Sky Sports, the UK pay-TV leader, has reportedly clinched a significant new media rights deal with the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), valued at £125 million ($152 million), following a highly viewed World Championship.
The Telegraph reports that the rights fee will be distributed over a five-year period starting in 2026, ensuring that Sky retains the rights to the annual World Championship—the PDC’s flagship event—as well as the Premier League Darts, Darts World Matchplay, and World Cup of Darts.
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The new deal extends Sky’s partnership with the PDC to 37 years, a relationship that began in the 1993-94 season.
Sky successfully defended its position against competitors to maintain the broadcasting rights to PDC darts, outmaneuvering streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, both of which had expressed interest, attracted by the sport’s robust viewership and its prime scheduling during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The agreement, which will run until the end of 2030, is worth £25 million annually, more than double the £12 million per year the organization currently receives.
The previous extension, a seven-year contract from 2019 to 2025, was valued at £84 million in total. This deal was double the value of the preceding agreement, a five-year contract that ran until 2018, estimated to be worth £30 million in total, or £6 million per year.
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By GlobalDataTable 1: PDC rights cycle and value
| RIGHTS CYCLE | YEARS | TOTAL VALUE (£m) | ANNUAL VALUE (£m) | ANNUAL CHANGE (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 to 2030 | 5 | £125 | £25 | 108% |
| 2019 to 2025 | 7 | £84 | £12 | 100% |
| 2014 to 2018 | 5 | £30 | £6 | - |
Darts has experienced a surge in popularity recently, with millions of fans tuning in to watch the sport’s biggest stars and atmospheric events. Darts now delivers Sky’s second-largest peak audiences, second only to football.
These figures are noteworthy, surpassing other major events such as the British F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone, which attracted an average of 2.2 million viewers for the broadcaster.
The 2024-25 World Championship final, featuring teenage sensation Luke Littler, garnered a high average viewership due to his exceptional performance. The match, which saw Littler defeat the legendary Michael van Gerwen 7-2 at London’s iconic Alexandra Palace, peaked at 3.1 million viewers on Sky Sports.
This number was slightly lower than the 3.7 million record viewers for the 2023-24 final, which witnessed Littler’s defeat to Luke Humphries. Additionally, viewership data indicates that the competition’s initial rounds have also grown in popularity, reflecting the sport’s expanding appeal over recent years.
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