US network NBC has acquired rights for the Scottish Open golf championship in a deal with the European Tour, the sport’s leading professional tour in Europe, and US pay-television broadcaster the Golf Channel.
The deal will run for two years, covering the 2013 and 2014 editions of the championship.
NBC will show two-and-a-half hours of live coverage of the event on each of the final two days of play during the 2013 and 2014 tournaments.
Golf Channel said that it would provide live coverage of the first two days’ play and the mornings of the final two days, but the network would schedule ‘Golf Channel on NBC’ for the afternoons on the final two days.
The 2013 championship will be the first regular European Tour event to be shown live on US network television. Until now, only major championships, tournaments operated by the World Golf Championships and leading team events have been shown live on US networks.
The Tour said that the deal would give the tournament’s title sponsor – Aberdeen Asset Management, which is eager to promote its global asset management business in the US – the opportunity to advertise and engage in promotional activity around the coverage.
“Following the vision and leadership of the Golf Channel, we are delighted to enter into this historic new agreement with NBC,” European Tour chief executive George O’Grady said. “It speaks volumes for the quality of the European Tour product, and specifically the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, that one of our most prestigious championships will be shown to a new audience on one of the prime TV networks in the United States in conjunction with our already outstanding coverage on the Golf Channel.”