Live from The Crucible: BBC Sport’s Phil Bigwood discusses transitioning the Triple Crown of snooker to Sunset+Vine

Sunset+Vine begins live production of its first World Championship, the last of the three events it is broadcasting this season for BBC Sport. Sunset+Vine won the three year deal with the BBC in November 2024, taking over from long time incumbent, IMG

The ‘Triple Crown’ of British snooker consists of the World Championship, the Masters, and the UK Championship. The World Championship – which begins on Saturday 19 April in Sheffield, UK – is the longest running and most highly contended, with the Masters as the annual ‘invitation only’ tournament, and the UK Championship the ranking tournament.

This weekend Sunset+Vine begins live production of its first World Championship, the last of the three events it is broadcasting this season for BBC Sport. Sunset+Vine won the three year deal with the BBC in November 2024, taking over from long time incumbent, IMG.

SVG Europe spoke to BBC Sport executive producer for football and snooker, Phil Bigwood about the transition from IMG to Sunset+Vine, and how the production is set to evolve over time.

How has the transition from IMG to Sunset+Vine gone for the Triple Crown so far, Phil? Sunset+Vine are about to begin the last of the three major snooker events for the UK, so they should be pretty bedded in by now.

Phil Bigwood: I would say the headlines are, to date, it’s been a very smooth transition across. Obviously [for Sunset+Vine] there’s been a lot to pick up and get their heads around; with an established partner for so long it’s a hard act to follow, and IMG did cover the snooker for us incredibly well, and for a long time. So it was a very tough decision when we had to do all the pitches and the tenders, but Sunset+Vine have come into it really well.

“BBC 4 have committed to doing every evening this season and the audiences have been really, really strong. It’s actually delivering BBC 4 some of the biggest audiences they’ve ever had”

It’s helped that the likes of Alison Witkover [senior producer] has been available [for the Triple Crown coverage this season]. She did the snooker at IMG for many, many years, so to have her involved has definitely helped. Then in terms of Grant [Philips, executive producer and head of Sunset+Vine Scotland] and the Sunset+Vine team, we’ve worked with them many times before across a range of different events over the years, so we know what they can deliver. And so far so good on that!

We’ve got a new team in place at World Snooker who we’ve been working well with; over the last couple of years they’ve had a change of personnel. So it has felt like a fresh start.

I think the key thing is, unusually today in the world of sport, we’ve now extended the contract [with World Snooker] and we’ve got the three major events until 2032. I might be retired by then, but to have that long term partnership is great. Sunset+Vine as it stands is only in the first year of an initial contract, so we’ll need to tender again in a couple of years or so. But to have the sport guaranteed on the BBC to ’32, it’s fantastic.

You’ve switched production company, so is there anything that you wanted to do or change or elevate or switch up? What’s the goal with Sunset and Vine in that way?

PB: IMG did do it really well and we were very happy with it. But I suppose sometimes it’s helpful for somebody to come in with a fresh pair of eyes.

There were some different thoughts around the coverage and what we can do. A lot of the production will stay the same because we’ve got long term contracts in place for a lot of the presentation team. For example, some of the venues at The Crucible and the York Barbican are quite small, so in terms of really reinventing the wheel, that’s quite difficult.

But what we’ve seen in year one is we’ve tried to do small step changes, and then [we can] review over the summer and see what more we can do.

One of the big things that I pushed from a BBC perspective – and fortunately it’s worked well – is the greatly extended coverage on BBC 4. For many years the BBC would do the afternoons, and then the evenings would predominantly be iPlayer coverage, until the latter stages. But BBC 4 have committed to doing every evening this season and the audiences have been really, really strong. It’s actually delivering BBC 4 some of the biggest audiences they’ve ever had.

On some occasions it shows the changing broadcast landscape; we’ve had occasions where the BBC 4 audience has beaten the BBC 2 audience in the afternoon.

