BT Sport have announced they will broadcast shared rights of the BDO Darts World Championship alongside the BBC.
The tournament at Lakeside gets underway in January 2015 with BT picking up more than 35 hours of coverage on BT Sport 2. The Lakeside Championship still attracts high figures despite the breakaway PDC Championship on Sky Sports having bigger prize money. Since the Inception of the tournament in 1978 the BBC has shown it every year. In 2012 and 2013 the BBC controversally relinquished some of their rights to share coverage with ESPN. Since BT bought out ESPN last year the 2014 tournament was exclusively back on the BBC again. However many fans where upset that the evening sessions where tucked away behind the red button or online only.
As of early January the 2015 tournament will predominately be on BT Sport, with the BBC showing the Afternoon sessions of the opening weekend, a semi final, Women’s final and shared coverage of the Men’s final. They will offer a highlights progamme. Coverage will likely be fronted once again by Colin Murray and Bobby George. Former BBC and ESPN presenter of the darts Ray Stubbs will front the BT coverage with Helen Skelton reporting. In the BBC/ESPN era both corporations shared commentators. In 2013 and 2014 commentary came from Jim Proudfoot, Vassos Alexander and Tony Green.
On the deal – head of BT Sport Simon Green said: “We are delighted to be showing the BDO World Darts Championships, adding to the fantastic live sport and shows we have on our channels.
“We pride ourselves on offering a wide range of sport, including top-flight football, first-class rugby, motorsport, American sport and much more.”
