Steve Rider set for move to ITV ?

Strong rumours suggest that he is. I believe the company that produces the F1 coverage for ITV is also changing so there may be other changes......

Does Chrysalis still produce it, or has it been given to Granada? I can't remember from the last time I watched.

I hope ITV retain Jim Rosenthal on F1, but Steve Rider would be a massive coup for ITV. Maybe he could be used on touring cars as well? He filled that role before for BBC

It's currently produced by North One but their contract is up after this season. There hasn't been an official announcement yet as to who will produce next years coverage, but there has been speculation that it will be Granada.

It's a joint production between North One Television (who were Chrysalis before the management buy-out) and Granada Sport (the Meridian bit of the empire).
They won the contract to provide F1 coverage to ITV under the name MACH-1 ( M eridian A nd CH rysalis) productions, although this name was dropped from the endcap after the change name at Chrysalis.

As mentioned above, the contract expires after the final race in China on Sunday October 16th (although I suspect there will be a end of season review lurking around Christmas time) and it's still up in the air if the partnership will continue or if the coverage will be taken back in-house by Granada (or ITV productions as we must now call them)

This article suggests that ITV Production (ie. Granada) will get the new F1 contract.

MediaGuardian is reporting today that Gary Lineker will replace Steve Rider in fronting coverage of the major golf tournaments such as The Open, but he won't be hosting the minor events.


It confirms Steve Rider is off to ITV, but doesn't say what he'll be hosting, or give any details on who will take over other sports such as Rugby etc.


Don't know if he's been on Grandstand lately or been sent of on Gardening leave - Jill Douglas hosted the live Rugby on Sunday.

Jim is definately off given the send-off he got at the end of today's GP. Also, it seems certain that Steve Rider is miving across, given that Jim was talking about new "Runners and Riders " for next season...

Hopefully Steve will also take over when it comes to the Rugby World Cup in 2007!


Strange move for Rosenthal - I'm guessing it's more a case he didn't want to carry on travelling the world to cover Grand Prixs.

This is confirmed in a MediaGuardian article today: http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,1593525,00.html


John Inverdale will take over Rugby duties, with Gary Lineker hosting the golf majors! Quick question - is Craig Doyle still with BBC Sport, haven't seen him for ages?

I don't think it's very strange at all. Jim's background is in boxing and football much more than F1, so he's returning to the sports he's been associated with in his career.