On Wednesday PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour announced the new television terms for the 2007-2012 seasons. The new PGA Tour schedule is a part of those changes, and many of the events will be seen on different networks than we’ve become accustomed to. Two new six-year deals were reached with CBS and NBC to provide weekend coverage of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup for the 2007-2012 seasons. What’s even bigger is an unprecedented 15 year agreement with The Golf Channel to be the exclusive cable partner for the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tours. The new agreements will also allow The Players Championship to move to a May date and air without commercial interruptions.
We are also delighted with the financial benefits of these agreements. We achieved our primary objective of securing continued solid growth in financial benefits to players. Under the new agreements, 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.
So let’s see how the event coverage will break down.
For The Golf Channel this is huge and great news for viewers as well. To me it just makes sense to have the network that is dedicated to the game 24 hours a day provide more coverage of its own sport. After all, The Golf Channel is the home of golf. Under the new 15-year agreement The Golf Channel will provide early-round coverage of all PGA Tour official money events. TGC will also provide full coverage of the Mercedes Championships, Sony Open in Hawaii, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the Fall Series events and finally the THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. The Golf Channel also becomes the official home for all Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour events.
The Golf Channel has had a great first 10 years, and this dynamic new long-term relationship will take it to the next level in the years to come. We look forward with significant enthusiasm to our expanded PGA TOUR partnership.
Moving on to CBS, they will expand their current coverage of 16 events to 19, carrying the West Coast events like the Buick Invitational and Nissan Open. This also includes the first of the four-event Championship Series, the PGA Championship a good chunk of the spring and summer events like the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational.
Now for NBC the network will double their current coverage of five events to 10. NBC wanted a bigger piece of tour coverage and therefore will provide coverage for the final three-events of the Championship Series. NBC will also provide coverage for The Players Championships which as mentioned will be moving to a May date. They have also secured the rights to two of the World Golf Championships including the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in late February. This will lead them into their current five-event March run which includes a new WGC event, the WGC-CA Championship to be played at Doral Golf Resort and Spa. Finally NBC wraps up their package by securing the rights to the The Presidents Cup through 2011.
We are extremely enthused about the alignment with two network partners of such reach and experience for the FedEx Cup season. Both CBS and NBC present the PGA TOUR at a high level, and have the talent, tradition and commitment to elevate PGA TOUR telecasts yet again. We feel we are now very well positioned for the long-term with these two outstanding partners, each of whom offers the TOUR the broadest possible reach to both avid and casual fans of golf.
ABC, as we reported last week, walked out on talks with the PGA Tour. ABC’s sister company ESPN walked out a few days later. Neither network will have any PGA Tour coverage after this season.
These new agreements help two tournaments specifically. The first is The Players Championship which will move to the second week in May to help space the big five events evenly, promote better attendance and thus increase viewership and sponsorship. The event will also receive expanded television coverage provided by The Golf Channel and the whole event to be covered by NBC under a limited commercial format that will allow commercials by a select group of sponsors. Secondly the new WGC-CA Championships will be played in March at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa and will replace the WGC-American Express Championship, played this year at The Grove in Hertfordshire, England in September 2006 and last year at Harding Park.
Finally the new television agreements the total prize money and other financial benefits are expected to increase by 35 percent. This also helps the Tour generate more charitable growth and achieve their goal of donating a second billion in all-time charitable contributions within the next 10 years.
Personally I’m really looking forward to the 2007 season and am excited about seeing better quality events fielding the top players in the world but for now I’m just glad the 2006 season is under way.
Listen, I’m all for the Golf Channel and I love having a network devoted to the game 24 hours a day. Way to go TGC.
However, I’m a little hesitant to agree that this is great news for viewers. Here’s why: I travel extensively around the country and I must say that I’m in places where I can get TGC about 10% of the time, tops. This has to change and maybe (surely) this will help, but let’s not count our ProV1’s before they hatch from the sleeve.
Secondly, and probably just as importantly, TGC’s talent on air and the way they cover tournaments is HORRENDOUS. Seriously, have you watched an event where their talent is doing the work? It’s very clearly second rate. Not enough cameras, poor sound, poor reporting, 2nd rate features and the like. One viewing of the premier event they have ever had (this year’s Solheim Cup) shows you how adept they are at making a “drop.” As in dropping the ball on something they should have used mightily to get to the next level.
I hope they surprise me and we (and they) do benefit. I’m certainly pulling for them.