BBC Sport and World Snooker Tour have agreed an extension to their broadcast agreement to 2032, keeping the Triple Crown on Freeview for the next seven years.
- Five year extension to the current arrangement.
- BBC Sport will continue to provide live coverage on free-to-air TV and on iPlayer.
BBC Sport will continue to provide live TV and iPlayer coverage of Snooker’s three biggest tournaments – the World Championship, UK Championship and the Masters – following the extension of a broadcast deal until 2032.
It follows a change in the way the BBC covered the 2025 Masters, with more live coverage on its main channels than before. Following the introduction of live snooker on BBC Four for other snooker tournaments, for the first time evening sessions of the Masters were screened on the channel. Until January 2024, the BBC relegated evening coverage of the Masters to the BBC Red Button channel (BBC RB1).
The next event covered by the broadcast deal is the World Championship in Sheffield in April, followed by the UK Championship in York in November.
The broadcast deal extension locking out pay TV providers until 2032 follows strong viewing and streaming figures in 2024, with up to 16 million viewers tuning in at some point during last year’s coverage of the Triple Crown events. The BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website received over 33 million stream requests, although as this may include viewers making multiple stream requests, it’s not directly comparable to regular broadcast audience figures.
The BBC has been covering live snooker since the 1960s.
Corporate comments
Alex Kay-Jelski, Director of BBC Sport, commented:
“Snooker has been a cornerstone of BBC Sport programming since 1969, and extending our partnership with World Snooker until 2032 is fantastic news for the audience. It ensures the drama, intensity and excitement of the Triple Crown events remains free-to-air and we look forward to many more years of iconic sporting moments.”
WST Chairman, Steve Dawson, said:
“For more than 50 years we have had an outstanding relationship with BBC and their coverage of the Triple Crown is a fundamental part of those three events. So many millions of fans love watching snooker on BBC and it has always been vital to us to keep the biggest tournaments free to air.”
WST Chief Commercial, Peter Wright, added:
“The broadcast figures are extremely strong this week at the Masters which highlights the enduring appeal of snooker and the drama it produces year after year. We look forward to many more years working alongside the BBC, delivering world class sport to a vast audience.”
RXTV staff | Image: BBC