable and just not very popular - it became C4 airs racing rather than "Channel 4 Racing".

Covering all the meetings in the same style is the challenge. There's effectively two different types of meetings - the big events which even non-racing fans watch a bit of - the derby / the national / ascot / gold cup / etc, and the "3.20 from Folkestone" stuff which happens all afternoon all year. IMHO the Highflyer era struggled more with making the big events accessible to the general public, but was far superior with the regular stuff. The BBC coverage was the opposite - they'd happily spend an hour talking to punters in an open top bus about food or clothing choices at the Derby, but struggled when it came to covering a normal meeting.

With C4 getting all the rights though, something had to change. The big courses, especially Epsom, wanted the BBC style coverage making their big meetings seem even more important - the actual racing coverage is less important.

I've got a feeling with the ITV / ITV4 split, we could end up seeing a different style of programme for the different styles of events. It will also be interesting to see how much of the actual production side changes - the IMG set up is using mainly the same crew and same facilities as the Highflyer era - even the main director hasn't changed. There's some crew who've been working on the programme pretty much every week since the early 90s.

The Racing Post are today saying that Mick Fitzgerald and Rishi Persad are the latest names added to ITV team for horse racing from 2017 and at present are the only people from Channel 4 making the switch. The Racing Post are also reporting Britain's most successful female rider Hayley Turner has been signed up by ITV to appear alongside Ed Chamberlain, Francesca Cumani, Oli Bell and Sally Ann Grassick.

See more at:
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/fitzgerald-latest-to-land-prize-role-on-itv-racing-team/2147110/#newsArchiveTabs=last7DaysNews

The BBC may have lost Bake Off today but ITV Sport have missed out on signing up John Hunt as lead commentator, seems the appeal of the Olympics has convinced him to stay with the BBC. Would say Simon Holt is now favourite to sign for ITV.

See More At:
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/itv-miss-out-on-hunt-who-signs-new-bbc-deal/2155025/top/#newsArchiveTabs=last7DaysNews

ITV have announced the racing schedule for the main channel. They are to broadcast racing on 40 days the rest will be on ITV4.

No doubt there will be a lot of upset daytime TV viewers when this comes along.

ITV main channel schedule for 2017

January

Sun 1: Cheltenham & Musselburgh

March

Tue 14: Cheltenham Festival - Day 1

Wed 15: Cheltenham Festival - Day 2

Thu 16: Cheltenham Festival - Day 3

Fri 17: Cheltenham Festival - Day 4

April

Thu 6: Aintree - Grand National meeting Day 1

Fri 7: Aintree - Grand National meeting Day 2

Sat 8: Aintree - Grand National meeting Day 3

Sat 22: Ayr & Newbury (Scottish Grand National)

Sat 29: Sandown & Haydock (Jumps Finale)

May

Sat 6: Newmarket & Goodwood (2,000 Guineas)

Sun 7: Newmarket & Hamilton (1,000 Guineas)

Sat 20: Newbury & Newmarket (Lockinge)

June

Fri 2:Epsom - Derby meeting Day 1

Sat 3:Epsom - Derby meeting Day 2

Tue 20:Royal Ascot - Day 1

Wed 21:Royal Ascot - Day 2

Thu 22: Royal Ascot - Day 3

Fri 23: Royal Ascot - Day 4

Sat 24: Royal Ascot - Day 5

July

Sat 8: Sandown & Haydock (Eclipse)

Sat 15: ‘Super Saturday' (Newmarket, Ascot, York)

Sat 29: Ascot & York (King George)

August

Tue 1: Glorious Goodwood - Day 1

Wed 2: Glorious Goodwood - Day 2

Thu 3: Glorious Goodwood - Day 3

Fri 4: Glorious Goodwood - Day 4

Sat 5: Glorious Goodwood - Day 5

Wed 23: York Ebor - Day 1

Thu 24: York Ebor - Day 2

Fri 25: York Ebor - Day 3

Sat 26: York Ebor - Day 4

September

Sat 9: Haydock, Ascot & Kempton (Sprint Cup)

Sat 16: Doncaster & Chester (St Leger)

October

Sat 14: Newmarket & York (Dewhurst)

Sat 21: Ascot - British Champions Day

November

Sat 18: Cheltenham & Lingfield (Open meeting Saturday)

Sat 25: Haydock & Ascot (Betfair Chase)

December

Sat 2: Newbury & Newcastle (Hennessy/Fighting Fifth)

Tue 26: Kempton & Wetherby (King George)