All 16 days of coverage from Alexandra Palace will be in Ultra HD for the first time ever
Friday 14 December 2018 11:39, UK
Sky Sports' coverage of the 2018/19 PDC World Darts Championship is set to be bigger than ever with the return of Sky Sports Darts on December 13.
The biggest Christmas party of the year is less than a month away and once again everyone is invited as the annual extravaganza at Alexandra Palace prepares to welcome it's biggest ever field to crown the first world champion of 2019 on New Year's Day.
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96 players, including the first two female players to feature since 2009, will take to the oche in an expanded tournament and for the first time in the PDC's history there is no Phil Taylor.
The Power's conqueror last year, Rob Cross, will defend the title he won in fairytale fashion on his debut last year and will face the toughest of tests from world No 1 Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson, both of whom are chasing their third PDC crown.
Raymond van Barneveld will be preparing for his penultimate World Championship and the most recent winners of the TV major, James Wade, Gerwyn Price and Daryl Gurney are among the names chasing a maiden world title.
Here's what to expect.......
With 16 days of coverage, featuring all 96 players, there are more sessions than ever before, including 12 bumper days of afternoon and evening tungsten action..
Naturally, Sky Sports Darts will be the place to manage all your tungsten needs and we will be taking up residence at Alexandra Palace from Thursday, December 13 when coverage gets underway with a preview show at 6.30pm and the first session of action from 7pm.
Dave Clark will lead the team, ably assisted on presenting duty by Rod Studd, Laura Woods and David Croft while Stuart Pyke and Nigel Pearson join the gang for commentary throughout.
Expert analysis will come from Wayne Mardle, Rod Harrington, John Part and 10-time women's world champion Trina Gulliver who joins the team.
The coverage continues through the festive period with a three-day break over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day with the final, as has become tradition, on New Year's Day when the Sid Waddell Trophy will be lifted.
As well as the live coverage, they'll be more darts programming than ever before, with Darts Gold returning to showcase some of the greatest matches down the years.
After the success of our Phil Taylor documentary last year, we will take you up close with the big names as we sit down with Rob Cross and Michael van Gerwen to get the stories on their careers.
Cross' journey last year was one of the sporting stories of the decade and we will track his journey while MVG, the all-conquering world No 1, reflects on his two world titles to date and rise from talented teenager to the man everyone wants to beat.
As well as Sky Go, our website will be the place to follow if you are on the move. We will have live blogs, daily reports and columns from our experts and this year we have added an extra layer to our coverage with the introduction of The Darts Show podcast and we will have a bumper preview special coming your way later ahead of this year's tournament.
The pod will also take up residence at Ally Pally for almost three weeks with a daily preview show coming to you live via our social media channels.
Throughout the World Championship, we want you to get involved by joining the conversation on social media so make sure you follow us @SkySportsDarts and @SkySports to ensure you don't miss a thing.
Keep up to date with the news as the tungsten enters its busiest time of year with the PDC World Championships just around the corner get all the latest at sky.mnosports.com/darts and join in the conversation@SkySportsDarts
