The new five-year broadcast deal with Eurosport, announced today, is another important step towards making snooker a truly global sport.
There will be people reading this now who, but for Eurosport, would never have heard of snooker, let alone actually seen the game.
As an agent for the popularisation of snooker across Europe, the channel has been just as significant as the BBC was in the UK in the 1970s and 80s.
For instance, the success of the German Masters came off the back of the interest built up by screening tournaments regularly for the last few years.
Eurosport is available in 125 million homes in 59 countries and snooker is one of its most popular sports. It rates particularly well in Eastern Europe
The new contract will include not just the established tournaments but new ones as well plus coverage of all six EPTCs.
Put simply: there will be more snooker on TV this season than there has ever been.
The Eurosport deal increases the amount of tournaments the channel broadcasts from ten to 19.
Years ago, the only way to find out results from tournaments played in places like China was to check Ceefax or get the next day’s newspapers. Now, they are shown live.
There could be as many as 100 days of snooker broadcast by Eurosport in the next year.
The best way to promote the sport is to have people able to watch it. It’s going to be hard to avoid during the next few seasons.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteSounds like music to my ears to be perfectly honest...the more snooker on TV, the better!
Cheers,
Jurgen.
brilliant news!
ReplyDeletenow all we need are a couple of new commentators to support the good ones we have in David H and Neil F.
Fantastic news. 19 tournaments in 59 countries will ensure a new generation of snooker fans worldwide. This can only lead to further success as other countries and TV channels will want a piece of the action.
ReplyDeleteSuccess begets success, and as the centre of the snooker world creeps away from the UK, more clubs, more players and more prizemoney will feed the tour with players from all parts of the world.
liang wenbo has got a crazy pinky
ReplyDeletedid ronnie not get asked to go?
ReplyDeleteIs EuroSport a major channel in any country?
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to get an idea of how big the ratings were.
Are we talking in the millions?
Over here it's a minority channel, but wondered if this was different in continental Europe?
Players are invited based on their world ranking and if players turn it down they keep going off the ranking list until the field is full
ReplyDeleteFrom the World Snooker press release: "Last season over 500 hours of snooker were broadcast on Eurosport, reaching 96 million different viewers, and these figures are set to increase."
ReplyDeleteObviously these 96 million weren't all watching at once but it's still a lot of people.
its amazing how many uk viewers see eurosport as small fish.
ReplyDeletealmost as amazing as listening to joe johnson go 5 minutes without making a mistake.
I realise I'm (very) biased but I've genuinely never heard Joe say anything nasty about anyone - on or off air
ReplyDeleteRemember he's a former world champion and knows the game inside out
David
ReplyDeletei am not being nasty at all.
You and Neil are very good.
i realise everyone has favourites.
the two who did this mornings match regularly make loads of errors.
i dont think its nasty pointing that out.
no, i am not saying its easy to sit in an office and pretend to be over there and to get every call right, but compared to bbc presenters, you or neil, or even what id call before the shots are played, those two get it wrong far more than anyone else ive ever listed to. no harm meant
Great news but I still wish ITV4 would show some.
ReplyDeleteI remember the old Eurosport from the very first years with their snooker coverage. That was the first time in my life I ever saw snooker and I slowly figured out all the rules. It became my favorite sport but then it closed down (1991?)and snooker was no longer available to me.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, Eurosport returned and saved me from my snooker-starved existence.
Thanks Eurosport.
Congratulations too the team at eurosport .This puts eurosport on a par with the BBC as far as I,m concerned and another confidence boost for the snooker revolution ignited by o sullivans criticism of the governing body.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this will force us to re-evaluate Rodney Walker. Having the foresight to sell the broadcasting rights to Europsort and moving into China, could he well be remembered as Snooker's most visionary chairman?
ReplyDeleteIf 96 million people tuned into watch snooker at some point, plus the 5/6 million you can still draw in the UK on the BBC, along with the 30 million in China (i.e. the real figure, not Dennis Taylor's made up 100 million), then that puts snooker's global audience at well over 130 million. Wills and Kate only got 30 million more viewers and that was considered a TV sensation!
betty
ReplyDeleteRodney Walker only good thing was that BUT he rested on his laurels where was the German Masters where was the events in europe ??
he had to move quicker than that you did not need vision to go with eurosport. it was there staring him in the face but he was the chairman at the time it was signed but apart from that it was a complete waste of time his whole regime.
betsy, you cant add in bbc as most who get that get ES too. im often watching both (sometimes different matches)
ReplyDeleteGreat news snooker needs eurosport as much as it did with the BBC(and still does in the UK)
ReplyDeleteI believe I'm right in saying that the first person to get snooker on Eurosport was Barry Hearn
ReplyDeleteGreat news.i make it 7 ranking tournament announced so far,6 european ptc events and the tour finals, wuxi classic, world cup,brazilian masters and the masters that makes 18.what is the event i am missing dave can you fill us in ? Cheers.
