Potential shake-up of snooker coverage as Channel 5 tipped to take over ITV events in big television shuffle

The "free-to-air" terrestrial station recently showed five days live coverage of the 2025 World Seniors Snooker Championship - which was won by Alfie Burden - across its main and 5Action channels.

This was the second consecutive year that Channel 5 had broadcast the Crucible-based Championship; the station has also shown several '900' tournaments from the World Seniors Snooker Tour over the past 18 months, and it appears the success of these has encouraged them in wanting more baize action to add to their growing portfolio of live sporting events.

It was recently announced that Matchroom will bring ‘in-house’ the production of many of its organised sporting events from 2026, and that change could shake the pot in terms of where snooker will be shown in the future.

Following rumours on social media and an article on City AM, it appears that Channel 5 are set to secure the rights of several - or all - of the snooker events that ITV Sport currently hold.

5 recently penned a sublicensing deal with DAZN that has given them access to coverage of the upcoming Club World Cup football over the summer.

ITV regularly broadcast snooker in the 1980s and early 90s, but its relationship with the sport cooled, before ending in the early 2000s, coinciding with a time when the professional circuit was struggling and shrinking due to the effects of the ban on tobacco sponsorship which helped fund many of its big events.

However, following the takeover of the professional game by Barry Hearn in 2009 and the reinvigoration of the top flight with a plethora of new and exciting events, ITV reengaged with snooker, and only two seasons ago showed live coverage of six tournaments from the World Snooker Tour - World Mixed Doubles, British Open, Champion of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship, Tour Championship.

Last season, the World Mixed Doubles was dropped from the circuit, while the World Grand Prix headed out to a new home in Hong Kong, perhaps making the event prohibitive for ITV to be involved with. Whether the World Grand Prix move has anything to do with alleged switch is not publicly known.

It is understood that ITV Sport's contract agreement with the World Snooker Tour concludes at the end of this calendar year, meaning the next editions of the British Open and Champion of Champions are still set to be shown on the channel.

However, in the second half of the season going into 2026, it has been tipped that both the Players Championship and Tour Championship events are going to Channel 5.

There are similar rumours developing in the darts world, with Channel 5 apparently set to buy the rights for ITV Sport’s current roster of PDC events that includes the UK Open and the European Championship.

The landscape of television snooker coverage in the UK is going through change, with the sport still being a very hot property for broadcasters. Earlier this year, long-term snooker supporters the BBC announced that it signed a contract extension with the World Snooker Tour to show all three Triple Crown events until 2032.

Several weeks ago, Eurosport in the UK ceased to be, with its portfolio of snooker coverage switching over to TNT Sports in a move that has upset many fans due to increased cost implications.

With the 10-year Home Nations Series contract with Eurosport up at the end of the upcoming 2025/26 season, it will be interesting to see if that block of events will continue.

Away from the television cameras, last season, World Snooker Tour launched its online WST Play service.

The general consensus is that fans really enjoy the snooker coverage that ITV provides, and there was no real signs of the station not continuing its relationship with the sport. However, if more snooker was made available on terrestrial TV in the UK, it could help reach new audiences and have a positive impact on the sport.

Totally Snookered will keep you updated with any developments on the situation.