AP: ESPN+ To Land PGA Tour Live Rights

The PGA Tour has reportedly made the wise move for all of its TV partners by awarding the PGA Tour Live streaming package to ESPN+, according to this unbylined AP report. The package of pre-telecast coverage is currently offered by NBC Sports Gold through the end of 2019.

From the report:

It would not be the first time ESPN+ has shown the PGA Tour. It had a portion of PGA Tour Live in 2018 — it was run by BAMTech, of which Disney had acquired a controlling stake the previous summer. PGA Tour Live moved to NBC Sports Gold for 2019 and this year.

ESPN previously won the rights to weekday coverage of the PGA Championship starting this year at Harding Park and plans to offer supplemental feeds on ESPN+.

While I’m a Golf Channel contributor and therefore rooting for their properties to succeed, getting ESPN involved in the next media rights deal is a fantastic coup for all involved with the PGA Tour, including rival broadcasters.

Not only does this assure coverage on millions of devices having access to the pre-telecast coverage via ESPN+’s app (as opposed to a smaller audience paying one fee just for PGA Tour Live), a partnership with ESPN means continued Sportscenter coverage, a partnership with Disney and a visibility for golf that no one else in streaming can deliver short of Netflix or Amazon.

As I wrote back in December, the USGA made a huge mistake saying goodbye to the Worldwide Leader and I’m glad the PGA Tour learned from such a mistake.

ESPN+ is estimated to reach 3.5 million devices as of November, 2019. It can also be bundled alongside Hulu and Disney+ for just the low, low price of $12.99 a month. The Mandalorian alone is worth that alone!

This also means that if the rumors are true, the PGA Tour’s next deal will have them in partnership with Comcast, Viacom, Disney and Discovery Networks. While that leaves out Fox, it’s still a pretty stout set of major media company partners.