NEW YORK and LONDON – Discovery Inc. has signed a US$2 billion deal with the PGA Tour to create a new international multi-platform home for golf content that will include live events and a new over-the-top video streaming service in over 200 markets, including Canada.
The 12-year deal, which will begin in 2019 and carry through to 2030, will include live rights, outside the United States, to approximately 2,000 hours from over 40 PGA Tour events and nearly 150 tournaments per year, including The Players Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs, and the Presidents Cup. In addition to live linear rights, the deal includes a new dedicated, PGA Tour-branded OTT service allowing fans to binge-watch the sport.
In addition to linear channels such as Food Network, HGTV, and Animal Planet, U.S.-based Discovery also owns the European rights to the Olympics through 2024 as well as sports OTT service Eurosport Player. The company has tapped former NBA and DirecTV/AT&T exec Alex Kaplan as president and GM of the new venture.
“The long-term partnership between the PGA Tour and Discovery will create the new global Home of Golf, including delivering over 2000 hours of live content year-round and this prestigious sport's greatest moments, stories and athletes”, said Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav, in Monday’s announcement. “Following our successful first Olympic Games in PyeongChang, Discovery will contribute its strong global distribution and promotional infrastructure, in-market relationships, global sports expertise with direct-to-consumer platforms and brands to create a valuable new long-term Home of Golf offering in every market outside the US."
Discovery said that it will broadcast the PGA Tour on its pay-TV and free-to-air channels, digital and short-form platforms, and will work with the PGA Tour to capture “all access to the action and its extensive non-live and library rights for all media platforms.”
The PGA Tour, which has negotiated all of its non-U.S. broadcast rights deals on its own since 2007, also recently opened new offices in London, Tokyo and Beijing as it seeks to grow the game of golf with international audiences.
"This is an exciting next step for the PGA Tour, which presents a tremendous opportunity to accelerate and expand our media business outside the United States, better service our international broadcast partners, and drive fan growth with a deeply experienced strategic global partner,” added PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
According to the announcement, the rights for Canada, as well as Australia, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, and Spain will be in 2019, followed by Poland and South Korea in 2020; Belgium, China, Germany and South Africa in 2021; Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, UK and India in 2022; and France in 2024.
At this point, it is not known if a Canadian broadcaster will purchase the rights for the Canadian market from Discovery U.S. to air more golf here. Bell Media owns the Discovery brand in Canada but a spokesperson there confirmed they are not party to this deal and there are no changes planned right now for the broadcasters' golf coverage (TSN shows the four "major" tournaments).
Corus Entertainment, which has owned the rights to the non-major PGA Tournaments – aired in simsub on Global with the American broadcasters, has decided not to renew its contract for next season.
