Sky lose more sports rights, as Discovery get PGA Tour Golf rights

Discovery, who own the Eurosport channels, has signed a long-term international deal for PGA golf rights, starting in 2019 and running for 12 years.

The agreement for TV and digital rights to PGA Tour events in all territories outside the U.S. runs for 12 years.

The PGA Tour deal is worth $2 billion and includes premium golf content of approximately 2000 hours from 40+ PGA TOUR events and nearly 150 tournaments per year, including THE PLAYERS Championship, FedExCup Playoffs, and the Presidents Cup

The cost of the rights will escalate as more territories are added. Discovery will pay $50 million per year in 2019 and 2020, $100 million in 2021 and then costs ramp up through 2030.

The launch dates for Discovery/Eurosport, which shows how their deal will add more countries as the 12 year deal progresses, are
2019 Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain
2020 Poland, South Korea
2021 Belgium, China, Germany, South Africa
2022 Denmark, Finland, India, Norway, Sweden, UK
2024 France

This is yet another blow to Sky and in particular its Sky Sports Golf channel, as this deal removes about half of the channels Golf content. However, although the Discovery deal starts in 2019, the Sky Sports still retains the PGA Tour rights until 2022.

However, as with their Olympic deal, it is thought that Discovery will sub-license the PGA golf rights in some territories.