ITV teams with Snack Media to sell PDC YouTube ads, expanding its YouTube sales house into sports.
ITV has expanded its YouTube advertising sales business into sports, opening the operation to sports rights holders through a new partnership with Snack Media and naming the Professional Darts Corporation as the first partner.
The move gives brands access to advertising inventory on the PDC’s YouTube channel through ITV’s commercial team, extending a model ITV first built around its own entertainment programming and later broadened to third-party television content.
ITV joined YouTube’s Partner Programme in December 2024 and created a dedicated YouTube sales team within ITV Commercial led by Head of YouTube Sales Abul Noor, who joined from Channel 4. At launch, the team sold advertising around ITV-owned programming, including I'm A Celebrity, The Masked Singer, and the ITV Studios catalog.
That business expanded in February 2026 when ITV struck a deal with Banijay Rights and Banijay UK, adding titles including MasterChef, Peaky Blinders, and Would I Lie To You? to the YouTube sales offering.
By that stage, ITV said its YouTube network had reached material scale, with UK views up 51 percent in 2025 and total advertising impressions rising 35 percent year over year.
The Snack Media agreement now takes the same approach into a new category: professional sports rights holders. The arrangement begins with the PDC and could later extend to others in Snack Media’s client portfolio, which the source article said has historically included the NFL, NBA, MLB, Matchroom, and WWE.
The commercial pitch is centered on pricing. Under YouTube’s standard Partner Programme, inventory is generally sold through Google’s advertising systems, including Google Ads and Display and Video 360. The source article said that process can place premium sports video alongside wider connected-TV inventory in programmatic auctions.
According to the source article, sports content that can command around $60 per thousand impressions in a direct broadcast advertising deal may clear between $10 and $14 per thousand impressions in a general programmatic auction.
ITV’s role is to sell that inventory directly to brands and agencies through its broadcast advertising relationships rather than rely on the standard auction route. The article said that direct sales can support pricing based on contextual alignment with tournament coverage, audience targeting, and a broadcaster-curated environment.
The PDC’s YouTube channel has approximately 692,000 subscribers, with content spanning highlights, player profiles, and event build-up.
Abul Noor, Head of YouTube Sales at ITV, described the new agreement as a starting point for broader activity in the category: "This collaboration creates a strong foundation for us to explore further partnerships within the sports sector, and we look forward to opportunities to broaden our sports portfolio in the future."
The PDC is ITV’s first sports rights holder in the YouTube sales house. The broadcaster has carried PDC events free-to-air since returning to live darts in 2007, and in October 2025 extended that arrangement through 2028. That deal covers the World Masters, UK Open, European Championship, Players Championship Finals, and the full World Series of Darts.
The source article said that existing relationship gives the YouTube ad-sales partnership added coherence, with brands reaching darts viewers through the PDC channel’s between-event programming, exclusive player content, and tournament highlights rather than ITV’s own live broadcast feed.
Adam Perfect, Chief Commercial Officer of the PDC, said the YouTube channel had already become part of how fans experience the organization between live events.
Hector Morales, CEO of Snack Media, said: "Exceptional, high-quality content deserves maximum commercial recognition. ITV's market-leading sales capabilities will allow us to unlock the true value that rights holders deserve."
ITV’s expansion comes after Sky agreed on July 6, 2026 to acquire ITV’s Media and Entertainment division, including its television channels, ITVX streaming service, and commercial advertising business, in a £1.6 billion deal.
The source article said the transaction is subject to review by the Competition and Markets Authority and that ITV CEO Carolyn McCall has indicated the process will likely move to a Phase 2 investigation and take between 12 and 18 months. Completion is expected in late 2027.
For the PDC, the article noted an unusual overlap: Sky Sports holds the organization’s premium television rights, including the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace in London, under a deal running to 2030. If Sky’s ITV acquisition closes, the same corporate group would, pending regulatory clearance, both broadcast the PDC’s premium events and sell advertising on the PDC’s YouTube channel.
Snack Media, founded in 2007, operates as a sports digital publishing and advertising sales network representing hundreds of sports rights holders and publishers across web, app, video platforms, and social media.
ITV said the PDC is the first sports partner under the new arrangement, not the last. The source article said the current deal does not cover all of Snack Media’s inventory but is structured to roll out across specific sports businesses over time.
The article said ITV’s YouTube sales house has partnered with 1,300 brands and products since December 2024, delivered World Cup content that generated more than 150 million views, and now added the PDC as its first sports rights holder.
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