EUROSPORT SET TO DOUBLE SNOOKER COVERAGE

Eurosport, the pan-European sports broadcaster, will almost double its coverage of annual snooker tournaments after signing a new rights deal with World Snooker, the sport's commercial arm, which runs until 2016.

The deal, brokered by IMG Media, the media arm of the international sports and entertainment company that distributes the worldwide media rights of all coverage and highlights (excluding domestic deals) for World Snooker events, will entail Eurosport showing 19 tournaments each season, up from 10 under the present deal.

Eurosport, which has broadcast snooker since 2003, has acquired exclusive television and digital rights to broadcast the 19 tournaments live on its Eurosport and Eurosport 2 channels, as well as on the Eurosport Player web TV service and mobile application.

This season Eurosport and Eurosport 2 will broadcast all world ranking events as well as the Wuxi Classic, which begins in China today, the relaunched World Cup in Thailand, which starts on July 11, the inaugural Brazilian Masters in September and, for the first time, six of the Players Tour Championship events held in Europe.

Barry Hearn, chairman of World Snooker said: "IMG has negotiated a fantastic deal for snooker and gives further momentum to the growth of the sport throughout Europe and beyond."

He continued: "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.

"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, director of programmes and broadcasting, Eurosport Group, said: "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."

The Eurosport deal does not include coverage in the UK of the Masters, UK Championship and World Championship, three of the sport's top events, the rights to which are owned by the BBC, the country's public service broadcaster, or the Welsh Open, aired on BBC Wales.

World Snooker also said it had refused to guarantee Eurosport exclusive coverage in the UK of the World Open, a world ranking event formerly known as the Grand Prix.

Hearn is still working on a new home for the World Open, with Australia, China or the Middle East all cited as possible venues, but the BBC will not show the event when it returns to the calendar after failing to agree terms back in January.

Meanwhile, Eurosport’s multimedia platform has been declared number one in Europe in the 2011 EMS Summer Survey.

The biannual survey found that Eurosport’s combined platform reach across TV, online and mobile out-stripped nearest rival MTV by 28 percent among the EMS target demographics. It cited "strong performances in Eastern Europe, premium sports rights and a successful digital strategy" as the reasons for success.

According to the report, Eurosport's flagship TV channel ranked as the top pan-European television channel for the 16th consecutive year, while Eurosport 2 registered a 25 per cent gain on 2010 in weekly reach, largely thanks to properties such as the Bundesliga, Germany's top soccer league, with Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic gaining 31 per cent, 26 per cent and 21 per cent in reach, respectively, year-on-year.

Eurosport 2 exclusively broadcasts the Bundesliga to 23 territories in a deal that runs through to 2015.

Eurosport.com, available in 11 language versions, increased its online reach by 8.5 per cent on 2010. That performance was mirrored on smartphones and tablets, where the Eurosport app was used by an average of 2.2 million Europeans visiting every month, a 13 per cent increase on 2010.