French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has agreed a four-year deal, from 2013 to 2016, for the rights for the British Open, the US Open and the US PGA Championship, three of golf’s four biggest tournaments, the ‘majors’.
The pay-television broadcaster already holds the rights to the Augusta Masters, giving it a clean sweep of all four majors.
Canal Plus launched a specialist golf channel, Golf Plus, earlier this month. The broadcaster’s other golf content includes the US PGA Tour, the European Tour, the World Golf Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Ladies European Tour.
Meanwhile, Canal Plus is also in negotiations with the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) for rights to the men’s and women’s World and European Championships from 2012-13 to 2014-15.
The deal would also include rights to other Fiba competitions, such as the federation’s EuroBasket 2013 and 2015 tournaments in Slovenia and Ukraine, respectively, as well as the Basketball World Cup in Spain in 2014 and continental senior and youth tournaments in Africa and the Americas.
In April, Canal Plus secured a deal to continue to show La Ligue Nationale de Basket, the French basketball league, for the next five years, from 2012-13 to 2016-17.