Inside GolfTV, the PGA TOUR, and Discovery's International Expansion The streaming service will combine live coverage and localized content By Troy Dreier, Contributor, Streaming & Digital
Monday, October 29, 2018 - 12:21 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
On June 4, the PGA TOUR and Discovery announced a 12-year partnership to create a streaming service for the international market but included few details. Last week, they unveiled GolfTV, which will be available to viewers in every country except the U.S. starting Jan. 1.
GolfTV is a links-lover's wish list, combining live tournament coverage, an on-demand library, and content localized for key markets. Subscribers will be able to watch major live events however they prefer: a standard produced live feed (which shows the tournament from start to finish and follows the top players), time-shifted tournaments for an almost-live experience, or hole-to-hole coverage that follows popular players from their region. In Spain, for example, the service might create feeds showing every shot by Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia. Although GolfTV won't provide this level of local content in all markets from day one, it will phase in local feeds over the first year or two. GolfTV will show all the events on the PGA TOUR schedule, except for the majors that PGA TOUR doesn't run (The Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship) or events covered by legacy licensing deals.
For the PGA TOUR, localizing content goes beyond simply hiring local announcers.
In Japan, explains Rick Anderson, chief media officer, PGA TOUR, the platform will focus on Japanese content - not just language localization but also actual content localization. For example, we might have a channel dedicated to Hideki Matsuyama; if you come to GolfTV by PGA TOUR in Japan, you would find that channel. If you were in Korea, you might find the channel is dedicated to Korean players. So the platform's global, but it's also intended to let us provide localized content for some of the key territories around the world.
The on-demand library will include more than 400 programs from the PGA TOUR archive, as well as on-demand access to highlights and full-event streams once a tournament has finished.
For the moment, PGA TOUR hasn't set the price, but an announcement is expected to come soon. The service will be available through iOS and Android devices, as well as browsers, at launch. Support for Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, game consoles, and connected TVs is in the works, but the PGA TOUR isn't saying when they will begin.
PGA TOUR's Rick Anderson: The platform's global, but it's also intended to let us provide localized content for some of the key territories around the world.
In this and its other offerings, the PGA TOUR is making an effort to cater to the preferences of young viewers. The league is investing in research tools and experimenting with how content is packaged to make it more consumable by them. As it develops data around these experiments, viewers will see content offered in different ways, first playing with time and duration. Although competition has always been central to golf coverage, it might not be the best angle for reaching all viewers. Some will enjoy the beautiful locations where tournaments are held, and some will want to focus on the cultures of each area. Understanding new ways to interest viewers is a concern going forward for both GolfTV and the PGA TOUR's U.S. efforts.
Not all young viewers have the same interests, Anderson says. Some people under 35 consume every minute of every broadcast, but others like storylines that go beyond the sports realm. The league is just scratching the surface of figuring it out, he says, but has made studying the area a major focus going forward.
GolfTV will replace the league's existing international offering, the PGA TOUR Live package. Current subscribers will be folded in to the new service. They should be pleased, as the current PGA TOUR Live service focuses on the first two rounds of each tournament on Thursday and Friday and covers two featured groups. They'll get that content and much more through GolfTV.
PGA TOUR chose to work with Discovery on this international service. Having studied possible partners, it appreciated Discovery's international-distribution abilities.
The resources that they bring to bear on a project like this are phenomenal and really dwarf anything that we could do on our own, Anderson says. As we got to know them, we realized that they had - especially in their CEO, David Zaslav - a passion for our sport and a company strategy in going direct-to-consumer and also going in and trying to build out extreme fandom and capturing that. That really matched up extremely well with building this kind of a property for golf and for the PGA TOUR. As we got to know them, we figured out they were the perfect partner.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...
08/09/2026
J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026
Search
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
Inside GolfTV, the PGA TOUR, and Discovery's International Expansion The streaming service will combine live coverage and localized content By Troy Dreier, Contributor, Streaming & Digital 
