MORE golf will be appearing on Australian free to air television following the announcement of an historic new agreement between the PGA of Australia and Network Ten.
The five year deal means that for the first time marquee golf tournaments from Australia, Asia and the United States will be broadcast on a single network.
The deal will see at least 12 live and exclusive tournaments per year broadcast on Network Ten’s new 24-hour sports channel ONE along with supporting coverage of selected events on TEN. In addition, exclusive highlights packages of a further 10 events per year will also be broadcast on ONE.
The partnership tees off this weekend with highlights of the Subaru Victorian Open followed next weekend by highlights of the Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship.
Exclusive coverage of the Moonah Classic and Australia’s oldest professional tournament, the Australian PGA Championship, headline the domestic events.
The deal also includes live and exclusive coverage of the Michael Hill New Zealand Open, the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship, the three prestigious World Golf Championship events – the Accenture MatchPlay Championship, CA Championship and Bridgestone Invitational – as well as the Omega Mission
Hills World Cup.
Four key Asian events including the Singapore Open, Indian Open, Thailand Open and the season-ending Volvo Masters of Asia complete the international component.
The deal adds to the Network’s existing portfolio of premium golf tournaments including the year’s opening two major championships, the Masters and the US Open, as well as the Johnnie Walker Classic and the ANZ Ladies Masters.
Network Ten’s general manager – sport, David White, said the Network was excited to be broadcasting such an extensive portfolio of elite golf to the Australian public through this landmark agreement with PGA of Australia.
“Our new 24-hour sports channel ONE will provide us with the platform to showcase golf on a live and exclusive basis, not previously seen in this country,” Mr. White said.
“Viewers will be able to watch extended golf coverage on ONE while also viewing the final rounds of many marquee events on both TEN and ONE.”
“We warmly welcome the sport of golf onto our expanded Network of TEN and ONE, bringing the game to a larger and more diverse audience than ever before,” he said.
Max Garske, CEO of the PGA of Australia said: “This is a key partnership for the PGA of Australia and we are delighted to form a long-term investment with Network Ten.”
“Golf in Australia is rapidly moving forward and to work with such a progressive network marries well with our vision.”
“It is wonderful news for the game and its supporters allowing them to see more of our domestic competition and provides a solid foundation for the development and promotion of our game as we move ahead.”
ONE will broadcast from late March in High Definition (HD) on Digital Channel 1 and also in Standard Definition (SD) on Digital Channel 12. Those events not appearing on TEN prior to late March will air on Ten- HD (Digital Channel 1).
It is not yet clear if the additional broadcasts will extend to the regional Southern Cross networks, which at present miss out on TEN HD coverage.
Editor’s Note 23/2/209 : Apparently Southern Cross Ten say they are still working on the “infrastructure” and will be screening TEN HD and the new ONE Sports channel “later this year”, whenever that is. Every time people ask they seem to put the date back and there is much unhappiness out there in regional tv land. SC10 are the broadcaster, apart from capital cities, down the eastern seaboard and that includes the Canberra area.
Related posts:
Fantastic. This is great news. Great for the general free to air public and great for golf in this country. This new Ten Sport channel looks like it could be a real winner.