Discovery will add Ladies European Tour coverage to its new GolfTV streaming platform as part of a multi-year, multi-platform rights deal announced last week. All Ladies European Tour matches will stream across 25 European countries once GolfTV launches in January 2019.
The countries where viewers can watch matches on GolfTV include Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Live coverage of the 2019 and 2021 Solheim Cups—the biggest event in women’s professional golf featuring teams from Europe and the United States—will also be streamed on GolfTV as part of the partnership. In addition to covering every Ladies European Tour event, GolfTV will also included original programming and highlights from the LET.
“Building on our long-standing relationship with Discovery, it’s fantastic for the LET to be joining GOLFTV’s ground breaking new streaming service. Digital distribution has long been a critical component for women’s golf and it’s very exciting to now be positioned under one roof with the men’s game,” said Mark Lichtenhein, CEO of Ladies European Tour in a press release.
Under the agreement, Discovery will have the ability to sublicense the Ladies European Tour TV and digital coverage as part of a broader strategy to grow viewership of the Ladies European Tour. The 2019 Ladies European Tour season begins Jan. 10 with the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi.
“We’re excited to welcome the Ladies European Tour and Solheim Cup to the GOLFTV family, signifying another milestone in our journey to becoming the true ‘digital home of golf’ for fans,” added Alex Kaplan, President, Discovery Golf, in the press release. “Our new relationship with the Ladies European Tour underlines our ambition to showcase women’s golf on a global platform, and feature the world’s greatest players, every week of the year.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Discovery now adds coverage of the Ladies European Tour to the GolfTV streaming service that will also provide live coverage of the men’s PGA Tour as well as the men’s European Tour. GolfTV will begin launching across select European countries in 2019. Over the next five years, the service plans to expand to every international market excluding the U.S., China, and South Korea. Discovery’s deal with the Ladies European Tour is another example of streaming platforms providing an opportunity for a women’s sports organization to reach the same broad audience as men’s sports leagues, which often receive far more coverage than their female counterparts on traditional broadcasting network television.