$2 Billion: Discovery Lands PGA Tour International Television Rights

I believe Sky Sports has the UK rights through 2021, but otherwise PGA Tour golf has a new partner in Discovery, reports Bloomberg's Gerry Smith.

The 12-year deal, which begins next year, includes TV and online rights to the U.S.-based men’s golf circuit, and the development of a Netflix-like video service. It covers more than 140 tournaments a year, including about 40 PGA Tour events.

Netflix-like! 

Here is the real key to how the whole thing makes sense for Discovery, owners of Animal Planet and HGTV:

Discovery will air tour events on its regular TV channels and use them to attract more viewers to its online service, Eurosport Player, which has more than 1 million subscribers who currently pay to stream soccer, tennis and other sports. The tour puts on events 43 weeks a year, so fans would have a reason to keep coming back, Zaslav said. Discovery also will sublicense rights in some markets.