Eamonn Andrews was the first host and the programme itself was "compiled for Independent Television" by ABC Weekend TV from its Teddington Studios, with the other ITV stations contributing footage of events in their regions.
From the summer of 1968, after ABC lost its franchise, it was produced by London Weekend Television (LWT) under the ITV Sport banner and hosted by Dickie Davies, who would remain the face of the show until it ended in 1985.
STV and Grampian sometimes opted out and showed their own version, billed as Scotsport Special which was presented by Arthur Montford from the STV studios in Glasgow, Scotsport Special did include some live coverage from England of events which were often not shown in their entirety due to the regional sporting events taking place in Scotland.
Most of the show was focussed around three popular segments – On the Ball (a preview of the day's football action), the ITV Seven (horse racing), and wrestling with commentator Kent Walton - alongside a results section to close the programme.
Two sports in particular, ten-pin bowling and kart racing, benefited from television exposure to a British public hitherto unaware of them.
Whilst the majority of ten-pin bowling shown from 1965 onwards focused on regional league competitions in the UK, a surge in popularity in the sport in the UK in the mid-1970s led to footage from the biennial WTBA World Championship, and telecasts from the US Professional Bowlers Tour, being included increasingly in later years (Mark Roth becoming the first bowler to convert a 7 – 10 split on television on 5 January 1980 at the ARC Alameda Open in Alameda, California, was possibly the best-remembered of the US telecasts shown on the programme).
The programme did occasionally acquire the rights to major sporting events, such as the Tour de France and the Ryder Cup and each year, the FA Cup Final featured on World of Sport, with the BBC and ITV often competing for viewers by broadcasting unusual features with early starts to their broadcasts to entice viewers to watch their coverage.
Before this there was another intro with a clay pigeon shooter which shot a clay pigeon with the then ITV Sport "S" logo which when hit would zoom in ITV Presents The long running theme "World of Sport March", used between 1968 and 1983, was composed by Don Harper; a re-recorded version of the tune was introduced in the early 1980s accompanied by a new title sequence opening with a view of the Earth eclipsing the sun.
The advent of computer-generated imagery saw a new opening title sequence appear in 1983 together with a more contemporary theme tune composed by Jeff Wayne, this lasted until the series ended in 1985.
After the lunchtime ITN News summary, previous On the Ball hosts Ian St. John and Jimmy Greaves got their own stand-alone programme, Saint and Greavsie.
It enjoyed a successful run that ended in 1992 when Sky Sports gained exclusive rights to broadcast English top-flight football.
The football results continued to feature on ITV until 2003 as part of the Saturday ITN Early Evening News bulletin.
On 17 October 2016, ITV announced that they would be bringing back professional wrestling, arguably World of Sport's most popular segment.
[5] On 4 May 2017 ITV and Impact Wrestling announced that the tapings scheduled for 25 and 26 May at Preston Guild Hall had been postponed indefinitely due to prolonged contract negotiations.