Discovery’s portfolio of television networks is best known for its lifestyle brands (HGTV, Food Network) and its nature programming (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet), but the media company has now expanded its international sports reach through a new rights agreement with the PGA Tour.
The 12-year, $2-billion agreement will run from 2019 through 2030, and includes global TV and multi-platform rights outside the U.S. for nearly 150 annual tournaments. Part of the partnership is the planned creation of a PGA Tour-branded OTT streaming service that Discovery David Zaslav called a “Netflix” of golf in a post-announcement interview. Zaslav singled out Asia as “a huge opportunity.”
While Discovery has little sports presence in the U.S., the company owns and operates Eurosport across the old continent. Eurosport has extensive rights deals to broadcast the Olympic Games and Wimbledon as well as a series of other agreements for each country’s viewers. Discovery partnered with BAMTech in 2016 on the creation of BAMTech Europe; Eurosport Digital became the new company’s first client.
Longtime sports media executive Alex Kaplan—whose resumé includes stops running the NBA’s global media distribution and overseeing the creation of DirecTV Sports—will lead Discovery’s new golf venture as its president and general manager. He most recently had been an EVP for Eurosport Digital.
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SportTechie Takeaway
U.S. residents won’t notice a difference—Shark Week will still air, and Fixer Upper isn’t coming back—but this deal signals the continuation of a sea change abroad. Discovery’s recent Olympics deal that began with the 2018 Winter Games earlier this year was its first claim of major exclusive sports rights. This new PGA Tour agreement builds on that exponentially, as Discovery will now have rights to 2,000 hours of live programming each year rather than just a two-week event every other year.