With the success of UK Squash, why aren’t broadcasters snapping up TV rights to show Squash on a UK free-to-air channel?
For years, there has been a surge in broadcasters acquiring television rights for sports. However, with the recent success of Laura Massora (current UK number 1), and the UK Junior Squash Team in Europe, other countries (notably the rise of Chris Binnie), and the triumph of the China Squash Open tournament isn’t about time squash be brought onto a free-to-TV channel?
Photo Credit: Picture by PSA (courtesy of Squash Mad)
Look at the US, they show extensive coverage of their sports – even college football!
Now the 2016/17 squash season is in full swing, this could be the ideal time for the PSA to gain media coverage of the sport.
In our previous blog post on How to boost squash participation, we identified that media coverage is crucial to increasing squash participation and even now other forms of technology platforms could enhance the marketability of squash in the UK with content on overseas squash development for added measure.
So far, this has not happened – except for highlights on pay subscription channels and the odd showing on the BBC, and coverage of a live final on BT Sport.
In comparison to football, cycling and even cricket are shown live on free-to-air television channels.
Even though Formula E is a relatively new sport – already it has switched channels from ITV4 to Channel 5 in all exclusive TV coverage for showing live qualifying and race action, the sport will reach new levels of viewing coverage and increase awareness of its sustainability programmes.
Maybe the powers that be should consider doing the same for squash in the UK.
It was said in Forbes that squash is considered one of the healthiest sports now and with the issue of obesity amongst children, coverage of Squash can meet sustainability aims.
Overall showing coverage on television needs to happen quickly before another sport comes in to extend its coverage on free-to-air television with its own dedicated show in the place of a sport that moved onto terrestrial channels, such as Formula 1 – which become exclusive on Sky Sports in 2020.
Revenue for the sport to fund developments
There are also great monetary benefits of squash shown for free on TV.
For instance, the Tour De France, the cycling blue-ribbon event has benefited from substantial TV coverage (as illustrated below in the infographic).
For sponsors, they are receiving substantial ROI, and as a result, participation in cycling has increased with the success of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froom, and even Sir Chris Hoy, aligned combined within the last two Olympic Games.
Racquet cousin cashes in blue-ribbon tournament
With Tennis, the revenue from Wimbledon Tournaments is said to net the All Wimbledon Club and LTA a sum of £75m from TV broadcasts with an estimated TV audience of 1.2 billion (1). Compared to a non-racquet sport, which has benefited greatly from exclusive coverage, the UEFA Champions League – the revenue has allowed teams to spend big on players.
The potential revenue generated from the television exposure of squash can be used for junior squash and fund other grassroots squash development initiatives, notably saving squash courts/clubs in local communities in public and non-for-profit run clubs to churn the next generation of squash players.
Should the UK decide to show full coverage of squash on a free-to-air TV channel, it could be the catalyst to getting squash included in the Olympics games for 2024 and show the IOC that squash is united globally.
Final Thoughts
The way we view our content is different now, hence Squash needs to be viewed on any form of digital content with TV being the main platform for us fans to watch it.
If not, Squash could suffer both from a lack of interest from the existing audiences and financially, especially when it comes to funding new projects to get young people interested in the sport.
