Discovery strikes agreement with European Tour to expand GOLFTV portfolio and establish the 'digital home of golf'

SOURCE Discovery

– International multiplatform live rights, excluding select territories*, from January 2019.

– Live coverage of the 2020 and 2022 Ryder Cups from Whistling Straits, Wisconsin, and Marco Simone, Italy, excluding selected territories**.

– Discovery Golf to partner on the operations of the European Tour’s digital platforms.

NEW YORK and LONDON, Dec. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Discovery and the European Tour have announced a new partnership that will see GOLFTV continue to expand its portfolio and move towards becoming the established ‘digital home of golf’ for fans around the world. 

The wide-ranging agreement includes international multi-platform live rights, in selected territories,* to all European Tour events and the next two Ryder Cups**, as well as Discovery collaborating to further grow the European Tour’s digital platforms, showcasing the Tour’s innovative content worldwide.

The partnership will bring coverage of the European Tour and Ryder Cup together under GOLFTV, the global live and on-demand video streaming service launching in January 2019. Fans will be able to follow all the world’s greatest players, week in and week out, with a growing portfolio of content that will make GOLFTV an unmissable destination for golf entertainment worldwide.

GOLFTV will carry more than 40 European Tour events per year starting in January*. These events will include:

• Every Race to Dubai event throughout the season.
• All Rolex Series events, including the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, Aberdeen Standard investments Scottish Open, BMW PGA Championship, Italian Open, Turkish Airlines Open, Nedbank Golf Challenge and season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
• All World Golf Championships (WGC)*** events, including the Mexico Championship, the Dell Technologies Match Play, the FedEx St. Jude Invitational and HSBC Champions.
• Golf Sixes and the Hero Challenge.
• The European Challenge Tour and Staysure Tour.

Following Team Europe’s victory in Paris in September, live coverage of the next two Ryder Cups from Whistling Straits, Wisconsin, in 2020 and Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, Italy, in 2022 will be available to fans in selected territories through GOLFTV**.

Alex Kaplan, President and General Manager, Discovery Golf, said: “Welcoming the European Tour and The Ryder Cup into the GOLFTV world is a significant step in our journey to becoming a premier global destination for golf entertainment. To offer fans the chance to watch some of the biggest tournaments of the year week in and week out, featuring the world’s greatest players and their national heroes, is the perfect foundation of must-have content that fans can’t live without.”  

“To become the true ‘digital home of golf,’ we know we must think differently and go further than anything that has been done before,” Kaplan continued. “Forging a deeper relationship with the European Tour to help develop and grow its digital assets is a perfect example of that, and it highlights our long-term aim to build a true ecosystem around golf, leveraging Discovery’s global presence and expertise to achieve this at scale.” 

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive, European Tour, said: “Discovery has a very a strong vision for GOLFTV as a multi-platform destination for golf and we are delighted to be combining our global reach in 2019.

“Our partnership with Discovery, combined with our other broadcast deals, means that every fan in every territory will now be able to watch the European Tour. This new partnership is therefore an exciting move for us, allowing us to showcase the stars of the European Tour and our innovative content to a new audience,” Pelley concluded. 

From January 2019, Discovery will hold live European Tour rights in the following markets (please see Notes to Editors for full market list):

• Exclusive linear and digital rights in markets including Italy, Romania, Russia, Spain (sublicense agreed with Movistar+), Turkey; 
• GOLFTV digital streaming rights in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  Portugal, Balkan countries, Eurasia, India, Latin America, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and a number of territories in Asia; 

Moving beyond a traditional rights agreement, Discovery will partner with the European Tour on the operations of its digital platforms from 2019. Leveraging Discovery’s proven record in maximizing multi-platform engagement and commercialization around the world’s biggest and most watched sports events, the partners will work together to grow the European Tour’s digital assets, including the global website, the European Tour apps, and exploration of new local websites and local European Tour social media accounts, helping to showcase the Tour’s innovative digital content to a global audience.

Discovery will focus on developing and optimizing key aspects of the European Tour digital operation, such as technology, monetization and advertising. The European Tour will continue to provide content and editorial services for the digital platforms, and service its existing news and media clients.

Under the agreement, Discovery will also have the ability to sublicense TV and digital coverage, in the markets for which it holds exclusive rights, as part of a broader strategy to grow viewership of the European Tour. These markets, pending activation date of the full live rights, include Albania, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain (sublicense agreed with Movistar+), Turkey and Ukraine.

