PGA Tour extends Xumo partnership

Golf’s PGA Tour has renewed and expanded its partnership with US streaming television company Xumo.

Terms of the new deal were not disclosed, but it follows an initial agreement signed in March 2018. Under that deal, the Tour and Xumo launched the first ad-supported PGA Tour OTT channel on smart televisions. The channel provides viewers live and video-on-demand programming.

In 2019 the expanded partnership will see the Tour distribute more than 175 hours of live Featured Holes coverage on Xumo from 23 events in addition to expanded highlights, player interviews and tournament recap shows.

The PGA Tour’s channel on Xumo is available on LG’s Channel Plus service and across the Xumo distribution network, including Hisense, Sharp, Vizio and Panasonic connected devices, making Xumo available in over 35 million US households.

“The sports genre on Xumo has experienced explosive growth, and with the addition and expansion of the PGA Tour’s content and channel on Xumo, we’re able to deliver even more live and catch-up programming that fans demand,” Stefan Van Engen, senior vice-president of content programming and acquisitions at Xumo, said.

“In fact, Xumo saw a 65-per-cent increase in on-demand viewing in Q3 of 2018 alone as viewers re-lived full tournament recap experiences leading up to the Tour Championship last September.”