NBC Sports said it has made a deal with the PGA Tour to put early round coverage of golf events on its over-the-top subscription service NBC Sports Gold.
The PGA launched its own service, PGA Tour Live in 2015. Starting in 2019, it will be part of the NBC Sports offering.
Pricing will be announced in January.
NBC Sports Gold, launched in 2016, includes packages for fans of Tour de France, Premiere League, Rugby World Cup, Boston Marathon and Pro Motocross. In 2019, NBC Sports Gold will be adding IndyCar events.
Related: Indy 500 Moving to NBC After 54 Years on ABC
“We’ve worked together with the PGA tour on many projects across many platforms and we’re looking forward to taking the next step with PGA Tour Live on NBC Sports Gold,” said Mike McCarley, president, golf, NBC Sports.
“Building upon years of partnership, NBC Sports Group and the PGA Tour are raising the profile of PGA Tour Live as a complement to the hundreds of live hours of PGA Tour tournament coverage across Golf Channel and NBC Sports. As we help build PGA Tour Live, we’re fortunate to be able to apply lessons learned from years of digital innovation in covering some of the biggest events in sports via NBC Sports’ best-in-class streaming capabilities.
In 2019, PGA Tour Live plans to stream more than 360 hours of exclusive subscription coverage, as well as hundreds of hours of free Featured Holes coverage, complementing televised coverage from 28 PGA Tour events next year. PGA Tour Entertainment will continue to produce the live coverage. Highlights of the PGA TOUR LIVE subscription package launching on NBC Sports Gold include:
· Pre-game Show: a 30-minute preview program that leads into the morning’s live competition coverage.
· Featured Groups: early round coverage on Thursday and Friday prior to Golf Channel’s afternoon television window. Featured Groups coverage follows two concurrent, high-profile groups throughout their 18-hole rounds. To-date in 2018, PGA TOUR LIVE has featured entire rounds (outside traditional televised windows) of Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, and dozens more.
· Featured Holes: live coverage of some of the PGA TOUR’s most iconic holes, concurrent with Golf Channel’s television window (traditionally from 3-6 p.m. ET).
Related: Tiger's Challenge Drives Ratings for NBC's Open
· Integrated Statistical Feeds: Users never have to leave the action with integrated live leaderboards and player scorecards.
· Comprehensive Viewership Experience: Streamlines the PGA TOUR viewership experience by providing golf fans a continuous platform for streaming via NBC Sports Gold for PGA TOUR LIVE’s, Golf Channel’s and NBC Sports’ coverage windows.
· Featured Player Recaps: Users can get caught up on the day’s action with new condensed rounds from each player in the Featured Group coverage.
· Event Recaps: Watch an event recap in an hour-long cut down show that highlights the best of that weeks’ tournament.
NBC Sports Gold is available on Desktop, Android, iOS and Apple TV. It is expanding onto Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and Roku next year.
NBC Sports Gold is powered by Playmaker Media, NBC Sports Digital’s streaming and VOD solution. In 2018 it delivered 4.37 billion live streaming minutes for the three biggest digital events: Super Bowl LII, Winter Olympics, and FIFA World Cup.
