The Professional Squash Association is pleased to announce that the BBC has become the latest broadcaster to add Squash coverage to its programming after confirming an agreement to cover next month’s AJ Bell PSA World Squash Championship in Manchester.
The ground-breaking announcement is a further endorsement of the sport’s appeal just days before squash discovers if it will be added to the 2020 Olympic Games programme.
The championship, the premier annual event on the PSA World Tour, will take place at Manchester Central, the city’s former Manchester Central railway station, from 26 October to 3 November – and will feature the world’s leading players from countries including Britain, Egypt, Australia, France, Germany, Colombia, South Africa, Spain, Botswana, Malaysia, Netherlands, Switzerland, India, Finland, Hong Kong, USA and more.
The news means that the BBC joins a broad range of international broadcasters which have covered the elite PSA World Series events since the launch of SquashTV – including Sky Sports, Eurosport, Astro, PCCW, Starhub, SkyNet, Ten Sports, Orbit Showtime Network and One World Sport.
The new agreement will lead to coverage from the quarter-final stage across the BBC Red Button, IPTV and the BBC Sport website. There will also be a highlights programme following the event on BBC Two & BBC Two HD.
The deal ensures that there will be live coverage of quarter final and semi-final action on the BBC Sport website and IPTV. The final will be live on the BBC Red Button, the BBC Sport website and on IPTV. In addition, all the news, updates, reviews and interviews throughout the tournament will be featured on the BBC Sport website.
“In our bid to become an Olympic sport, PSA has been investing heavily in TV coverage of squash through SquashTV and to now have the BBC on board is obviously a major boost,” said PSA CEO Alex Gough.