CBS, NBC, Golf Channel Have Scooped Up Majority Of Next PGA Tour Contract Through 2030

John Ourand predicted the outcome just hours before reporting exclusively for Sports Business Daily on the PGA Tour’s next TV rights deal, which looks very similar in many respects to their current arrangement.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Any baseball fan can tell you how the discombobulated structure of network and playoff games takes something away from the simplicity of knowing where to find a telecast. And while streaming, cord-cutting and other sports chip away at the number of viewers, golf has posted smaller declines compared to some sports, in part because final rounds are found on networks and the core audience knows where to find early round coverage.

That said, Ourand says deals haven’t been officially signed pending the resolution of “minor sticking points”. Left undecided is the provider of digital streams for PGA Tour Live coverage and other digital elements. But he still reports many exclusive details worth considering beyond the money stuff, which only PGA Tour VP’s care about as they look to upgrade their X3’s to X5 M’s this holiday shopping season.

Ourand says the annual value of the deal jumps from $400 million to $700 million. And….

CBS and NBC essentially will keep the same regular-season packages. The big difference will be seen with the FedEx Cup Playoffs. CBS and NBC will produce all three playoff tournaments, including the Tour Championship, in alternating years. As part of the nine-year deals, NBC will carry the playoffs five times and CBS will carry them four times. Previously, NBC and CBS shared these rights, with NBC producing most of them each year.

I’m not sure of the reasoning behind this. Nor can I envision why fans will care.

An official announcement is not expected to come until early next year. The big hold-up is with digital rights, which are currently held by NBC Sports as part of PGA Tour Live and are still being negotiated. ESPN has made an aggressive play for the rights, which in addition to PGA Tour Live, includes tournament coverage before the networks go on air. ESPN+ would carry the digital rights. Discovery also has emerged as a serious contender for the digital rights and appears likely to share them with NBC Sports if they can manage to work out a deal. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally. After initial interest, it appears that Amazon has dropped out of the bidding. Sources said it was too difficult to handicap a favorite for the digital rights.

Again, this is pre-coverage on PGA Tour Live and remains a small part of the equation. More fascinating is that the PGA Tour Live broadcast window and role sounds about the same in the new deal as the old.

The Tour hired Evolution Media as counsel on its rights deals. CBS and NBC also emerge as winners, keeping rights to a property that generated a lot of interest among media companies. The deal answers a lot of questions about the new ViacomCBS, whose merger became official two weeks ago. Coming on the heels of its UEFA Champions League deal, this PGA Tour deal shows that CBS will be aggressive in getting sports rights. The deal shows how important the Tour is to Golf Channel -- and how important Golf Channel is to the Tour. As part of its offer, AT&T said it would turn Headline News into a golf-centric channel, but sources said AT&T never got close to a deal.

In the battle of media moguls, does this mean Brian Roberts closed out Randall Stephenson 6&5?

Left unsaid: how much AT&T’s debt issues and activist investor impacted willingness to introduced a new channel as the future becomes OTT/app-focused.

Also to be explained: what happened to anticipated interest from Fox, Amazon and ABC, or the to-be-created PGA Tour Network. Are the first three outlets cited saving their money for the NFL or did they decide golf just wasn’t for them.

The structure outlined appears to be a small victory for network and cable where a majority of golf fans still reside. However, we’ll hopefully learn of efforts addressed in the new deal to provide cord cutters the option to pay for this coverage via OTT services, and also of PGA Tour demands for certain production values.

Also unaddressed yet: what happens to LPGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry coverage rights?

And the most pressing question of all should settled soon: is the CEO mid-final round interview a thing of the past?