A series of top table tennis events will feature on a new broadcast service for Olympic and Paralympic sports.
The online streaming platform is called GB Sport, and more than 2,600 hours of content across 27 sports are already secured for broadcast.
Table Tennis England, along with a number of other sport National Governing Bodies, have been working with UK Sport, the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association over the last two years to develop the platform and secure content of both national and international competitions.
Fans of Olympic and Paralympic sports will be able to watch the best live Olympic and Paralympic sports content from around the world focused on British and Northern Irish athletes and teams.
Among the table tennis events which will feature on the platform are the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships, from 2021 onwards, as well as a number of ITTF events, including:
- Men’s World Cup 2020
- Women’s World Cup 2020
- World Tour Bulgarian Open
- World Tour Sweden Open
- World Tour Platinum Australia Open
- World Tour Grand Finals
We will continue to work with ITTF and ETTU to secure further events for the platform in 2021 onwards, including para and European events. We will also continue to work with the BBC, which has streamed several table tennis events live on its website in recent times.
As well as access to live competition footage, GB Sport will also feature behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and original features to provide unparalleled access to the transformational journeys of the UK’s Olympic and Paralympic heroes – including our own players.
The aim is to launch the platform after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Table Tennis England Chief Executive Sara Sutcliffe said: “We are excited to be part of a new live sport broadcast service which will increase the prominence and availability of top-class table tennis to audiences in the UK.”
Dominic Coles, former Chief Operating Officer at BBC Sport, has been appointed Chair of the newly incorporated GB Sport Media, the over-arching organisation that will manage and take the rights to the platform to market.
Coles said: “I am delighted and honoured to be asked to lead this exciting and ground-breaking new venture, transforming the coverage of the some of the best of British sport. I have been privileged to have worked with Olympic and Paralympic sports throughout my career at both the BBC and Discovery, and to have helped bring Team GB and ParalympicsGB’s remarkable achievements in recent Games to our screens.
“Now, for the first time, there will be a single destination for many of these sports between Games, giving fans the opportunity to continue to follow their heroes and rising stars as they compete for domestic and international honours.”