The final of snooker’s Cazoo British Open earlier this month had a peak audience of 603,000 on ITV4, a further indication that the sport’s UK audience is growing.
Mark Williams beat Mark Selby 10-7 in an epic final in Cheltenham, and the peak figure was 8% higher than the previous year.
Overall, the average UK audience for the tournament was up 12% when compared to 2022, and the average audience for the last session of the final was 20% higher.
The cumulative UK audience for the seven-day event increased by 11%. A total of 3.9 million people watched at least five minutes of the ITV coverage.
The Cazoo British Open was also successful on WST’s social media platforms, with 17.7 million video views on Facebook, 3.6 million impressions on Twitter, 5.8 million impressions on YouTube and 1.1 million views on TikTok.
WST’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Tom Rowell said: “There is a clear trend this season of increasing audiences, with the same pattern repeated on every tournament so far. Overall our UK audience is up 14%, when compared to the same events last year. This indicates that we are reaching new fans, while maintaining our huge and loyal core support. We expect to see this trend continue in the coming months as snooker goes from strength to strength.
“This is an exciting time in the evolution of our sport in terms of the incredible standard of play and the level of drama on the table. The final in Cheltenham between Mark Williams and Mark Selby was pure sporting theatre with an edge-of-the-seat conclusion.
“Our congratulations go to ITV for the outstanding quality of their production and we look forward to working with them on the Players Series of three events, early in 2024.”
