Twitter in talks for UK rights to PGA Championship – report

Social media platform Twitter is in negotiations to acquire rights in the UK to the PGA Championship, one of golf’s four major tournaments, according to the Financial Times.

The newspaper, citing several people briefed on the talks, said Twitter is targeting the acquisition of digital streaming rights to the tournament, which is operated by the PGA of America, with a UK free-to-air broadcaster also said to be in talks for television rights to the 2017 Championship.

The development comes after PGA of America chief commercial officer, Jeff Price, last week said the organisation would not extend its UK rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Sky in favour of exploring a new model for the event.

Sky’s rights deal for the PGA Championship has run for a decade, but will not be renewed for this year’s tournament which takes place at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina from August 10-13. The news came after Sky confirmed that a dedicated golf channel would be part of its revamped sports offering, with 10 channels to be made available from tomorrow (Tuesday).

In January, the PGA Tour agreed a new partnership with Twitter under which the platform will distribute more than 70 hours of live coverage from 31 tournaments for the remainder of the 2016-17 season.

Twitter serves as the exclusive global platform for the coverage, which started with the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, California on January 19 and is set to conclude at the season-ending Tour Championship.

The partnership also included an extension of the PGA Tour and Twitter’s Amplify program.