The PDC Hit 180 In New Broadcast Deal Revenues

It has been a big few years for the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) as the sport continues to grow year on year, and although fans of the arrows have lost a few very notable names on the circuit to retirement, this growth has in part been down to the emergence of teenage sensation Luke 'The Nuke' Littler.

With the growing darts market and media coverage, the PDC have taken full advantage of that and have now reportedly agreed a new bumper five year deal with broadcast partner Sky Sports, and the new terms on the contract could be worth at least £125 million for the duration of the agreement. For those darts fans who use the growing popularity of top slot sites during tournaments, they would not mind a similar uplift in the success of their own game play as 2025 continues.

It is suggested that the deal is yet to be fully finalised and signed, but if the principle agreements are all in place the full agreement could well be signed prior to this piece even going to publish. If not, there is no particular rush here as both parties will be legally protected and any new deal would not truly come into force until next December when the 2026 World Darts Championship kicks off at Ally Pally in London anyway.

But if the new deal is agreed in principle then it would effectively double the worth of Sky's existing broadcast arrangement which works out at around £12 million a year and would be a massive boost to the PDC and fans alike.

It is claimed that the new deal would mean more than 60 days of live darts a year and fans from afar would be able to tune in for Premier League Darts, as well as the Grand Slam of Darts and World Matchplay events. Sky have also apparently negotiated for them to have access to an extra four days of television coverage at the World Championship should the PDC, as expected, increase the number of throwers in future tournaments from 96 to 128.

With competition and interest from the streaming services showing significant growth in recent years across a number of sports, it is believed that part of the financial package uplift was owed to strong negotiating from both Netflix and Amazon Prime who wanted to add the Darts rights to their offering, so Sky will have been pleased to have fended that interest off for another cycle as the sport's popularity just looks set to grow and grow even further in the coming years.

Advertorial: Littler's victory in the 2025 World Darts Championship drew a peak audience of 3.1 million, and his run to the 2024 final drew a total audience of 4.8 million and it represented Sky's highest ever broadcast numbers for a non-football event, and they are clearly looking to capitalise on that in the years ahead with a full expectation that those numbers can be beaten in future competitions.

This will undoubtedly also be the aim of the PDC itself, but key to growing future viewing figures will be in attracting new fans who find future value in subscription services, and the PDC are also investigating that route and are hoping to find a free to air partner for other key tournaments such as the UK Open and Players Championship Finals which have previously been carried by ITV.

It is a good time for darts right now, and it shows no signs of slowing day