The PGA Tour has launched a free ad-supported streaming channel on video-on-demand service XUMO that will feature access to taped highlights, recaps, player interviews, tournament previews and live coverage of certain holes.
The companies say this marks the first ad-supported PGA Tour over-the-top channel available on smart TVs. It’ll feature both live and on-demand programming, adding a free component to the suite of paid streaming options the PGA already offers, including through its own PGA Tour Live app, which is available for $5.99 a month or $39.99 annually.
XUMO says the deal helps to solidify it further as “the leading free streaming television company.” Irvine, Calif.-based XUMO delivers more than 140 premium digital channels on a direct-to-consumer platform/
Talk about a “hole-in-one” of a channel addition!
Tune in to @PGATOUR for live coverage of matches, as well as highlights, recaps, interviews & tournament previewshttps://t.co/KMDKkgWk29 pic.twitter.com/epwR9Bwc27
— XUMO (@XumoTV) March 19, 2018
Launched this weekend, the new golf channel is available on LG’s Channel Plus service, accessible via XUMO’s channel “IP-750” and across its distribution network that includes smart TVs from Hisense, Sharp, VIZIO and Panasonic. Starting this week at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, live “Featured Holes” content previously only available on PGA Tour Live will also air on XUMO.
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“The PGA TOUR represents the best in sports and entertainment and XUMO is honored and excited to help the TOUR distribute its channel for the first time across smart TVs,” Stefan Van Engen, Senior Vice President, Content Programming and Acquisitions at XUMO, said in a statement.
Luis Goicouria, the PGA Tour’s Senior Vice President of Digital Platforms and Media Strategy, said the XUMO partnership is a part of the tour’s quest to “serve golf fans wherever they are, and however they want to consume” the PGA’s content, adding that XUMO’s audience is “highly engaged.”
SportTechie Takeaway:
The PGA Tour has grown increasingly tech savvy over the past few years as part of an effort to reinvigorate the brand and attract new generations of golf fans. In February, the league launched an augmented reality app on Hololens built by Taqtile (SportTechie’s 2017 Outstanding Startup) to give fans access to a virtual tour of the TPC Scottsdale golf course with real-time local weather and PGA Tour ShotLink data of player statistics. The PGA Tour told SportTechie that it plans to launch an iOS augmented reality app this spring. The new PGA Tour channel also comes as leagues and traditional broadcasters race to develop over-the-top channels to attract consumers who have divorced from expensive cable packages.