CBS, ESPN Ink Rights Deal for PGA Championship; Turner Sports Out After 29 Years CBS Sports will serve as lead production entity for all the 72-hole coverage By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - 1:20 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
The PGA of America, CBS, and ESPN have agreed to an 11-year rights agreement for the TV, digital, and OTT rights to the PGA Championship, beginning in 2020. The deal marks the end of the championship's 29-year relationship with Turner Sports, which has carried the golf major on TBS and TNT since '91. CBS Sports will retain rights to Rounds 3 and 4, ESPN will air the opening two rounds, and ESPN will live-stream Featured Hole and Featured Group coverage for all four rounds. CBS Sports will serve as the lead production entity for all the traditional 72-hole coverage for the entire tournament.
Brooks Koepka won the 2018 PGA Championship. (Photo: Montana Pritchard/PGA of America)
The PGA moves to May beginning in 2019, becoming the second major championship on the golf calendar.
CBS, ESPN, and ESPN will combine to deliver more than 175 cumulative hours of live coverage across broadcast, cable, and digital platforms. The PGA of America will retain the rights to PGA.com and produce the web and mobile app experiences.
The move to May is expected heighten the PGA's brand and its initiatives and further elevate the stature of the championship, because the PGA now falls when television viewership is higher and the vast majority of PGA Members are at the frontend of the golf season. The new schedule also enables CBS, ESPN, and the PGA of America to effectively promote important grow-the-game initiatives to a larger and more engaged audience, according to a joint announcement made by the three organizations.
For nearly a half century, CBS Sports has been a vital member of the PGA of America extended family while delivering our major championship to golf fans across the country, PGA CEO Seth Waugh said in the announcement. We are also thrilled to partner with ESPN and connect with sports fans through the reach of the ESPN networks. The PGA is a major that not only typically delivers the strongest field in golf but is synonymous with historic moments that resonate with golf fans everywhere. As we move this iconic championship to May, we are extremely excited that CBS and ESPN will present the highest-quality product with state-of-the-art technology through a broadcast team that shares our mission to grow the sport of golf.
CBS Retains Rounds 3 and 4, Adds One Hour Per Day
CBS Sports, which broadcast the event from 1958 to '64 and has been the home of the PGA Championship since '91, will continue to broadcast the third and final rounds on Saturday and Sunday, increasing coverage by one hour each day. Under the terms of the new deal, CBS also receives expanded highlight and digital rights, including distribution of its coverage across all CBS platforms, including CBSSports.com, CBS All Access, and all mobile applications. Additionally, CBS will offer onsite ancillary programming on CBS Sports Network as well as on its digital and social platforms during Championship Week.
Premium content such as the PGA represents the past, present, and future of CBS, said Joe Ianniello, president/acting CEO, CBS. There is nothing like live sports programming to attract a mass audience and drive our business. We are very pleased to extend our longstanding relationship with the PGA of America and this signature event.
The PGA Championship has been a marquee event on CBS since 1991, said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. Retaining these rights was a top priority for us this year, and we are excited to have it continue as a cornerstone of our schedule for 11 more years. Together with ESPN, we look forward to greatly expanding the coverage of this great championship. The move to May will greatly benefit CBS, our viewers, and the golf marketplace.
ESPN, ESPN To Offer Live Action All Four Days
The wide-ranging agreement includes live action on ESPN and ESPN across all four days of the tournament, as well as pre-tournament and other ancillary coverage. Exclusive live coverage of the first and second rounds will appear across ESPN and ESPN . For the third and final rounds, ESPN and ESPN will have multiple hours of live coverage throughout the morning, leading into the CBS telecast later in the day.
ESPN also will air Featured Hole and Featured Group coverage for all four days of the tournament, including during the weekend afternoon windows. Before the first round, ESPN will air coverage from practice rounds, player news conferences, driving-range interviews, and more. Also, an extensive collection of in-progress and post-round highlights will be available on ESPN , ESPN.com, the ESPN App, and other ESPN platforms, and ESPN signature SportsCenter will have a strong presence at the event all week. ESPN last televised the event in 1990.
ESPN is proud to work with the PGA of America and CBS to provide fans with unprecedented coverage of this prestigious event, said ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro. The addition of ESPN provides us the opportunity to go even deeper in showcasing the drama and excitement of the PGA for years to come.
Beyond the Live Window: Strategic Elements, Multiplatform Support
This new partnership between CBS Sports, ESPN, and the PGA of America also includes strategic elements and multiplatform support for key PGA initiatives to help showcase and celebrate the organization, its members, coaches, PGA Jr. League, and the golfers who compete in the championship each year, building a compelling future for this championship and growing the game of golf.
The PGA Jr. League celebrates young athletes, who are the future of this game, while they compete in the PGA Jr. League Championship every Octobe
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
CBS, ESPN Ink Rights Deal for PGA Championship; Turner Sports Out After 29 Years CBS Sports will serve as lead production entity for all the 72-hole coverage By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
