The PGA Tour is looking to lay the foundation for improved international rights revenues by introducing a dedicated world feed.
The rights-holder has been looking at ways to broaden its global distribution since taking full ownership of the sale of its international media rights in the wake of the shuttering of Warner Bros. Discovery’s GolfTV at the end of 2022.
It is to introduce the separate world feed at its flagship Players Championship in March next year to better serve its international broadcasters “with locally relevant content”. The feed, which will then be used during the remainder of the 2025 season, will replace the ‘Enhanced International Feed’ which merely supplements the existing US broadcast feed. That model has been in place for more than two decades.
In a further step, the PGA Tour says it plans to produce localised live feeds “specific to certain countries, with native language announcers and graphics, in the coming years” as a “major step toward improving the international fan experience”.
Rights-holders such as the Bundesliga have been at the vanguard of producing feeds with bespoke local elements and data in a bid to drive more revenue from their international broadcast partners.
The new world feed will emanate from PGA Tour Studios, the Tour’s new content facility scheduled to open at the start of next year. It will incorporate specific cameras focused on international golfers, a customised graphics package, an international commentary team and on-site reporters. Up to six dedicated cameras will be used at selected FedEx Cup events.
Rick Anderson, the PGA Tour’s chief commercial officer, described the step as “the first of many”.
The world feed will, according to the Tour, allow it to curate and distribute enhanced content across its social and digital platforms. The Tour, faced with heightened competition from the rebel LIV Golf, recently took steps to enhance its engagement within a key demographic as it launched a 9-hole event to tap into social media followings of YouTube golf content creators.
PGA Tour Studios, located at the Tour’s headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, will be a 165,000-square-foot facility and will house all PGA Tour media operations, including live production for PGA Tour Live, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour, as well as social media, digital operations and international media.
A $2bn (€1.8bn), 12-year international media rights agreement with WBD took effect at the start of 2019. The deal included the on-sale of rights by the US-based media group. At the end of 2022 upon the closure of GolfTV, the Tour said that it had “renegotiated a restructured relationship” with the broadcaster which meant that it would exclusively manage “all current and future media rights”.
The PGA Tour previously managed its own international rights sales in-house and also continued to work closely with WBD on the go-to market strategy in each country. Despite having agreed the minimum guarantee deal running to 2030, the PGA Tour kept an international rights team in place – led by Thierry Pascal, senior vice-president of international media – and retained relations with rights-holding broadcasters, attending key industry events such as Sportel.