ReplyDeletewho was the person responsible for getting the first professional snooker on the web?
ReplyDeletewell indeed 1991 Mita World Masters was the first major snooker event on eurosport long before Rodney Walker got involved.
ReplyDeleteDave- This was not an attack on EuroSport but just curious as to what level the channel is at.
ReplyDeleteStill think press releases should give a country by country breakdown, as a little misleading to give a total audience.
It is a minority channel here as it does not command huge audiences that would suggest otherwise.
The only major broadcasters here are BBC, Sky, ITV and arguably Channel 4.
Currently residing in Sutton Coldfield College talking snooker with the disability snooker star Daniel Blunn, who is a student here.
He holds a subscription to Snooker Scene magazine, and had particular high praise for the new series of classic match features that began this month.
Obviously everyone who has access to Eurosport in Britain will have BBC access, but I pretty much doubt most of the BBC viewers have access to Eurosport—10% tops I would say, so I doubt there is much overlap between the figures
ReplyDeleteAnd Wild, there was a German Masters in the 1990s but it didn't take. The current German Masters is clearly built on the popularity cultivated by Eurosport, so in all likelihood a German event 5 years ago would have befallen the same fate as the 1990s event. You can't put the cart before the horse.
It might be fashionable to hate on Sir Rodders, but I think it's beyond doubt he made some pretty good decisions over the last decade. Barry Hearn has got off to a very good start but we're still in the honeymoon period, so let's hope he's just as good as Sir Rodney in the long run.
Sir Rodney Walker presided over a culture of cronyism and failed to properly restructure the governing body, leaving it in the hands of apathetic players.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there was no evidence whatsoever he had any genuine affection for snooker. Hearn has done more for the sport in a year than he would have managed in 20.
Well said Dave.
ReplyDeletehow can he do more in a year than he would have in 20 years?
ReplyDelete@jamie brannon Example Eurosport in Germany: If you interested in "minor sports" (as snooker) Eurosport is very important. You have ARD and ZDF with a lot of hours of football, winter sports, ECH and WCH of various sports and reports of other sports (no snooker of course). Formula 1 is broadcasted by RTL. And there is Sport 1 with football, poker/darts, MotoGP, some ice hockey and hours of Teleshopping, call-in-quizshows and so called "SportClips" after midnight... (No snooker of course, but they have/had the "German licence" of the Premier League.) I think this shows the importance of Eurosport. And: the final of the snooker world championships has up to 1 million viewers.
ReplyDeleteBetty "It might be fashionable to hate on Sir Rodders, but I think it's beyond doubt he made some pretty good decisions over the last decade"
ReplyDeleteLike what???
Wild
ReplyDeletethe world masters wasnt on eurosport. It was on sky. Hearn put the league on Eurosport first.
betty
ReplyDeletelets be honest the cart would still be there waiting while the horse bolted.
thing is while eurosport was broadcasting snooker for the masses around continental europe what did Rodney Walker do go to Bahrain ??? i cant see any logic in that.
surely first move was to put something on for european people.
Betsy, surely you are having a laugh? Sir Rodney Walker and his cabal of reprobates were to snooker what piles are to Frankie Dettori.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can suggest is keep taking the tablets but halve the dose.
I never liked Sir Rodney but before we blame everything on him lets not forget that he turned world snooker from a £3 million loss per year to £1.3 million profit in his first year. He made the necessary cuts to keep Snooker alive in 2003.
ReplyDeleteHere is where he went wrong:
-Kept the game to the purist, didnt go with the flow of the markets.
-Did not separate WPBSA from WS, players only fought for their interest.
-Didn't make a Minor ranking series even when he had the 'Pro Challenge Series' which could have ran minor rankings
- Poor old sod thought 6-red was the future.
-Did not realise there was a boom in Germany and Eastern Europe
-Eventually did not realise the world of snooker was burning down around him
All in all was slightly narrow sighted and didnt have the right contacts.
"Also, there was no evidence whatsoever he had any genuine affection for snooker."
ReplyDeleteI second that. How I hated those empty seats in the first row which Sir Rodney and his crowd only claimed for the last session. An then seeing him almost falling asleep...
I'm a tad surprised to see Britons apparently not seeing further than the Isles still.
ReplyDeleteOn continental Europe, ES is quite big indeed. IMHO, this is mainly down to the fact that it's for free...well most of it is anways (apart from ES player but that's internet-based).
