Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with Sky Sports By Heather McLean
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:31
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At this year's Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Darts Championship, Sky Sports is attempting to increase the number of darts directors in the country. The host broadcaster for The Worlds, which takes place at Alexandra Palace in London from 11 December 2025 to 3 January 2026, is providing a specific training seat for directors looking to gain experience in the sport in an OB truck on site.
Every other sport that you cover, when push comes to shove, on camera one, you're safe, people can watch it, they can see what's going on. You cannot do that on darts. You've got to be in the right place at the right time
Working with technical services provider for The Worlds, Gravity Media, Sky Sports is trying to give itself more directors for this very unique sport, which will help it in its year-round coverage of the classic pub game.
Unique skillset
Sky Sports is using Gravity Media's expanding Nova 112A truck for its main production coverage, and the Nova 112B truck for onsite edits for some extra audio. In the latter there is also a director training area.
Speaking to SVG Europe, Joe Clark Smith, lead producer for Sky Sports' darts, explains why this training area is important: We have a director training area in [the Nova 112B] because directing darts is one of the most niche things in TV.
I remember saying when I first took over that it feels like there's more brain surgeons than people that can direct darts on the planet, which is very weird. So at Sky we've really looked to try and increase other directors' skillsets by setting up this training desk where they can come and have a go.
Read more Hitting a bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts Championship to hit Ally Pally yet
Darts is a challenging sport to direct, due to incredibly fast speed of the sport, the tiny darts, and the small field of play.
Darts is an extremely unique sport, says Clark Smith. It's an extremely unique sport to cover and I struggle to think of anything that's similar because of how small the field of play is, if you will. It's a dartboard, but if you show the whole dartboard, you are not going to see those darts missing by a wire or clicking off of another dart and missing the target. You have to really zoom in. And I think that is what separates it from other sports.
Every other sport that you cover, when push comes to shove, on camera one, you're safe, people can watch it, they can see what's going on. You cannot do that on darts. You've got to be in the right place at the right time or it will be noticed and people will comment on it and say, you missed that dart .
In darts, the director cuts the show without a vision mixer, using information shared by the spotter' - a person in the truck who calculates where the next dart is going to go in the board - which is unlike any other sport.
Notes Clark Smith on how hard it is to direct as a sport: You've got to be really quick. You've got to be listening to the spotter, you're cutting the cameras yourself there's no vision mixer so it's an incredibly high level skill. We've been utilising a training desk to really try and get a few more people up to speed.
There is no mixer on darts productions because of the speed at which the game is played. Clark Smith says: By the time the spotter has called the number, the camera's got in position, you don't have time to then relay that info again to the vision mixer so the directors cut the cameras themselves.
Sky Sports and the PDC extended their partnership earlier this year to bring darts fans what they want until 2030
Training directors
This is the first year that Sky Sports has provided the director training seat at Ally Pally for the whole event. Throughout the year there have been other director training seats available at other locations, says Clark Smith.
It's the first time we've had one in situ at Ally Pally for the entirety, says Clark Smith. We've been training up a couple of directors at Sky, but we've been doing that all year round. So we've had a training desk at the Premier League, [and in darts] in Blackpool at the World Matchplay, Wolverhampton at the Grand Slam, and Leicester at the World Grand Prix. Now this is just more of a chance for other directors to come and have a look and have a try to see if it's something that they might want to pursue.
Sky Sports provides two options for director training on site. People are able to sit and watch the director to see what they do, or go to the training desk where they can get talkback without hearing the director, listening to the spotter themselves, and working out how to cut the show.
All the training desks are aimed at any director that is interested in making a step into the world of darts. Clark Smith says: Whether it's from the team who direct sports news coverage, or those who are already directing other live sport content, the set up is there for anyone who is looking to expand their skillset.
Watch all 20 days of unmissable World Darts Championship action exclusively live on Sky Sports and NOW from 11 December
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Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with Sky Sports By Heather McLean 
