Featured Image Credit: Getty / Sky Sports
Topics: Sky Sports, Darts
Ryan Smart
Eagle-eyed fans watching Sky Sports' coverage of the World Darts Championship may have spotted a rarely-seen image during the semi-final between Luke Littler and Stephen Bunting.
Littler raced into a 2-0 lead over Bunting at the Alexandra Palace, capitalising on a series of missed doubles from the prospective world number five.
Sky then went to their usual advert break after the second set, but as the coverage was about to resume, a blue image flashed across the screen.
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The image was titled 'Bumper 02 Hard Out', with the date showing as December 15, 2023 - the first day of the 2024 World Darts Championship.
A 'bumper' is effectively a brief announcement that is placed between the pause in a programme (i.e.: the start of an ad break) and the adverts that follow. But it isn't normally seen by TV viewers, except in rare cases.
It is, though, a fascinating look into how exactly live TV coverage works - with notices for duration, audio type and even the type of video used.
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It is only one of many graphics that Sky use for their sports coverage - although many of them you will see on screen.
Sky Darts have graphics that track each player's average, while a 'spotter' helps to place the camera in the correct position so it can capture darts hitting different parts of the board.
Former PDC world number one Colin Lloyd regularly 'spots' for Sky, and revealed to the Daily Star why tracking Littler in particular is so difficult.
He said: "Luke's got his own fandangled way of going [his own ways of aiming for checkouts], very much like Simon Whitlock or Rob Cross. They've all got their own ways of going and it's just a matter of picking up on them.
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"When someone's gone for a shot and you've called it and, a few legs later, he's left the same finish, you automatically think he's going to go that way.
"But Luke sometimes doesn't, he'll go the way he feels comfortable."
More to follow...