Golf's PGA Tour Gets Big Boost in TV, Streaming Rights
March 09 2020 - 7:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Joe Flint
The PGA Tour is getting a 75% pay bump for the rights to air its
golf tournaments on television and streaming services, people
familiar with the matter said, a sizable increase that shows the
growing value of live sports to traditional and digital media
platforms.
As part of a nine-year deal with ViacomCBS Inc., Comcast Corp.
and Walt Disney Co. taking effect in 2022, the PGA Tour will see
its average rights fee rise to more than $700 million annually from
the current $400 million, the people said.
ViacomCBS, parent of the CBS broadcast network, and Comcast,
parent of NBC and the Golf Channel, renewed their existing deals
with the Tour, while Walt Disney's digital platform ESPN+ will
become the exclusive streaming home for PGA Tour Live. Currently,
it is distributed through the NBC Sports Gold streaming service and
Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video.
With more consumers choosing to view content in an on-demand
form, sports remains one of the few must-watch-now forms of
entertainment, making it very valuable to advertisers.
"We benefited from that," said Rick Anderson, chief media
officer for the PGA Tour.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said the deals with existing
partners and the new ESPN+ deal -- combined with Discovery
Communications Inc.'s 2018 international rights pact valued at $2
billion -- "is a transformation" and a "new day" for the Tour.
Golf gets small TV audiences compared with professional football
and basketball but reaches high-income viewers that appeal to
advertisers including financial firms, car manufacturers and makers
of luxury goods.
"The PGA Tour is a foundational sport for us," CBS Sports
Chairman Sean McManus said. He declined to comment on the financial
terms.
NBC Sports Group President Pete Bevacqua said as part of the new
deal, the PGA Tour would take on a greater role in programming and
producing at NBC's Golf Channel. Mr. Bevacqua said talks about
rebranding the Golf Channel to reflect the significance of the PGA
Tour to the network are ongoing.
ESPN+ will offer 4,000 hours of coverage annually over 36 PGA
tournaments, more than the PGA Tour's current streaming partners
offer.
"This will set ESPN+ as a must-have for golf fans," said Russell
Wolfe, executive vice president of ESPN+. ESPN+, which has 7.6
million subscribers, costs $4.99 a month.
Mr. Anderson is hoping a partnership with ESPN+ can give the
Tour larger visibility on other ESPN platforms.
As part of the PGA Tour's new agreements with CBS and NBC, both
networks have committed to finding ways to market the Tour and its
stars outside of golf coverage.
CBS's Mr. McManus said that could include having a golfer on
Nickelodeon's "Kids' Choice Awards" and promoting the Tour on other
Viacom platforms such as MTV. "We're going to be very creative and
very aggressive in trying to promote the tour and its players," he
said.
One thing Mr. Anderson wants to avoid is having any golfers turn
up as the bad guy on CBS's "FBI" or NBC's "The Blacklist."
"We don't want any murderous golfers in the story line," he
said.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 09, 2020 07:44 ET (11:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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