How Snooker has changed through the ages on Television

Written by Chris Varney

Snooker can be dated back to the 1960's on the BBC. The first game to the wider publics attention was Pot Black, a one frame shoot-out with the first winner being six-times World Champion Ray Reardon in 1969, the final winner would be Ken Doherty in 2007. The series would also have a spin-off with a Junior version which five-times World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan would win in 1991.
The boom years would not arrive until the 1980's when the game would garner more hours on the BBC and reach a fever pitch high in the 1985 final with 18.5 million watching Dennis Taylor defeat Steve Davis 18-17 in a sensational match which would end on the final black.

The coverage would not always be live with fans having to either wait for the late night highlights package or follow the scores on ceefax (a teletext service you would access via the remote control for you television). A notable year being 1994 when BBC 2 didn't pick up live coverage of the World Championship final second session until 9.50pm. Snooker would be shown on the BBC's former legendary Saturday afternoon show Grandstand (1958 - 2007), often shared with a variety of other sports during the afternoon with the likes of horse racing, formula 1, golf, rugby, football and much more.
To a sports fan this would be heaven but to a snooker fan the wait for more action could be disappointing with snooker sometimes being shown in as little as 15 minute intervals.
Two spin-off shows from Grandstand would also show snooker action, Sunday Grandstand (1981 - 2007) often showing the first session of the final in the afternoon and Sportsnight (1968 - 1997) which would air on Wednesday nights at around 10.20pm either showing highlights or pick up any live action if still continuing. During the week snooker would be covered well during the afternoons but would suffer during the evenings which is prime time television, this still happens to the present day.

But moving into the new millennium things would dramatically change with the BBC introducing a red button service which replaced ceefax and could provide live sports even when the main channel would leave the action; And there's also the BBC Player which allows fans to choose what to watch between two tables and not miss a ball during the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre.
Eurosport would come into snooker during 2003 and would hardly ever leave the live action as sport is only what they show. Sky Sports have been another digital channel which has had its share of snooker over the years, showing ranking events in the 1990's and the successful Premier League which has now finished, Ronnie O'Sullivan would win this event a record ten times. The BBC have snooker along with Eurosport in safe hands, with Eurosport having a contract through to 2026, and for fans of the BBC, well they can look forward to seeing the live action continue through to 2019 after extending their contract.

The BBC also have had the luxury of a star-studded line-up of commentators and pundits over the years. The likes of John Spencer, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Ken Doherty and John Parrott to name a few.
The wealth of knowledge having played the game at the highest level is invaluable to the BBC audience sat at home. Past presenters have included the likes of Dougie Donnelly and the late David Vine - and now they have Hazel Irvine at the helm of the coverage, something she has occupied since 2001 as snooker continues to rock on the BBC.

Eurosport's studio for the coverage of Snooker's Home Nations series

I want to thank my best mate Chris Varney for this feature, he's been following the game for many years now and there's no one better than him to talk about this, it's great to have him along for the Blog.

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