PGA Tour, Warner Bros. Discovery Redo $2B Rights Deal

The golf world is reconfiguring its international media setup.

The PGA Tour and Warner Bros. Discovery have restructured their 12-year, $2 billion international rights deal to account for the shuttering of the latter’s streaming service, GolfTV. 

• The PGA Tour will take back its media rights in Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe and Latin America not covered by WBD’s Eurosport and streaming service Discovery+.
• Those two networks will retain their PGA Tour rights and coverage where they operate in Europe and Latin America.

The PGA Tour and Discovery’s initial 2018 deal included the creation of GolfTV, which launched on Jan. 1, 2019 but closed in November 2022. 

WBD cited changes in consumer behavior toward broad offerings — as opposed to specialized media products — in closing down GolfTV.

Warner Bros. merged with Discovery in April 2022 in a $43 billion deal with former WarnerMedia owner AT&T, bringing together a wide array of sports and other media properties.

Tiger Style

With one media operation closing, the PGA Tour looks toward the launch of another. 

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s tech-forward golf league TGL is set to launch in January 2024, but it has already made some big moves. 

Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas agreed to join the league in November. Last month, TGL parent company TMRW Sports struck a deal with Palm Beach State College to create a new venue for its unique, tech-infused competition.