NEW YORK: Discovery Communications and the PGA Tour announced on Monday the formation of a strategic alliance for a 12-year period from 2019 to 2030, which involves the sport of golf getting its branded OTT video streaming service for the first time ever.
This will capitalize on Discovery’s direct-to-consumer product and platform expertise as home to the Eurosport Player. For this period, all PGA Tour’s broadcast rights outside of the US will be handled in partnership with Discovery. The announcement covers 21 markets, including Australia, South Korea and Canada.
As a part of the deal, Discovery will gain the global multi-platform live rights of all the PGA Tour media properties, providing viewers content of up to 2000 hours every year including the six Tours operating under the PGA umbrella and nearly 150 tournaments annually, including The Players Championship, the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the Presidents Cup.
Discovery will telecast the events across 220 markets and territories on every screen and device.
The stated aim of the alliance is to expand golf’s fan base and grow the sport around the world.
The media conglomerate controlled by Liberty Media is expected to invest more than $2 billion over the course of the alliance, including licensing of the PGA Tour’s international media rights and building the global OTT platform outside the United States, with a gradual increase of annual investment during the term.
Building on a heritage of world-class coverage and storytelling, Discovery will broadcast the PGA Tour on its portfolio of pay-TV and free-to-air channels, digital and short-form platforms, and will work with the PGA Tour on how to capture all access to the action and its extensive non-live and library rights for all media platforms.
David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery, said Monday: “Today is a fantastic day for golf fans around the world as Discovery proudly partners with the PGA Tour to create something that has never been done before. The long-term partnership between the PGA Tour and Discovery will create the new global home of golf, including delivering over 2,000 hours of live content year-round and this prestigious sport’s greatest moments, stories and athletes.
“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.”
Jay Monahan, commissioner, 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. This partnership aligns very well with the opening of PGA Tour offices in London, Tokyo and Beijing in recent years and will support our long-term objectives of growing the game of golf. It also will deliver more value to our sponsors as it presents a tremendous opportunity to engage new and diverse audiences around the world.”
The business will be led by Discovery’s Alex Kaplan, president and general manager of the new Discovery and PGA Tour venture. The full management team will be announced in due course and include the PGA Tour’s Thierry Pascal as senior vice president and head of Distribution.
Kaplan said: “I am incredibly excited to work with David Zaslav and JB Perrette to takeinternational coverage of PGA TOUR golf to the next level. We can’t wait to get started and builda world-class global platform and long-term distribution strategy to turn the vision of thispartnership into a reality. By joining forces with the outstanding PGA TOUR team, led by JayMonahan and Rick Anderson, we have a unique opportunity to build an amazing product that willserve the fans with the golf content they love on every screen.”
Discovery has upped its ante in recent years when it comes to sports, being the home of the Olympic Games in Europe through its brand, Eurosport. It holds the TV and multimedia rights for the tournament till 2024.
For the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Discovery established more than 40 free-toair broadcast partnerships, delivering every minute of the Olympic Games via OTT for the first time across Europe. It also struck social media partnerships to reach younger audiences, such as establishing Snapchat’s first Olympics collaboration in Europe.
In India, Discovery branded DSport has the broadcast rights of the PGA Championship.
