Timeline of boxing on UK television facts for kids

This article shares the exciting history of boxing matches shown on television in the United Kingdom. It covers how boxing became a popular sport to watch from your home, from the early days of TV to today's streaming services.

Early Days of Boxing on UK TV

• 1955
  • On September 22, ITV started broadcasting. It was first available only in London. Guess what? Boxing was one of the first shows they aired on their launch night!
• 1966
  • On May 21, a famous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Henry Cooper II was shown. It wasn't on regular TV, but on special pay-per-view screens. You could watch it in 16 Odeon Cinemas across the UK.
• 1984
  • ITV got the rights to show boxing fights promoted by Frank Warren's Sports Network. Later, ITV made a deal with Barry Hearn. This was a big step for ITV to show more British boxing. Before this, ITV mostly showed big fights from the US. The BBC usually showed major British fights.
  • ITV launched a new show called The Big Fight Live to cover boxing. They also added Fight Night, a show that aired recorded boxing matches during the week.

Boxing on TV in the 1990s

• 1990
  • On February 11, Sky showed its first sports event that wasn't free to watch. It was a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas. Sky showed it on Sky Movies. This happened six days after Sky Movies became the UK's first pay TV channel. Sky Movies showed all of Sky's big boxing fights until 1992. Then, these fights moved to Sky Sports when it became a pay channel.
• 1992
  • On September 1, Sky Sports became a channel you had to pay for. Because of this, all of Sky's boxing coverage moved completely to Sky Sports.
• 1994
  • Around mid-1994, ITV lost the rights to show boxing fights promoted by Barry Hearn. These rights went to Sky Sports.
  • The cable channel Wire TV started showing more sports. They broadcast Lennox Lewis's WBC title fights in 1994.
• 1995
  • In January, ITV lost the rights to Frank Warren's Sports Network fights. These also went to Sky Sports.
  • In October, ITV started showing boxing again. But this time, they focused on less famous fights.
• 1996
  • On March 16, the fight between Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson was a big deal. It was the UK's first ever pay-per-view event on television!
• 1997
  • The BBC started showing less professional boxing. This happened after their midweek sports show Sportsnight ended. That show used to air boxing, often live. The BBC had already been showing fewer fights as more of them moved to ITV and Sky Sports.
• 1998
  • In December, ITV launched a new boxing show called Boxing First. It was shown every two weeks on their new channel, ITV2. The show later moved to ITV Sport Channel in 2001 and ended soon after.

Boxing on TV in the 2000s

• 2001
  • On April 22, the BBC returned to showing professional boxing. They aired the Lennox Lewis vs. Hasim Rahman fight. The BBC continued to show fights sometimes for a couple of years. After that, they decided to only show boxing during big multi-sport events. These included the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games.
• 2005
  • On March 4, the BBC ended its short return to live professional boxing. They showed Clinton Woods winning the IBF light-heavyweight title.
  • In June, ITV decided to return to boxing regularly. This was after a successful one-off boxing event in May. They got the rights back to Frank Warren's Sports Network promotions.
• 2007
  • In September, Frank Warren's Sports Network promotions mostly moved to Setanta Sports. However, fights involving Amir Khan continued to be shown on ITV.
• 2008
  • On May 27, Hayemaker Promotions signed a deal with Setanta Sports. They planned to show ten boxing events, including the next four David Haye fights. But only three were shown before Setanta went out of business the next year.
  • On September 6, ITV lost the rights to Frank Warren’s Sports Network. These rights went to Sky. But ITV still showed boxing! They signed a two-year deal for 26 fights with Hennessy Sports.
• 2009
  • In July, Hatton Promotions signed a deal with Sky Sports to broadcast eight shows.
  • On October 17, a new pay-per-view channel called Primetime launched. It started by showing pay-per-view coverage of the Super Six World Boxing Classic.

Boxing on TV in the 2010s

• 2010
  • ITV decided to stop showing boxing. They felt it was no longer making enough money for them.
  • In September, Premier Sports started showing boxing. Over the next year, they made deals with different boxing promoters. These included Hennessy Sports, AIBI for the World Series of Boxing, and Top Rank. They also showed events from ShoBox: The New Generation and Spencer Fearon's Hard Knocks Boxing Promotions.
• 2011
  • Primetime started showing events from Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank. They continued to do so for the next couple of years.
  • On July 14, BoxNation launched. At first, it was free to watch. But on December 1, it became a monthly subscription channel.
• 2014
  • On February 8, BoxNation started broadcasting in high definition (HD).
• 2016
  • On January 6, Dave showed boxing for the first time. They teamed up with David Haye to show his fight with Mark de Mori. The fight took place at the O2 Arena on January 16.
• 2017
  • On February 4, ITV returned to covering live boxing. They launched a pay-per-view channel called ITV Box Office.
  • On April 8, BT Sport began showing boxing. This followed a deal they made with Frank Warren Promotions.
  • On September 9, ITV started showing the first ever World Boxing Super Series tournament. ITV broadcast these fights on ITV Box Office.
• 2018
  • On September 15, BT Sport launched its own pay-per-view channel, BT Sport Box Office. It was mainly for showing boxing pay-per-view events.
  • In December, ITV and Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions signed a three-year agreement. This meant at least 15 events would be shown on ITV Box Office and ITV4.
• 2019
  • In April, Sky Sports aired nine fights from the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) in the 2018–19 season. This started with the semi-final world title fights. It ended in November with the bantamweight final between Nonito Donaire and Naoya Inoue.

Boxing on TV in the 2020s

• 2020
  • On January 24, ITV announced that it had closed its pay-per-view service ITV Box Office.
• 2021
  • In June, big changes happened for boxing on Sky Sports.
    • After more than 25 years, fights promoted by Matchroom Sport stopped being shown on Sky Sports. These fights moved to the streaming service DAZN.
    • To keep boxing on Sky Sports, Sky announced two new boxing deals. One was with Top Rank for American and international boxing. The other was with BOXXER in the UK. The first event from Sky's new deal with Top Rank happened on June 12.
• 2022
  • On March 2, Wasserman Boxing and Channel 5 announced a deal. Channel 5 would show five fight nights promoted by Wasserman Boxing during 2022.
  • On June 4, the BBC broadcast live professional boxing for the first time since 2005. BBC Wales and BBC iPlayer showed two Welsh title fights.
  • On December 15, BoxNation closed down after eleven years on air.