A MUCH-LOVED Sky Sports channel is disappearing to make way for coverage of a major new tournament.
Fans of the channel are being warned that it will return – but not until next year.
Sky Sports F1 is temporarily going to make way for Sky Sports Darts, which will provide extensive coverage of the World Darts Championship.
The 32nd championship takes place from December 11 with action every day apart from Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
A record-breaking 128 players will compete in the Alexandra Palace showpiece, with reigning champ and world No1 Luke Littler facing Darius Labanauskas in the first round.
There will be 16 days of darts showing 92 games during the championship.
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Sky subscribers can watch every game live.
The World Darts Championship will present Luke Littler with the chance to defend his world title.
Other stars such as Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen will be aiming to return to the top.
The tournament will run until the final on January 3, 2026.
Luke Littler is confident there will be NO tears if he feels any nerves on his big night next month at Ally Pally.
The Nuke, 18, sensationally won the World Championship on January 3 – he is the sport’s youngest ever world champion – and will be desperate to retain his crown.
Meanwhile, Michael van Gerwen has suggested he is ready to take back the world title with his confident post on Instagram.
The Dutch ace has been drawn against Mitsuhiko Tatsunami.
He reacted on social media with a picture of the trophy, and captioned the post: “World Championship loading.
“First round: Mitsuhiko Tatsunami. Let’s go!”
The winner of the PDC World Championship will scoop a stunning cash prize.
Here is the full breakdown…
- Winner £1,000,000
- Runner-up £400,000
- Semi-finalist £200,000
- Quarter-finalists £100,00
- Fourth round losers £60,00
- Third round losers £35,00
- Second round losers £25,00
- First round losers £15,000
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Channel 406 will return to Sky Sports F1 as normal on January 6.
You can follow all the action of the 32nd World Darts Championship in The Sun’s live blog here.
Bullseye! World Top 20 darts players
Here is a look at the current top 20 darts players in the world, and their earnings this year, ahead of the World Darts Championship.
- Luke Littler — £1,970,500
- Luke Humphries — £1,572,000
- Michael van Gerwen — £681,250 (pictured above)
- Stephen Bunting — £593,750
- Jonny Clayton — £560,000
- Danny Noppert — £540,750
- James Wade — £534,250
- Chris Dobey — £530,250
- Gerwyn Price — £521,000
- Gian van Veen — £520,000
- Josh Rock — £510,500
- Ross Smith — £457,750
- Martin Schindler — £448,250
- Gary Anderson — £444,500
- Nathan Aspinall — £440,000
- Damon Heta — £439,000
- Rob Cross — £429,000
- Mike De Decker — £413,500
- Jermaine Wattimena — £403,000
- Ryan Searle — £393,000
Pic credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth
