World Boccia Championships to be live streamed
The BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships will be streamed live as they take place at Exhibition Centre Liverpool from 12-18 August this year. Audiences will be able to see their favourite Paralympic boccia stars in action through connected devices, TV, tablet and mobile on the BBC.
The main court will be live from Sunday 12 August from 09:00-19:00 BST to Saturday 18 August from 10:30-18:00 BST on the BBC Sport website, Sport app & connected TV.
Boccia UK Chair, John Dowson says the decision is a huge boost to the sport:
"It is fantastic news that the World Championships will be live streamed by the BBC. It is a huge opportunity for us to reach more people and showcase the sport of boccia. Hopefully it will inspire many watching on their TV or devices to play."
Hopes are certainly riding high for the ten members of the British team ahead of the Championships. Leading the way is Paralympic gold medallist David Smith MBE (pictured above) and defending champion Stephen McGuire who has enjoyed a superb season.
BBC Sport has committed to providing technical and editorial support to sports to enable them to broadcast their events more widely and has offered to live stream all UK Sport-supported major events on its website and red button channels, where no competing commercial broadcaster is involved.
The new commitment comes after the BBC announced ambitious plans to reinvent free-to-air sports broadcasting, with its biggest increase of live sport coverage in a generation. Over a thousand extra hours of live sport could be available for audiences to watch online every year through BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer.
The BBC is working closely with sports bodies across the UK with the aim of broadcasting coverage from more than 30 additional sports or sporting events every year.
The broadcasts will help to keep Olympic and Paralympic sports and their stars in the public eye between Games times, with more events such as World, European and National Championships likely to be shown.
The BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships - which is funded by The National Lottery, is set to attract 180 players from 33 countries to Exhibition Centre Liverpool from 12-18 August 2018. Athletes will battle it out for world titles, as well as crucially important ranking points ahead of the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2020.
The Championships has been made possible thanks to UK Sport’s National Lottery funding through its Major Events Programme.
