Without question, sport is best watched when it’s live, whether that be in first-person or simply in real-time on a screen somewhere. And, like everything in life, it’s even better when it’s free. Yahoo will deliver just this, signing a partnership deal with the PGA Tour that will see free, live action from the PGA Tour’s tournaments shown in an on-demand service.
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No cable subscription required – beginning with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week, golf fans will be able to stream featured holes from the early rounds of many tournaments for free. The Yahoo golf page will feature all tournaments available, while the Yahoo sports page will pick out selected events.
The news follows on from a similar move in the NFL from Yahoo. In October they gained huge praise for the first ever live-stream of an NFL game on the internet for free, entertaining 15.2 million unique viewers for the Jaguars vs Bills game in Wembley, London. With live-streaming agreements for both NFL games and the PGA Tour, a strategy may be unfolding for Yahoo.
While often seen to be crowded out by the enormous digital presence of you-know-who (Google), Yahoo will be anticipating that a move into the live-streaming of sport diversifies them. Their war with Google and others won’t be going away any time soon, so why not move the battleground? And, ultimately, they will be hoping that it ends up paying dividends – both for themselves and sports fans, while also encouraging the next generation to hit the driving range.
Following the success of the NFL live-stream, the question certainly won’t be whether they are up to the challenge. Instead, people will be asking what sports might be next for Yahoo?