Following a record-breaking year for darts and unparalleled numbers watching the 2024 World Championship Final, Sky Documentaries have now commissioned a three-part series taking fans behind the scenesof the ever-growing sport.
Announced just days after the World Darts Championship final, the PDC’s chief broadcaster has decided to capitalise on the buzz surrounding Luke Littler’s fairytale debut and all-round blockbuster tournament this year, not mention the recent trend of fly-on-the-wall sports documentaries.
With the new season of Premier League Darts starting in February as well, it’s looking like the perfect time to double down on the
Sky Documentaries have announced the commission of an access all areas premium documentary series 'Darts', which will be available on Sky and NOW later this year! ✍👇
Boasting a peak audience of 3.71m as ‘Cool Hand’ claimed his first-ever World title after an unreal streak of 19 consecutive wins, it was up there with one of the most viewed sporting events in the channel’s history outside of football.
Social media has also exploded with darts fever as well. As detailed in a press release following the ‘Battle of the Lukes’, there were over 27.6m views of clips from the final and a total of 149.1m impressions across the whole tournament on X alone.
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For context, there were 16.5m views throughout the entire 2023 World Darts Championship. Even the Sky Sports App’s live blog had 307% more users during this January’s final compared to Michael Van Gerwen vs Michael Smith. Insane stats.
🎯 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃-𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 🎯
📌 Record audience of over 4.8m viewers 📌 Highest ever non-football peak on Sky Sports 📌 143% increase on the 2023 final pic.twitter.com/NciF0tDR2c
Being produced by Dorothy St Pictures and Meadowlark Media, there is currently no projected release date at this early stage but the fans of Sky’s Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story and Pamela, A Love Story docs can expect a similar approach.
Sky Documentaries Commissioning Editor, Tom Barry, said of the project: “This year’s World Championship has shown how darts can captivate the nation.
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“Going beyond just the competition, for the first time, we are thrilled to be bringing audiences closer to the action and give them a glimpse of what it takes to make it to the top.”
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
5th January 2024 
