PGA TOUR AND LPGA COVERAGE RETURNS TO SKY

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wingbat45

233 posts

Master Geek

#196728 10-Jun-2016 16:19

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (June 10, 2016) – The PGA TOUR and the LPGA jointly announced today agreements with SKY that will return their tournament coverage to broadcast television. The LPGA conversion begins this week with coverage of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. PGA TOUR coverage will switch back to SKY for The Greenbrier Classic, the week of July 4-10.

The PGA TOUR and LPGA, through separate agreements with Coliseum Sports Media (CSM)/Lightbox, launched OTT subscription services in 2015 known as PGA TOUR LIVE and World Golf Pass, respectively.

While subscriber levels were healthy and the product was excellent, it became apparent after more than a year that many New Zealand golf fans did not have the necessary comfort in their broadband connectivity to maximize the viewing experience. The best course of action was to return to broadcast television and SKY Sport, which held broadcast rights to both Tours prior to their move to the OTT service.

PGA TOUR coverage will remain on PGA TOUR LIVE until the week of The Greenbrier Classic, at which time existing subscribers will be fully refunded for the remainder of their subscription. SKY will also provide PGA TOUR LIVE subscribers with a free installation for those wishing to continue watching the PGA TOUR and LPGA on the network.

The PGA TOUR will maintain an OTT presence in New Zealand through its global product, also called PGA TOUR LIVE, which provides live coverage of early-round Featured Groups as well as Featured Hole coverage. This service will be provided for free to existing PGA TOUR LIVE subscribers through the end of the year.

From the Sky media section of the website:

https://www.sky.co.nz/-/mk_pressrelease_160616

Thoughts people (s)?

3puttssuck

744 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1569555 10-Jun-2016 16:44

I am very unhappy with this move. I used the PGA Tour Live app and it worked great & was good value for money I don't have / want Sky, it's too expensive for what it offers & I'm not going to sign up just to get the golf !!!

ockel

2031 posts

Uber Geek

#1569570 10-Jun-2016 16:50

Lengthy tournament-style events aimed at an age-cohort that is less inclined to stream vs millenials was always going to be a hard sell. Especially when you consider that golf on a big screen in HD is visually hard to beat.

Despite the success of NZ golfers in both the LPGA and PGA and a relatively low price point it never seemed to garner enough interest. And when early rounds started to appear on TVNZ popup it started to look like the proposition wasnt working.

Of course CSM claimed to have interest in growing its sports streaming products in NZ but has done exactly the opposite. So much for the great white hope to rescue sports fans from the big-bad Sky.

Should have guessed when the schedule on Duke didnt extend beyond Queens Birthday weekend that something was up.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"