Dubai: Darts is ready to fare a double storm of frontman Phil Taylor retiring twinned with an anticipated decline in conventional TV viewership, according to Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) chief executive Matthew Porter.
“Our market share is holding up,” he said of global TV viewing figures, speaking on the sidelines of the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters at Dubai Tennis Stadium this week.
“Fewer people watch linear TV now, so we’ve got a lot of deals with OTT (over-the-top) services,” — a term used for media delivered via the internet.
“We have a lot of streaming and the amount of reach we are getting is increasing but people’s consumption of live TV broadcasts are changing and we have to make sure we move with the times on that.
“We have to make sure our social media is good and we have decent digital content and video, and make sure we have appropriate content for local languages in different regions so we hit the people we are aiming for.
“It’s just evolving, it used to be a British pub sport but now it’s a professional global game.”
Barry Hearne’s Matchroom Sport took over and completely rebranded the PDC in 2001, introducing new tournaments and tying up with Sky Sports in a move that has made the game second only to football in terms of UK viewership. Venues are selling out and prize money has increased tenfold.
Overall, a potential 300 million people worldwide have access to PDC events now and that promises to continue as the sport expands into Japan, China and America through the World Series, according to Porter.
“People recognise the players now, they’ve got their own identities with shirts and music and it’s quite easy to watch unlike a team sport where you are preoccupied with who wins,” he added.
“We’ve switched from being a predominantly UK sport to a global one. Once new markets open up we’ll have regional tours and more events.
“We’ve really got global coverage for all our major events now and that’s a reflection that darts is not only known and played in most places but also that people realise it’s a professional sport with great atmosphere and entertainment value.”
As for the planned retirement in January of 16-time world champion Phil Taylor, Porter added: “The game is big enough now to stand on its own two feet, but its big enough to stand on its own two feet because of what Phil has done.
“He’s predominately responsible for the growth of the game and is the name everyone knows. He set the standard for performance and is the global face of darts but there’s a new generation coming through now and they are the ones who will take the sport forward in the next decade.”
Taylor himself was less certain about the future.
“I don’t know what the future is,” he said. “Barry Hearn seems to think it’s orange and that everything is still climbing. I think they’ll go abroad, but the world’s changing and TV viewing figures are changing. It’s not just with darts, it’s every sport, people aren’t watching TV like they used to.”
As for darts filling the void left by his retirement, he said: “There are new kids on the block that people have never heard of and they’ve got to come forward now. It’s going to take them a while of course it is, but they’ll do it.”