GOLFTV’s portfolio, which already includes the PGA TOUR, was boosted by a separate announcement last month which saw GOLFTV strike an exclusive global content partnership with 14-time major champion Tiger Woods. GOLFTV will collaborate with Woods on a wide range of content creation opportunities, including deep-dive instruction to help players improve their game, and exclusive access into Woods’ tournament preparation. The unique content will offer fans an authentic and regular look into the life, mind and performance of the game’s ultimate icon.

Further information regarding GOLFTV programming and content will be announced in due course.

*Excludes Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, sub-Saharan Africa markets including South Africa, Sweden, United States, UK & Ireland.
**Ryder Cup rights relate to European markets only.  Excludes European markets listed above (Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden, UK & Ireland) and Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
*** WGC’s relate to European and Middle East markets only (excluding European markets listed above: Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden, UK & Ireland).

NOTES TO EDITORS

GOLFTV is a digital video streaming platform and will be available in all international markets (excluding China and South Korea) from January 2019. It will feature a wide range of premium programming and content, including the PGA TOUR’s Featured Holes and Featured Groups live streams.

In addition, full live coverage will be rolled out market by market in accordance with rights activation dates.  The full live rights starting dates by territory are shown below for Discovery’s separate agreements with the European Tour and PGA TOUR.

European Tour:

PGA TOUR:

About Discovery
Discovery, Inc. (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) is the global leader in real life entertainment, serving a passionate audience of superfans around the world with content that inspires, informs and entertains. Discovery delivers over 8,000 hours of original programming each year and has category leadership across deeply loved content genres around the world. Available in 220 countries and territories and 50 languages, Discovery is a platform innovator, reaching viewers on all screens, including TV Everywhere products such as the GO portfolio of apps and Discovery Kids Play; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Eurosport Player and Motor Trend OnDemand; and digital-first and social content from Group Nine Media. Discovery’s portfolio of premium brands includes Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, Turbo/Velocity, Animal Planet, and Science Channel, as well as OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in the U.S., Discovery Kids in Latin America, and Eurosport, the leading provider of locally relevant, premium sports and Home of the Olympic Games across Europe. For more information, please visit www.corporate.discovery.com and follow @DiscoveryIncTV across social platforms.

About European Tour
The European Tour celebrates men’s professional golf on a global stage, combining innovation, diversity and world-class golf.

In 2019, the European Tour International Schedule will feature a minimum of 48 tournaments in 31 countries, including eight Rolex Series events, all part of the Race to Dubai.

Celebrating the global connectivity of the European Tour and Dubai, the Race to Dubai is a season-long competition to crown the European Tour’s Number One player, an honour which in 2018 went to Italy’s Francesco Molinari for the first time, and which, since 2009, has also been achieved three times by Rory McIlroy, twice by Henrik Stenson, and once each by Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Luke Donald and Tommy Fleetwood.

Since its formation in 1972, the European Tour has witnessed 28 Members celebrate a total of 54 Major Championship titles between them, enjoyed 11 Members attaining the pinnacle of World Number One and has celebrated its diversity as players from 36 different countries have won on the Tour.

The European Tour also manages the developmental Challenge Tour and the Staysure Tour (formerly known as the Senior Tour) which is the men’s professional golf tour for members aged 50 and older.

The European Tour is also the Managing Partner of Ryder Cup Europe, the body which, alongside the PGA of America, administers golf’s greatest team contest, The Ryder Cup. In 2018, the 42nd staging of the biennial contest between Europe and the United States of America took place at Le Golf National, France, from September 28-30. Europe were the victors with a score of 17.5-10.5. 

The European Tour broadcasts live coverage of its tournaments to more than 490 million homes in more than 150 countries every week, generating in excess of 2,200 global broadcast hours for each event. It also enjoys the support of many of the world’s leading business brands with Rolex, BMW, Dubai Duty Free, Emirates, Hilton and Titleist as Official Partners.

About GOLFTV
GOLFTV is the new ‘digital home of golf’ for the global fan community.  At the heart of GOLFTV is a live and on-demand video streaming service, showing every moment of the PGA TOUR, featuring the world’s greatest players, to a global audience every week. Established with innovation at its core, GOLFTV brings new drive, creativity and immersive technology to the world of golf. It aspires to offer fans a new way to consume, watch, play and engage with the game every day. GOLFTV is part of Discovery, a global leader in real-life entertainment with an extensive portfolio of direct-to-consumer platforms. Visit GOLF.TV and follow @GOLFTV on Twitter for the latest updates.

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