Steve Rider

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This article is about Steve Rider, the reporter. For the porn star, see Steve Ryder (porn star).

Steve Rider at his first Grand Prix for ITV in Bahrain March 2006.

Steve Rider (born 1951) is a well known sports presenter in the UK, and is currently anchorman of ITV's Formula One and live Champions League Live coverage.

Rider began his career working for a newspaper in south-east London, followed by writing for sports news agency Hayters.^[1]^[2] Early in his career he was a sports reporter for Independent Radio News and also covered motor racing for Anglia Television, later becoming Head of Sport on the regional news programme About Anglia.

He worked for ITV Sport for several years providing reports for the now-defunct World of Sport programme, and reporting from the 1980 Summer Olympics.^[1] He was also a presenter for some of the golf coverage on Channel 4 and presented some live European football for ITV.

Rider joined BBC Sport in July 1985, taking over from Harry Carpenter on the network's now-defunct Sportsnight strand, which he presented for 6 years.^[1]^[2] He became a familiar face on British television, presenting shows such as Grandstand, Sports Personality of the Year and much of the BBC's motorsports and golf coverage. In 1996 ITV attempted to recruit Rider, when it was announced that Formula One coverage would move from the publicly funded BBC to ITV, however he chose to remain with the BBC and ITV F1 frontman role was handed to Jim Rosenthal.

In October 2005 it was reported that ITV had secured Rider's services and would replace Jim Rosenthal from 2006 onwards to present coverage of Formula One. He later said that a factor in his decision to move network was the BBC's unwillingness to agree his long-term future, he told The Times "I went...to the BBC and said "Look, you know me as a presenter, you know the way I work, the way I want to work, I want to make a long-term commitment to encompass 2012." They did not feel able to do that and it was easy to make a decision [about my future] from that point on".^[2] In March 2006 Rider made his coverage debut on ITV1, appearing on a preview show for the new season. Since working for the channel he has also fronted coverage of some games in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

He has always maintained a low-key and professional style in fronting major sporting events, in a similar way to his predecessors and colleagues Harry Carpenter and Des Lynam, but in marked contrast to presenters who some feel try to steal the event's spotlight. On his style, he was quoted as saying "[I'm not] that bothered about the environment that should surround a presenter at the beginning of a programme, of the "if we get you in this location it will look as though you are close to the action" sort of thing. That is meaningless for an audience, it is just a macho thing for a production team. We used to have these discussions: wouldn't it look great if you were standing by the 18th green as Nick Faldo putted out and you would say "No, that would get in the way of everybody's enjoyment of the event".^[2]

He has twice won the Royal Television Society's 'Sports Presenter of the Year' award, including in 1994, and has won two BAFTA awards.^[2] His defection to ITV is one of the most high profile from BBC Sport since Des Lynam.

He lives in Berkshire and is married with two children. He supports Charlton Athletic F.C.^[1]