Golf chief slams BBC coverage
ROYAL & ANCIENT chief executive Martin Slumbers whipped up a storm on the eve of The Open by describing the golf coverage of rights partner BBC as ‘tired and outdated’. Slumbers, in his second year in charge of golf’s governing body, made his damning comments despite the BBC still showing four days of highlights from Royal Birkdale this week, having relinquished their live contract to Sky a year early. The BBC’s huge surprise at Slumbers going on the attack was reinforced by the Corporation having yesterday secured live golf coverage of the US PGA championship — the last major of the season — which has been shown by Sky for a decade. Slumbers said: ‘I think when we moved last year we took what was frankly a fairly tired and outdated broadcast and turned it into absolutely world class and
raised the whole level of the way it was shown. ‘I think that was a combination and a partnership with the R&A that has truly improved how people are watching golf. A testament to that was that Sky won a BAFTA and they were up against the BBC’s coverage of the Olympics. ‘We’re very comfortable working with a partner that really understands the technology, they understand golf and they understand how they can help us showcase this fantastic championship to the world.’ The BBC chose not to respond on the record but believe their securing of more live golf from under Sky’s nose speaks for itself. Sportsmail revealed last week that Sky had failed to reach an agreement with the PGA of America, who said they were pursuing a different media model this year. That followed ‘greedy’ agents IMG asking for far more money than Sky were prepared to pay despite launching their dedicated Sky Golf channel last week. The BBC are understood to have paid very little for the rights, with IMG hoping to augment the terrestrial deal with social media streaming agreements on the back of BBC’s involvement. IMG made no comment. The US PGA tournament clashes with BBC coverage of the world athletics championship next month. The golf action from Quail Hollow Club, North Carolina will be on the BBC red button, transferring to BBC2. The PGA championship contract is also going to extend Peter Alliss’s involvement with the Beeb after he threatened to retire this year. Alliss, 86, surprisingly was not listed among the Beeb talent who earn more than £150,000.