“After 17 years it’s the end of the road” – ITV Sport set for emotional final day of PDC coverage at the 2025 Players Championship Finals

If you’re watching the quarter-finals, semis and final in Minehead this Sunday, take a moment. Because when the last dart hits the board, an era ends. After 17 years of steady, smart and fiercely reliable coverage, ITV Sport bows out of PDC darts for the final time.

No more Jacqui Oatley steering the big nights. No more expert analysis from the likes of Chris Mason and Alan Warriner-Little, and no more uniquely ITV commentary from specialists such as Ned Boulting and John Rawling.

This is it. Curtain call. And make no mistake: everyone in the ITV team will be feeling the emotion of it today.

From next year, the whole ITV darts package gets absorbed into Matchroom’s production machine. That means The Masters, the UK Open, the European Championship, the Players Championship Finals, all the usual ITV staples – they’re no longer produced by ITV Sport’s team, even if some events remain free-to-air. In simple terms: the darts continues, but the ITV way of doing darts doesn’t.

Matchroom will run the show across the tournaments previously handled by ITV, just as they already do for a range of multi-sport broadcasts. Some tournaments will stay on familiar broadcasters like Sky and PDC.tv, but the events traditionally associated with ITV coverage enter a brand new era.

The emotional tone of the final day was set early. Stuart Pyke – whose voice has been part of ITV darts for almost two decades – put it bluntly on X: “A sad day… after 17 years it’s the end of the road for ITV Sport on the darts… hopefully going out with a bang at the Players Championship Finals.”

Jacqui Oatley, one of the most respected broadcasters on ITV Sport and regular face of the channel's darting coverage, had previously added her own note as she headed to Minehead at the start of the weekend: “En route to Minehead for my final darts tournament with ITV Sport… It’s been an incredible 10+ years… So we’re going to make the most of it and go out with a bang.”

For all the noise about digital transformation, ITV carved out a unique lane in the darts landscape. They struck the balance between fun and serious. Their shows were tidy, professional and didn’t insult the intelligence of darts fans.

They delivered the defining early-career moments of Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and plenty more. They built a presenting and punditry team that always added something, rather than just filled air time.

So when the Players Championship Finals reaches its climax on Sunday evening, enjoy the darts – but stay for the sign-off. You’ll be watching a team doing what they do best for the very last time.

ITV’s final broadcast won’t be flashy. It won’t be melodramatic. It’ll be professional, precise and deeply human. In other words: it’ll be ITV darts. For one last time.