For the first time, the National Championships will be televised live on ITV4.

The channel will broadcast a three-hour slot on the afternoon of Sunday March 20, with the Men’s Doubles, Women’s Singles and Men’s Singles finals shown live.

There will also be highlights of earlier finals, interviews and coverage of the presentation ceremonies, plus special guests and features.

Table Tennis England’s commercial partners Female Sports Group (FSG) have been instrumental in bringing the deal to fruition.

Production company Artifex Media will be responsible for bringing the action to the small screen.

Table Tennis England Chief Executive Sara Sutcliffe signed the contract this week.

She said: “It’s fantastic news for our sport that the Nationals will be televised live, particularly on a terrestrial channel where viewers can watch at no cost to themselves.

“ITV4 have a fantastic portfolio of live sports and will bring experience, innovation and prestige to their coverage. We’re delighted to be working with them, and with FSG, who have worked tirelessly on our behalf to make this happen.

“We know from Commonwealth Games viewing figures and from other research that there is a real appetite and enthusiasm for televised table tennis, and believe this is just the first step to seeing more of our sport on TV.”

Niall Sloane, Director of Sport at ITV, said: “Table tennis is a fast and exciting sport which is perfect for TV and we’re very pleased to be the first broadcaster to show viewers live action from the England National Championhips, with our coverage of the climax of this year’s competition.”

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