Discovery sign deal for PGA Tour rights

LOS ANGELES: Discovery has inked a longterm international deal for PGA golf rights and will launch a PGA Tourbranded OTT service. The agreement for TV and digital rights to PGA Tour events in all territories outside the US runs for 12 years, and comes after the company made a major statement of intent in live sports with a deal for Olympics rights in Europe between 20182024.

The PGA Tour deal is worth US$2bil (RM7.9bil). The cost of the rights will escalate as more territories are added.

Discovery will pay US$50mil (RM198mil) per year in 2019 and 2020, US$100mil (RM397mil) in 2021 and then costs ramp up through 2030.

A further US$2030mil (RM78119mil) will be sunk into marketing over the first three years of the deal.

Discovery plans to offer coverage of the golf Tour, which runs for most of the year, on its traditional services, as well as via OTT.

The USbased company fully own the Eurosport sports network, which traditionally specialised in secondtier sports such as skiing and cycling but have ramped up ambitions under Discovery’s ownership, notably with the landmark US$1.44bil (RM5.7bil) Olympics deal.

As well as the linear service, there is an ondemand and streaming service, Eurosport Player, which was central to their Winter Olympics coverage.

As with the Olympics, Discovery will sublicense the PGA golf rights in some territories.

Former DirecTV and NBA executive Alex Kaplan, who joined the company last year, will oversee the PGA Tour coverage for Discovery.

The deal excludes the US, where the Tour runs on CBS and NBC.

With their lineup of players from around the world, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said that they plan to create “the new global home of golf.”

He added: “Following our successful first Olympic Games in PyeongChang, Discovery will contribute their strong global distribu tion and promotional infrastructure, inmarket relationships, global sports expertise with directtoconsumer platforms and brands to create a valuable new longterm Home of Golf offering in every market outside the US.”

Jay Monahan, commissioner, of PGA Tour, said: “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.