I’m involved with Alison and World Snooker in terms of the playing schedules. It does make you think again about, “okay, where are we going to get the most eyeballs on this?” And clearly a big focus for us and the BBC has been iPlayer, watching uninterrupted coverage. Every ball will hit for the upcoming World Championships will be on iPlayer. All being well it’s scheduled to be on a network as well as the website, and we’re working more closely with the likes of Jamie Broughton who does BBC Radio 5 Live, and we’re trying to get more out digitally across the various platforms to try and elevate the coverage.

With Sunset+Vine there’s definitely been a renewed focus on that and conscious efforts.

One thing, which is really helpful with snooker is that a lot of the world’s best players – unlike, say, footballers, which is obviously my other line of work – are happy to come on and be pundits during tournaments.

So to have people that are literally still playing and involved in the tournament – and they might have played the day before or they’re playing tomorrow – to be giving their views, is great. That’s something that did happen with IMG, absolutely, but we’ve tried to push that a bit further. I think that does add a new dimension [to the coverage] and we’re trying to do more with the reports that we’re doing as well. So just trying to make the most of the expertise we’ve got around.

When I spoke to Grant Philips from Sunset+Vine, he said one of the things you’re changing is using a director from a different background, so Jamie Oakford who’s a big football director. That’s a different directing perspective on the game, which is interesting.

PB: And that’s what I meant in terms of the fresh ideas. As is the way of the industry at the moment, there’s all sorts of budgetary challenges to overcome. We’d love to have, I don’t know, little internal drones or rail cams and stuff like this. In the case of The Crucible, for example, you are working in a small theatre so there’s considerations around what we can do with the coverage.

But Jamie is incredibly experienced and he’s directed men’s World Cup finals, which is as big as it gets. And Grant, likewise [who will also be directing at The World Championship] has done host direction for all the big football tournaments; he’s doing the World Cup next year in America, Canada and Mexico, and I’ve worked with these guys for ages. So having their expertise and experience has been a big plus. They’ve done a range of sports over the years, so the combination of that plus, Alison [Witkover, senior producer] on the editorial side, has really helped.

BBC Sport’s presentation team working from the Winter Gardens in Sheffield at the World Championship 2024

What sort of things would you like to see happening after we’ve passed this Championship? What would you like to see happening for the next season in terms of the production?

PB: We are confined in some ways. We did have some ideas about changing the presentation positions, for example. Currently – and it does work well for us, don’t get me wrong – but for the opening when The Crucible is in the two table set up, there’s no room to do internal presentation anywhere, so that’s why the default is to go to the Winter Gardens. Obviously we’ve got a lot more space there, but that then means you are a little removed from the venue. We can only move into the internal studio once we’re down to a one table set up for the semi finals and final.

We are looking at different presentation options. We could do the morning shows with a smaller spec from the practice room, and things like that. For me one of the key things is World Snooker is very amenable to change. It’s not a new idea, but [we’re thinking about] how can we get behind the scenes, immerse ourselves more in the coverage, build up the personalities of the players, because the audiences in some parts of the world are going up and up and up, and we as the BBC and Sunset+Vine are responsible for the world feed coverage that the likes of TNT Sports will take, so what can we do to build those names and get under the skin of the sport a bit more?

We’re looking at do we bring in a coach, do we have more of an analytical side of things? And that’s where the likes of Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty [both snooker players], and those current players can hopefully give a different dimension [of analysis]. So how do we build on that? How has the game changed in recent years? The schedule’s really, really relentless, so what can we do differently there?

And again, probably an obvious thing to say, but in terms of the audiences, what can we do, whether it be via social media or whatever, what can we do to introduce the game to maybe a younger demographic? Shabnam Younus-Jewell [BBC Sport coverage reporter] does her podcast, which is really good on BBC Sounds, [so things like that] and how we can extend the coverage, because having [the rights] for so long now is amazing.

We can tweak and we can hopefully add some more things as the way people watch these events changes.