PGA Tour's new TV deal indicates that the value of sports rights continues to grow

Another sign that the value of sports media rights is still growing rapidly, the PGA Tour is expected to have a lucrative new media rights agreement on Monday. announces 2030. Golf tournaments remain on CBS, NBC and the golf channel – where they have been shown since the mid-2000s – while ESPN will display additional content on ESPN +, its digital streaming service.

Although none of the parties would comment on the value of the agreement, four people familiar with the negotiations said that the media companies would pay at least a 60 percent increase, even if the biggest star and wave of ratings, Tiger Woods, is approaching the end of his career. The current agreement runs until 2021 and is estimated to pay the PGA Tour $ 400 million annually.

With tens of billions of dollars in agreements for sports media rights that expire in the coming years, the PGA Tour deliberately started negotiations more than two years before the contracts would expire.

"We wanted to come out for everyone," said Rick Anderson, the PGA Tour's chief employee. "Anyone who can go early in the sports market will try that."

While media executives continue to have an almost insatiable hunger for live sports, television, cable, internet and digital media are changing so fast that the PGA Tour did not dare to take a chance on what it would look like in 2022, Anderson said.

"This market, consumption habits and platforms, is changing so fast that you cannot really make any assumptions about the pace of change," he added.

One of the larger unknowns in sports broadcasts is the strategy and future of CBS CBS recently merged with Viacom to replace the chief executive, stock has fallen since a bad win report two weeks ago, and the new ViacomCBS is much smaller than its competitors such as NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast, and ESPN, owned by the Walt Disney Company.

It has also lost one of its most profitable sports rights.

In December, CBS said it was negotiating the rights of has ended the Southeastern Conference & # 39; s soccer game of the week, which goes to Disney in early 2023. But to surprise, CBS has won the rights to play Champions League games from next year, despite the fact that there is almost no history in which football is shown.

Sean McManus, the president of CBS Sports, said in an interview that golf was a "basic sport" for CBS, and the company's main possession from April to September – from the end of the college basketball season to the start of the football season.

"Sport is becoming increasingly important in the overall ViacomCBS portfolio," he said. "I expect that we are very aggressive to maintain our sporting qualities at CBS."

The largest sports possession for CBS and all other media companies is the N.F.L. Rights negotiations for professional football can start quickly if the players approve a proposed collective agreement this week.

Although CBS will look into acquiring new rights, "our main concern is protecting the major events we have," McManus said

Digital, PGA Tour Live is a niche range for hard-core golf fans. A partnership between the PGA Tour and NBC mainly consists of a live feed that covers two golf groups of tournaments on Thursday and Friday mornings. Under ESPN, which according to two people familiar with the negotiations pays around $ 75 million annually, it will expand to four live feeds.

ESPN is also expected to increase its coverage and promotion of golf at "SportsCenter" and its daytime series now shows that it has an increased investment in sport.

In a recent profit call, Disney announced that ESPN + has 7.6 million subscribers, a demographic group that is distorted because of the heavy mixed martial arts and football games are available. Golf should help ESPN + to attract an older and richer audience for the streaming service.

According to the agreement, NBC and CBS will show each other alternately all three FedExCup Playoffs tournaments. The PGA Tour itself also takes on the most technical and production responsibilities, and produces feeds for NBC, CBS, ESPN, the Golf Channel and overseas beneficiaries, similar to the model used for the Olympic Games and the World Cup.

CBS and NBC will continue to use their own production and announcement teams, as well as graphics.

"Three major media entities that hit the drum – I think that's good," said Pete Bevacqua, the president of NBC Sports. "There will be a lot of Tour coverage."