Television and Radio Coverage
In January 2006, the PGA Tour announced a new set of television deals covering 2007 to 2013. CBS Sports will remain the main carrier of PGA Tour events, and will increase its events from 16 to 19 per season. NBC Sports will increase its coverage from 5 to 10 events. Golf Channel will be the Tour's cable partner on a 15-year contract, providing early round coverage of all official money events and four round coverage of a few events at the beginning and towards the end of the season. As a result of Comcast's acquisition of NBC, Golf Channel also produces NBC's telecasts as of the 2011 season.
The fees involved were not mentioned in the press release, but it stated, "total prize money and other financial benefits to players will increase approximately $600 million over the term as compared to the previous six years, a 35-percent increase."
As they are not organized by the PGA Tour itself, certain events (such as the major championships) are not part of the overall broadcast contracts, but are broadcast under separate contracts with their respective organizers. Despite this, as of 2011, CBS and NBC still hold broadcast rights to 3 of the 4 majors; CBS has traditionally broadcast the Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship (ESPN and TNT air first and second round coverage of these tournaments respectively), coverage of all four rounds of the U.S. Open are broadcast on NBC. ESPN has provided exclusive coverage of The Open Championship since 2010, taking over for its sister company, ABC. Starting in 1966, ABC had the rights to the final three majors for a quarter century; CBS took over the PGA Championship in 1991 and NBC the U.S. Open in 1995.
The PGA Tour is also covered extensively outside the United States. In the United Kingdom, Sky Sports was the main broadcaster of the tour for a number of years up to 2006. Setanta Sports won exclusive UK and Ireland rights for six years from 2007 for a reported cost of £103 million. The deal includes Champions Tour and the Nationwide Tour events, but like the U.S. television deals it does not include the major championships, and unlike the U.S. deal, it does not include the World Golf Championships. Setanta set up the Setanta Golf channel to present its coverage. On June 23, 2009, Setanta's UK arm went into administration and ceased broadcasting. Eurosport picked up the television rights for the remainder of the 2009 season. Sky Sports regained the TV rights with an eight-year deal from 2010 to 2017. In South Korea, SBS, which has been the tour's exclusive TV broadcaster in that country since the mid-1990s, agreed in 2009 to extend its contract with the PGA Tour through 2019. As a part of that deal, it became sponsor of the season's opening tournament, a winners-only event that was renamed the SBS Championship effective in 2010. In 2011 however, Korean automobile manufacturer Hyundai took over the title sponsorship, but SBS still remains a sponsor of the event.
The Indian broadcaster NEO Sports obtained exclusive rights to the PGA Tour on the Indian subcontinent in 2008, and has since extended its deal through the 2015 season.
Since 2005, Sirius XM Radio has provided a PGA Tour branded station, the PGA Tour Network, which airs golf related programming and coverage of events, including the PGA Tour's circuits. In the United States, Dial Global provides some coverage of tournaments through its former connections as Westwood One before CBS spun it off, including the Masters.
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