BDO World Darts Championship

The tournament was broadcast in the UK by BBC Sport on television for nearly 40 years, from its inception in 1978 until the decision was made to drop the coverage after the 2016 tournament. The BBC's coverage had been fronted by David Vine (1978), Peter Purves (1979–1983), Tony Gubba (1984–1990), Eamonn Holmes (1991–1992), Dougie Donnelly (1993–1998), John Inverdale (2000) and Ray Stubbs (1999 and 2001–2009). Twice world finalist Bobby George was a pundit on the BBC's coverage from 1998. Colin Murray succeeded Stubbs as presenter from 2010–2016, as Stubbs had left the BBC at that time. Murray was assisted by Rob Walker, who is more well known as the MC for the BBC's snooker coverage.

Tony Green was the longest-serving member of the BBC commentary team covering every event from the first championship in 1978 until the end of BBC's coverage in 2016. As BBC shared coverage and commentators from 2012 until 2016, Green was also heard on ESPN and BT Sport in later years. He only missed the event once during his 38-year career due to illness in 2011 and he was replaced by BBC Radio 5 Live's Vassos Alexander. Alexander then stayed in the commentary box in every year until 2016.

The rest of the commentary team changed over the years with David Vine (1978), Sid Waddell (1978–1994), 1994 BDO world champion John Part (1995–2007) and David Croft who covered the tournament for 10 years on BBC TV and Radio as previous broadcasters until 2012 when he moved to Sky to cover F1. He was replaced by Jim Proudfoot of talkSPORT in 2013, who went on to cover the tournament in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 with different broadcasters. John Rawling began commentating in 2014 with BBC/BT and was still part of the commentary team as coverage switched to Eurosport/Quest in 2019. The rest of the commentary team has included BDO players Bobby George, Martin Adams, Trina Gulliver, Tony O'Shea and Scott Mitchell some of whom join the commentary team if or when they are knocked out the tournament as players in various years.

For several years between 1989 and 2001, the Championship was often the only tournament shown on terrestrial television in the UK, although the BBC covered the Unipart European Masters in 1995 and ITV covered four WDC UK Matchplay tournaments from 1993–1996 on quadro dart boards, as well as the 'Clash of the Titans' one-off encounter between the two world champions, Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld, in 1999.

It was not until 2005 that viewers were able to see every dart live at the World Championship, when the BBC introduced interactive coverage on its BBC Red Button service.[8] From 2012, they began to reduce their coverage as they surrendered their exclusive coverage for the first time in the UK. ESPN took over the live broadcasting of the evening sessions,[9] although the BBC held on to exclusively live coverage of the final.

BBC regained exclusive coverage for the 2014 tournament, but resumed a shared broadcasting agreement to cover the 2015 and 2016 events with BT who would cover every evening session in the tournament. John Rawling, Vassos Alexander, Tony Green and George Riley provided the commentary for both broadcasters in 2015 and 2016 - Jim Proudfoot was an additional commentator in 2015.

The BBC contract expired after the 2016 final and they opted to drop the tournament, instead covering a new PDC tournament: The Champions League of Darts in September 2016. The rights from 2017 were taken up by Channel 4.[10]

After being broadcast exclusively on the BBC in the UK for 34 years, ESPN began sharing coverage of the tournament in 2012. Ray Stubbs was confirmed as their host, returning to the Lakeside as a broadcaster, over two years after leaving the BBC.[11] ESPN host Nat Coombs was also part of the presentation team. Both broadcasters used the same commentary team – Tony Green, David Croft and Vassos Alexander for 2012 and Jim Proudfoot replacing Croft for 2013.[11] ESPN broadcast the evening sessions from the opening day until the quarter finals, as well as the second semi-final live. ESPN showed recorded highlights of the final.[11] Following the launch of BT Sport, which acquired all of ESPN's sporting rights, coverage was dropped from ESPN and the entire 2014 Championships was shown exclusively live by the BBC.

BT Sport covered the event between 2015 and 2018, first of all sharing broadcasting arrangements with the BBC in 2015 and 2016, then with Channel 4 in 2017 and 2018. They had exclusive live coverage of the all the evening sessions, plus the second semi-final across their four years broadcasting the event. BT broadcast the final live in all four years of the coverage, although it was shared live coverage with their broadcast partners (BBC 2015-2016 and Channel 4 2017-2018)

BT's welcomed back Ray Stubbs as main host, who returned to Lakeside coverage having fronted the BBC's coverage in 1999 and from 2001–2009 and also for ESPN (2012-2013). Stubbs hosted alongside 2-time champion Ted Hankey who returned to the BDO in 2014 but just missed out on a qualifying spot for Lakeside 2015. Roving reporters were Helen Skelton in 2015 and Reshmin Chowdhury in 2016. Commentators were shared by broadcasters during BT's four year coverage. John Rawling and Vassos Alexander broadcast commentary throughout BT's four-year coverage, Jim Proudfoot covered the event in 2015, 2017 and 2018. George Riley and Tony Green covered the event in 2015 and 2016, with Green retiring after the 2016, the year in which BBC ended their coverage.

Ray Stubbs moved to Talksport 2 and was replaced by Matt Smith for the 2017 and 2018 events, with Chris Mason acting as their analyst.

Channel 4 signed a two-year deal to cover the 2017 and 2018 championships, sharing the event with BT Sport. Their coverage was presented by Rob Walker, who previously worked for the BBC as a presenter and reporter at the Lakeside from 2010–2016 alongside PDC professional Paul Nicholson and BDO Ladies' player Deta Hedman. Bobby George presented features, staying involved in the coverage which he had fronted on the BBC since 2000. Commentary was provided again from Jim Proudfoot, John Rawling & Vassos Alexander. Proudfoot returned after missing 2016 because of other commitments. Tony Green had retired after the 2016 championship and therefore didn't make the move to Channel 4. Thus Green's commentary career stretched across the whole of BBC's 38-year span covering the event between 1978 and 2016, with the only exception of the 2011 championship which he missed due to illness.

Prior to the 2019 championship, the BDO secured a new 3-year deal with Eurosport with coverage being shown on both the broadcasters main subscription channel and free-to-air on Quest.[12] As with the previous years the afternoon sessions were shown free to air with Quest simulcasting Eurosport coverage with highlights of the evening sessions also being shown on Quest. Eurosport cover every session with both broadcasters showing the final live. The coverage was presented by Nat Coombs with Georgie Bingham also reporting on the event. Punditry and commentary for the tournament were provided by John Rawling, Chris Mason, Paul Nicholson, Martin Adams and Tony O'Shea.

International coverage of the event has grown through the years. Dutch television station SBS6 broadcast the event since 1998, as Dutch players have become more prominent in the world game. SBS6's contract to cover the event ran until 2008.[13]

UK viewing figures for World Championship final data provided by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board UK.

2019 372,200

2015 2,000,000 [14]

2014 3,500,000 [15][16]

2013 2,100,000

2012 2,370,000

2011 2,330,000

2010 3,100,000

2009 1,830,000

2008 3,010,000

2007 3,300,000

2006 3,620,000

2005 2,550,000

2004 3,410,000

2003 2,810,000

2002 2,460,000

2001 3,680,000

2000 3,700,000

1999 4,060,000