French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has renewed its rights to the European Tour and Ryder Cup golf competitions in a multi-year deal running from 2021.
Under the deal, it will hold exclusive, multi-platform rights to all tournaments on the European circuit, including the Rolex Series and also the World Golf Championships, as well as forthcoming editions of the Ryder Cup.
Canal Plus will exploit the majority of the rights on its dedicated golf channel, Golf Plus, with select coverage available on the general Canal Plus sports channels.
The deal also allows Canal Plus to broadcast select free-to-air coverage of the Ryder Cup.
The next edition of the biennial tournament has been postponed by one year to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a knock-on effect, the next Ryder Cup to be held in Europe will be the 2023 edition at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club near Rome, Italy.
Canal Plus has held European Tour rights in France for over 20 years. Its current four-year deal expires this year. That deal also included rights to the World Golf Championships as well to three of the four majors: the Open Championship, the US Open and the PGA Championship.
The European Tour is advised on its media-rights sales by the IMG agency.
Canal Plus also holds rights to the US PGA Tour in a deal that expires at the end of 2022.