Eurosport Extends Partnership for World Snooker Events

PARIS/NEW YORK: Eurosport has renewed its long-term partnership with World Snooker and IMG Media for an additional five seasons of tournament coverage.

The new agreement, extending through the 2015-16 season, increases Eurosport’s snooker offering from 10 to 19 tournaments per season. This includes the World Championship, which will be shown to more than 125 million homes in Europe. Eurosport picked up the exclusive TV and digital rights to broadcast live coverage of the events on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, as well as on the Eurosport Player online TV service and mobile app. The deal spans Eurosport’s reach of 59 countries, excluding the U.K.

Barry Hearn, World Snooker chairman, said: "IMG has negotiated a fantastic deal for snooker and gives further momentum to the growth of the sport throughout Europe and beyond. We have established new events in the continent, including the German Masters ranking event and the European PTC tournaments, and we’re delighted that all of these will be screened by Eurosport. The spread of snooker in the region has been phenomenal in recent years and this is a key part of our continued efforts to make it a global sport."

Hearn added: "Revenues from our international broadcast agreements are becoming significantly more relevant for our business and the sport as a whole. Expanding these revenue streams will help us to create new events with more prize money for the players."

Julien Bergeaud, the director of programs and broadcasting at the Eurosport Group, remarked: "Snooker performs well in all European markets and achieves audience peaks equivalent to the greatest sporting events. For instance we drew 50 million different viewers for the 2011 World Snooker Championship. Our exclusive partnership with IMG Media and World Snooker confirms the status of Eurosport as the reference for snooker in Europe."