BBC slammed as snooker coverage snubbed for Homes Under The Hammer repeat

17 April 2023 , 09:10

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Snooker fans were not happy as Ronnie O'Sullivan's first round match was moved to the BBC red button (Image: PA)

Snooker fans have been left unhappy with the BBC's coverage of the World Championship, with plenty of first round action only available on the red button.

The BBC traditionally air their snooker coverage on BBC Two, but defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan's 10-7 win over Pang Junxu on Saturday began on BBC Four and was then moved to the red button as a Danish crime thriller aired instead.

On Sunday, the snooker began airing on BBC Two, but was interrupted for live coverage of the European Gymnastics Championships and snooker fans were fuming at the decision to move the sport to the red button instead of BBC One where a re-run of Homes Under the Hammer from 2019 was being shown instead.

"#CazooWorldChampionship has been taken off BBC 2 again, could have moved to BBC1 but no, there's a repeat of Homes Under the Hammer on there," one raged on social media. "The BBC treat snooker like s*** every year."

A second fumed: "THE COVERAGE ON BBC IS A DISGRACE....FLIPPING CHANNEL TO RED BUTTON FOR REPEATS.... @ITVSport get bidding for the Snooker .... absolutely disgusting how the #bbc treat this tournament every season."

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"The coverage of the snooker by the BBC is really poor, wish @itvsnooker would get hold of it and show them how it could/should be broadcast," added another.

Fans were also unhappy the snooker was on the red button and not BBC One on Sunday, which aired a repeat of Homes Under the Hammer instead (Mark Stephenson/Action Plus/REX/Shutterstock)

While a third wrote: "Is it really too much to ask for the snooker coverage to stay in one place for more than an hour or two? Booting it off air to show some old proms footage seems a new low...

"Could at least make it easy to continue watching via iPlayer : red button is directing me to watching this morning's coverage and I can't find the live coverage anywhere except on the website via my laptop".

Another branded it "absolutely disgraceful", writing: "The snooker coverage on BBC is absolutely disgraceful. No coverage on BBC 1 or 2 in the evening, switching off from BBC 4 at 9pm, then booting matches off the red button to i player etc, and replacing it with a different match, two nights running now".

Matthew Cooper