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OAKMONT, Pa. — The U.S. Open’s media-rights deal with NBC Sports expires after next year’s tournament, but the USGA is not close to signing a new broadcasting contract for its championships, according to the governing body’s CEO, Mike Whan.
“We’re in the marketplace right now, early in the process,” Whan said Wednesday. “I guess all I’d say is the level of interest, including our current partners, which are phenomenal, has been great. We’re not to the point yet where we’re close. We’re months away—not weeks away—from figuring out what the future is.”
NBC had USGA rights from 1995 until 2014, when Fox Sports swooped in with a 12-year, $1.1 billion deal. However, Fox’s golf ambitions never fully materialized, and the network sold the remainder of its package back to NBC at a severely reduced rate after the 2019 U.S. Open.
For its next deal, Whan said the USGA is “going to look for somebody that can deliver at the levels or better than we’re delivering now.” This week, NBC Sports platforms will have 46 hours of live U.S. Open coverage across the primary NBC channel, USA Network, and Peacock.
One complication for a potential NBC extension comes from parent company Comcast spinning off its cable channels like USA and Golf Channel into a new entity, Versant. The move is putting the NBC Sports portfolio in a somewhat fragmented state.
Who Would the Contenders Be?
If NBC didn’t extend with the USGA, two logical potential replacements would be CBS and ESPN, which annually partner together on the Masters and PGA Championship coverage.
However, last month, CBS Sports president David Berson was asked about U.S. Open rights during a conference call with reporters, and he simply said, “We love our golf portfolio.”
For ESPN, one obstacle could be that adding the U.S. Open would run alongside its NBA Finals coverage each June. ABC airs those games in prime time, which would mean West Coast U.S. Opens, like at Pebble Beach, wouldn’t get as much primetime-network airtime.
Fox Sports returned to golf this year with a multiyear deal with LIV Golf, but the network isn’t paying a large rights fee, and LIV is covering production.
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