JANUARY 10, 2005

ITV gets a new sports boss

Mark Sharman has been appointed ITV's new controller of sport. He will oversee the British TV channel's coverage of Formula 1, which may not be an easy task because of the expected problems with British legislation and F1's tobacco sponsorships from the end of July this year.

Sharman started out as an editor at ITV before rising through the ranks to become director of programmes as Sky Sports between 1994 and 1998 and then moved on to become head of sport at Channel 4 and then returned to Sky in 2000 as director of broadcasting for Sky Networks.

Sharman replaces Brian Barwick who is to be the new chief executive of the Football Association. Sharman is unlikely to have an easy time with ITV because of the forthcoming problems