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Tag: World Pool Championships

  • ESS to package World Pool Championships for global broadcasters

    ESS to package World Pool Championships for global broadcasters

    MUMBAI: Asia’s top pool exponents will join other world masters in Taiwan next month. The World Pool Championships 2004 cue up for the first time in Asia from 10-18 July.

    ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is the exclusive Asian broadcaster of the event. Pool enthusiasts can look forward to more than 60 hours of live coverage as telecast of the competition reaches more than 183 million subscribers

    ESS will package and produce programming of the event directly from Taipei. Over 13 channels around the world, including BSkyB in the UK, Fox World in the US and Fox Sports in Australia among others, will take this coverage. ESS live feed will also be carried on channels in Canada, Japan, Hungary, Holland, Latin America, Russia and Scandinavia.

    The host country will be Taiwan. Around 38.8 million cable viewers tuned in to watch last year’s World Professional Pool Championships on Star Sports, In India, Taiwan and Singapore, the event attracted 17 million cable viewers.

    ESS has stated that with a growing number of Asian players competing against the world’s best and claiming the World championships the demand for pool programming has grown significantly in the region.

    Defending champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany will be back to defend his title. He will be joined by 127 players from an estimated 40 countries, who will go head to head for the top prize of $75,000 from a total prize purse of $350,000.

  • ESPN STAR Sports Launches Asia’s First Professional 9-Ball Tour for Men

    ESPN STAR Sports Launches Asia’s First Professional 9-Ball Tour for Men

    MUMBAI: ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) has announced the launch of the inaugural San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour 2003 beginning in Singapore on 15-16 March that will travel to Ho Chi Minh (12-13 April), Hong Kong (3-4 May), Taipei (24-25 May) and Manila (21-22 June) to determine who are Asia’s best pool players.

    Organized by ESS’ Event Management Group, the Tour will feature Asia’s top players and will have US$50,000 prize money per leg. The top ten finishers on the Tour will get entry into the World Professional Pool Championships which takes place this year in Cardiff, UK in July. The San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour is the only pool competition in Asia which allows players to garner points to qualify for the World Pool Championships, which is anticipated by many to make Asia its venue in 2004. The Tour will also form the basis for the annual ranking of the top players in Asia.
     

    On the broadcasting front, the five stops of the Tour will be televised on Star Sports, culminating with the exclusive pan-Asian television broadcast of the World Professional Pool Championships also on the same channel. Star Sports viewers can catch seven hours of world-class pool coverage from each leg.
     

    An estimated 36.6 million cable viewers were able to view last year’s World Professional Pool Championships (WPPC) on Star Sports, says an official release. In markets of India, Taiwan and Singapore, the event attracted 18.2 million cable viewers. In Singapore alone, viewership of WPPC increased 41 per cent in 2002, as compared to the year before, says the release quoting TAM data.

    Before the San Miguel 9-Ball Tour, ESS was the host broadcaster of the inaugural Asian 8-Ball Championships in Singapore last September 2002 which attracted 167 entries from nine Asian countries. 

    The ESS Event Management Group specialises in creating, managing, promoting, consulting, producing and syndicating world class sporting events throughout Asia.