Evolving Production: The PSA on Bringing Squash to More Viewers at the Tournament of Champions with More Content, More Data, and More Analytics

Evolving production: The PSA on bringing squash to more viewers at the Tournament of Champions with more content, more data, and more analytics By Heather McLean

Thursday, January 22, 2026 - 16:57

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The PSA's tournament of Champions is taking place at Grand Central Station from 22 to 29 January 2026

The production for the Professional Squash Association's (PSA) annual Tournament of Champions competition in New York, although slick, is constantly evolving. Taking place in the city's striking Grand Central Station, the event features the unforgettable backdrop of the 110 year old venue, replete with chandeliers.

An area of its production that the PSA has been working on over the last six months is broadcast coverage outside of live matches, and the Tournament of Champions which runs from 22 to 29 January, is getting the new treatment.

PSA chief operating officer Lee Beachill explains: The area that we've tried to develop over the last six months or so is that we're doing a lot more in terms of shoulder content and pre and post-match content. So we'll do a 30-minute pre-show and we'll be on air for at least 15 minutes after the show. We're utilising the presentation team a lot more outside of just match coverage.

Data and analytics push

In terms of the evolution of the broadcast, data and analytics are a big push that the PSA is working on, notes Beachill. We're trying to move on as much as we possibly can in the data and analysis side of what we get out of the game, says Beachill. Both biometric and the analysis of the actual game. We're doing things with AI to get as much as we can from these amazing athletes like heart rates and all this stuff, in real time and into the show.

We're currently just gathering as much data as we possibly can and then trialling it within the broadcast to see what works, what doesn't work, and what we can expand on as well. So that's the challenge at the moment, and the one that just keeps adding to what we can offer.

Heart rate telemetry will be back on screen in graphical form at the Tournament of Champions, says Beachill. Heart rate of players we've actually done a couple of years ago, but that is something that we're going to be introducing in this end of the season again. I think a lot of things that we're looking to add are around distances covered, speed off the mark, and how we can try and get across to the viewer just how difficult the game is.

From a physical perspective, they're amongst some of the best athletes on the planet, but as with most sport, they make it look a little bit easy, he continues. So you need to keep being aware of translating to viewers just how physically demanding the sport is, and how these athletes are some of the best on the planet and what metrics we can pull out to show that. And certainly distance, speed, agility, all these different things add to that.

All the telemetry data that the PSA collects from players is made available to the athletes as well, to aid in their post-match analysis and training.

Graphics partnership

While the PSA is the host broadcaster and also runs its own technical services, the only thing that is not supplied by the PSA is the graphics, under a new deal with an outside supplier.

This season which began in August last year and will conclude in June this year the PSA has stopped doing its own graphics for its broadcasts inhouse and is using Dizplai for its graphics for the first time.

Comments Beachill: This is the first year we've been using Dizplai graphics, which has been cool. We went through our processes at the back end of last season where they scoped out everything that we did, built the system throughout the summer, and then we've been using it this season.

I think in a lot of ways Dizplai came from a similar kind of background that we did in terms of being relatively small, developing things for let's say a non-linear TV kind of level, and then all of a sudden that's grown and grown and grown, and now they're doing things at a lot higher level. So it's been really good and it's given us a lot of scope and a lot of ability to grow as well.

All content from the Tournament of Champions will go out live on the PSA's streaming service, Squash.TV, while the latter stages of the competition will be pushed out to broadcast partners

Flexible broadcasting

All content from the Tournament of Champions will go out live on the PSA's streaming service, Squash.TV, while the latter stages of the competition will be pushed out to broadcast partners.

Beachill says the PSA works to keep the host broadcast flexible for rights holders. He explains: Everything we do goes out through our online channel, which is SquashTV. The quarter, semis and finals is when we tend to push out a lot more of a linear product, which goes to our broadcast partners around the world, and we try to help them out.

To give you an example, Sky New Zealand's a good one; Paul Coll, their leading male player who's been world number one, I think he's currently world number two, but if he's playing a big match and it's early on, we will adjust the broadcast in a way where we can give [Sky New Zealand] a broadcast feed as well.

So we have a few broadcasters like that that will take their specific players' matches regardless of who they're playing or what round they are, but generally the quarter, semis and final are when we push out a linear feed as well, Beachill says.

Day one of the Tournament of Champions gets underway from 12:00 (GMT-5) on Thursday 22 January and will be available to watch live on SquashTV.

The PSA 2025/26 season runs from August 2025 to July 2026, featuring major Platinum events like the US Open (October 2025), the Tourname

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