Ssb - itv4 to show world open

[ferret]

The World Open will be broadcast by ITV4 in the UK, ITV's first ranking event snooker since the 1993 British Open.

In the intervening 20 years ITV has shown various invitation tournaments and, more recently, Power Snooker. But by broadcasting a full ranking event they are making a much greater commitment.


The World Open, which will still be broadcast by Eurosport, starts on February 25. ITV's commentary team comprises Clive Everton, Neal Foulds and Peter Drury.


ITV broadcast many hours of snooker during the boom years of the 1980s and achieved huge ratings but they eventually ran into serious scheduling problems. Their portfolio gradually shrunk from four tournaments to two and then none at all.


But ITV4 already screens a range of sport, from football to cricket, tennis and darts. Snooker is a welcome addition to the line-up.


It would be safe to assume that, if all goes well, ITV will look to show even more in the future.


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[DeanH]

very good news
it will be good to hear Clive Everton on main-stream TV

[Neil Taperell]

The Dream Team commentating . Foulds and Everton . Excellent pairing in my opinion .

[Vic Flange]

Good news.
The more snooker taken away from the BBC the better.

[JeeSe]

This is good news.
Though I can not agree with the comment above. The BBC have online and red button coverage, when a match over runs or something else is on. ITV wont have that ability.
However Clive Everton more than makes up for that, the BBC got rid of the worlds best snooker commentator and it is good to see ITV will be using his services!

[SouthPaw]

Looking forward to seeing how their setup gets on compared to the BBC. should be good for the game, well hopefully!

[Vic Flange]

This is good news.
Though I can not agree with the comment above. The BBC have online and red button coverage, when a match over runs or something else is on. ITV wont have that ability.
However Clive Everton more than makes up for that, the BBC got rid of the worlds best snooker commentator and it is good to see ITV will be using his services!

If the BBC cannot commit to showing matches instead of going off air and showing re-runs of Cash In The Attic then the less snooker they have the better.
They have drastically cut back on their Red Button coverage and, as far as I am aware, they will not be showing both tables live from this year's World Championship.
Perhaps if they did not have half a dozen presenters on each programme they may be able to concentrate more on the coverage.

They also very rarely show snooker in HD, unlike Eurosport.

[haggishunter]

Just glad to get another event on terrestrial tv, only concern is getting adverts in the middle of a good break etc but I'm sure it'll be fine. Couldn't care less about hd, overrated depending on what it's used for if you ask me. BBC coverage is ok, viewing times could be better and they really need to can the commentators who basically sit and talk about who they're playing golf at the weekend with and other meaningless b*****ks they come out with.

[sberry]

It's not just the adverts, it's when we get a long evening session going to a deciding frame, just as the players are about to break Clive will have to say "unfortunately we have run out of time and now it's a repeated re-run of World's Wildest Police Chases

[PatBlock]

It's not just the adverts, it's when we get a long evening session going to a deciding frame, just as the players are about to break Clive will have to say "unfortunately we have run out of time and now it's a repeated re-run of World's Wildest Police Chases

It's great news, but I was thinking the same thing myself. Hopefully they'll build some flexibility into the schedule with something they can cancel in case of an overrun. Should be interesting to see how they do, after all these years away from the game.

...ITV's commentary team comprises Clive Everton, Neal Foulds and Peter Drury...

Icing on the cake for me.

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[SouthPaw]

It's not just the adverts, it's when we get a long evening session going to a deciding frame, just as the players are about to break Clive will have to say "unfortunately we have run out of time and now it's a repeated re-run of World's Wildest Police Chases

I doubt as it's not a mainstream channel they'd finish early on something that would attract more viewers than some other rubbish they repeat, though we'll find out soon i guess...

[rdr]

itv, 30 minutes of programme and 30 minutes of adverts per hour.

[cally]

Should be fine, i' looking forward to ITV having it, the bbc don't want snooker so let itv have it all as far as i'm concerned..

Adverts will be after every frame and they will more than likely carry on if over run and not cut short (due to lack of red button etc) i reckon, so all good really....

Fook the beeb the jimmy saville loving so and so's.......

[coomsey76]

That what I like to hear bud..... The glass is always half full, not half empty!!

In all seriousness I think it'll be good as well for ITV to show some snooker, give the BBC a bit of competition and show they them they haven't got soul rights to all the coverage.....

Ok there are going to be adverts, but you never know they might surprise everybody and be to everyone's liking when they stay with the snooker instead of bouncing it for a rerun of some sitcom there've shown a million times!!

[cebs]

I think if/when they show football they don't show an advert during playtime so hopefully they won't during a frame of snooker. Fingers crossed they allow for over-runs as well and like most others very pleased to hear Everton back on tv, i realised while watching the championship streams how much I'd missed him. While I like Hendry/Davis I could do without a few of the others on the BBC team and have they sacked WT for good now as well, if so expect him to turn up on itv before too long.

Good news for freeview only viewers anyway.