Ping pong for the masses: Bringing an old sport to a brand new audience with World Table Tennis By Heather McLean
Thursday, April 4, 2024 - 15:23
Print This Story
Stunning light shows at the WTT's Singapore Smash 2024 are reminiscent of an esports arena
Table tennis, ping pong and whiff whaff These are the names that this well-known sport, famed for its popularity in China, is known as. Table tennis is starting to evolve towards a broader fan base thanks to World Table Tennis (WTT), which is the commercial arm of governing body, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). It was created just three years ago to grow the sport globally.
Explains Melissa Soobratty, senior media director at WTT: We realised that if we didn't do something, we were in danger of the sport stagnating. This was an opportunity for us to take a moment and think, okay, what could we do? How can we change things to make it more relatable, more entertaining, more innovative, more exciting? .
WTT recently renewed and expanded its partnership with global sports video production and distribution agency, Story10 - part of SNTV to promote the sport in key territories and engage new audiences worldwide. Now in the relationship's second year, Story10 is tasked with amplifying game highlights from the 2024 Championships and WTT's marquee Grand Smash, Finals and Champions events, across its network of 8,500 digital and social channels and 700 broadcast partners.
Read more: Smashing padel: Inside Aurora's innovative production of the inaugural Hexagon Cup
SNTV is a joint venture between The Associated Press and IMG. Story10 was launched by SNTV in 2021, supported by SNTV's global distribution network. Meanwhile, IMG is the WTT's production partner for the series.
Story10 puts out anything between two and six video news releases every day of a WTT event. Comments Zoe Duffelen, global head of revenue at SNTV's Story10: It was the perfect partnership for us, just because WTT were in the place where it was almost like a blank canvas. We were learning as we were going, so we were able to develop what our offering was going to be to our news wires, across the SNTV news wires.
Also, for the first time the expanded partnership will see Story10 and WTT develop a pilot project to create authentic influencer collaborations that increase the sport's exposure and engagement with new audiences across social platforms, utilising Story10's network of 7.5 million influencers worldwide.
At the WTT Singapore Smash 2024, players step out of the octagon and take a long walk down the catwalk and into the Infinity Arena. Sports presentations with lights, LEDs, and original composed signature music help with the atmospheric build up
Pushing ping pong
Soobratty explains how WTT is helping to push table tennis as a popular sport outside of China: In China it's more than just a sport. It's really embedded within the culture. So it's bigger, I guess even bigger than how football is in the UK, and they're pretty good at it. To become a table tennis player for China, you are really, really tested from a very young age in terms of spotted and then trained. The resources that they have and that they invest in training the players are second to none.
Now we're seeing things grow [globally]. WTT was created in 2021 when there was a realisation that we really needed to do something to continue the growth of the sport and to change the perception that it was an Asian or Chinese sport.
There are a lot of players from all over the world, whether it's Hugo Calderano from Brazil, Patrick Franziska and Dima Ovtcharov from Germany, Bruna Takahashi, also from Brazil, Adriana D az, Puerto Rico, Kamal Achanta from India. So it's a lot more global than people realise. It's just the fact that China's really good at winning that means they always hit the main headlines, continues Soobratty.
She goes on: Over the last 12 months we've seen the rise of France and the Lebrun brothers come up. As a result of that, and also as a result of the wider coverage that.
Crew from IMG working hard to broadcast the Singapore Smash 2024
Aims of whiff whaff
On the goals and aims of the WTT, Soobratty says: We really want to change how the sport is seen and perceived because traditionally it's a load of tables in a sport hall, and you see how other sports have been moving, especially towards embracing entertainment. So it's not just the action that's taking place on court, on the table, it's giving your fans and the public value for money, because these days when you buy a ticket for a sports event, it's not cheap, so we wanted to make sure that we were giving value, but also bridging that gap from participation to actually watching the pro's and growing the sport from a grassroots level, all the way up to the top.
We have a programme called From Day One to World Number One, and that's reflected in the series of events that we have. So the series that sold for commercial rights is the WTT series, but then we have two tiers below that as well: you have the feeder series and then the youth series, which is under 11 to under 19.
Adds Soobratty: The grassroots side is so important for us. India is going great guns; on the youth side they have a cracking team. And results-wise, the team is just getting stronger and stronger. So I predict in the next five years there will be other challenges to China outside of Japan and Korea and France, etc. It's one of those sports that you can play for life.
Smashing times
Soobratty comments that with Story10, that fan base and the reach of WTT content is expanding rapidly. This is the third year we've done the Smash, and from having started last year with Story10, we have seen the increase in numb
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
Ping pong for the masses: Bringing an old sport to a brand new audience with World Table Tennis By Heather McLean 
