Channel 5 widened its World Seniors Snooker Tour coverage in 2025, turning a one-table setup into a two-table production at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The broadcaster’s first year on the Seniors ended with a bigger event, more match room and a stronger place on the snooker calendar.
That change matters because interest in the tournament did not need to be invented; it arrived with names viewers already knew. Roger Farebrother, 65, won the 2026 Asia-Pacific Seniors Snooker Championship and then faced Ali Carter, while Ronnie O’Sullivan, Carter and Stuart Bingham were among the big figures involved in the 2025 Seniors. For Channel 5, that kind of lineup gave the coverage a draw that went beyond a niche veterans event.
The timing also helped. The World Snooker Championship for Sport ran at the Crucible from April 18 to May 4, and the Seniors followed there from May 6 to 10, with only one day between the two productions. Sunset+Vine handled Channel 5’s coverage and used Cloudbass as technical services provider for both events, shifting from the larger Sport Worlds setup to the smaller Seniors operation in a single day.
The expansion was deliberate. Channel 5 and World Seniors opted to grow the broadcast in 2025, a year that marked the channel’s first run with the competition and followed a previous edition that used only one table. Titus Hill said last year had worked well as a tentative test for snooker on the channel and that the broadcaster wanted to do more, including expanding the Seniors. He said the stronger field made a difference too, because the event brought in several big names that had not appeared the year before.
That is where the tournament’s limits show through. The World Seniors Snooker Tour is built for iconic players and amateurs aged 40 and over, but the best-known older players who are still active on the main tour do not usually take part. Hill said that is because they are still competing at the top end of the game, which makes the presence of O’Sullivan in particular a notable exception and a boost for anyone trying to sell the broadcast.
Hill put it plainly: once O’Sullivan is involved, more viewers and more interest follow from the snooker community. Channel 5 appears to have understood that in 2025, and the move to a two-table setup suggests the broadcaster saw enough value in the Seniors to make the coverage feel like a real event rather than an add-on. What is not clear is how far that expansion went in audience terms, or whether Channel 5 will keep building the tournament after this first season.
