Channel 4 has screened plenty of elite sport since launching in 1982. Test cricket, the Tour de France, the Paralympics and even, for those with long memories, Masters golf in the mid-80s.
Traditionally regarded as the most progressive and forward-thinking terrestrial TV channel, on Saturday a new string will be added to its sporting bow: the Boat Races, part of the English calendar since 1829. The plan is for an old event, famously and often controversially contested by Oxford and Cambridge universities, to acquire a new look.