Claiming ES is small is like claiming WDR is small as well. For those who don't know...WDR is a German broadcaster. The fact that it's a national broadcasting company, rather than an international one, doesn't mean it doesn't attract huge audiences/viewing figures.
As the first poster mentioned already...the more snooker, the better. People who don't fancy watching it can still decide to tune in to ITV, BBC, or anything else :)
Trevor:
ReplyDeleteWorld Championship, UK Championship, Shanghai Masters, China Open, German Masters, Australian Open, Welsh Open, World Open, Masters, Brazilian Masters, Wuxi Classic, World Cup, PTC Grand Finals + 6 EPTCs = 19 tournaments
The world open is back so.dave whats happened to the 9th ranking event still in the TBA stage,are world snooker still trying to organise this or is it not going ahead ?.also if eurosport are able to show the european ptc's why cant the show the one's played in sheffield and gloucester?.
ReplyDeleteWild
ReplyDeletethe world masters wasnt on eurosport. It was on sky. Hearn put the league on Eurosport first.
____________________________________
it was on Eurosport before SKY Sports was even launched as Sky Sports..
Rodney Walker was making the game stagnant, although I'm sure Dave once said he did at least one positive thing! Which was better than Clive's zero!
ReplyDeleteHave to say when it was under the previous regime I still enjoyed the sport, but now there is an even greater buzz of excitement and no trepidation about it's future.
If EuroSport is a major channel in other countries then I am not challenging the opinion as I don't have foggiest, other than it's level in the UK, which is a niche channel, and there is nothing wrong with that.
It does look, however, that ITV were not enticed to come into the snooker fold permanently after the failings of Power snooker. I think they have made a hasty judgement on the basis of an extremely bastardised format of the game.
for once jamie i am going to say, good post!
ReplyDeletei dont think ES in uk is a niche channel, but the rest of your post was fairly good (and i regularly pick the bones of yours)
Still waiting for Betsy to reply?
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, it was probably the wrong word. It is a minority channel, it never gets a million viewers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clearing that up dave appreciate it..
ReplyDeleteAny idea what Eurosport has paid for this deal?
ReplyDelete614
ReplyDeletethey paid jamies pocket money and thats why hes having a go at them
431
betsy is my name for betty. think up your own name for him
Sir Rodders always kept the 147 prize money.
ReplyDeleteWhy cant eurosport show the english based ptc events, now that they are showing the euro events,.is it a venue thing ?.
ReplyDeleteWhat ruins the Eurosport coverage here in the UK is the regular sparse weekend coverage (eg no coverage at all of Wuxi sf2-Ding v Selby and only brief highlights of World Cup SF/Final day). We know Eurosport has many sports to show at the weekend and snooker has low priority, but why can't they show all that we missed on a later "slack" day? True snooker lovers won't mind old events.
ReplyDeleteAlso, leave Joe Johnson alone. I have been watching snooker over 40 years and for me he knows more about how to play the game than any other commentator.
A great champion and snooker royalty.
While the Eurosport deal is great news for snooker, it may also be time for the channel to upgrade the quality of their coverage.
ReplyDeleteThey need somebody to present and analyse matches and also need to show finals live.
I know it has to compete with other sports but showing an entire tournament and missing the final session of the final suggests that ES are using snooker as a giant filler when theres nothing else on.
Come on Eurosport. Invest in quality as well as quantity and you will recoup your costs on more advertising.
Just for the record, the last message from me (the allegation against Sir Rodney) was from a fake Betty Logan.
ReplyDeleteWell said kildare cueman i agree.i cant believe euro only showing the first session of the final whats the point when they not showing the climax a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteWho you callin fake Betsy @6.29? You're the fake.
ReplyDeleteHas betty lost her marbles?
ReplyDeleteIs that true euro not showing the final session tomorrow ?. A joke why bother at all then
ReplyDeleteI remember watching the 2003 World Championship on EuroSport which was before Rodney Walker came in. In face didn't be the host broadcaster for the last British Open in 2004 which was just before Walker took over.
ReplyDeleteI am stating i did'nt post the comment at 6:41 PM
ReplyDeleteDave since you work for eurosport.i was wondering,i read on world snooker that the beeb events the big 3 and welsh open are not on the british eurosport deal.i seen your comment about british eurosport maybe sorting a seperate deal to show these events.my question regards the world open it says on world snooker it may not be able to broadcast it on british eurosport,since the beeb dropped this event what is the problem ?. Regards
ReplyDeleteMy assumption would be another UK broadcaster might be showing it
ReplyDeletethere's a lot of confusion regarding the world open but im confident if it wont happen this coming season it will next season.
ReplyDeleteWell according to world snooker it is happening.dave you got any info on a tv deal ?. There are only two possible broadcasters left sky or itv4 imo.
ReplyDelete