BBC Worldwide, Eurosport Sign Deal for Darts Coverage

LONDON, January 5: BBC
Worldwide has struck a three-year deal with Eurosport for the annual World
Professional Darts Championship to air on both its European and pan-Asian
channels.

Eurosport will broadcast
the championship across Europe, excluding the U.K. and Ireland, as well as
across Asia, excluding Japan and China. Eurosport has broadcast coverage of the
event for the past three years on its pan-European channel, and now holds
rights until 2011.

Richard Hornsby-Smith, the
sales manager for sport at BBC Worldwide, said: "I am delighted that we
have reached an agreement with Eurosport. Over the last three years they have
been broadcasting the World Professional Darts Championship across Europe but
this is the first time that the event will also be shown across most parts of
Asia too. This deal demonstrates the universal appeal of darts as a sport which
will now be viewed in more than 100 countries."

The nine-day competition
kicked off on January 3.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski