Seven to telecast 2014 US Masters

Adam Scott will defend his US Masters title live on the Seven Network in 2014
Adam Scott will defend his US Masters title live on the Seven Network in 2014

By Brian O’Hare

LIVE free to air golf coverage in Australia is looking healthier with news the Seven Network has secured the rights to the US Masters in a multi-year, multi-platform deal.

The prestigious Augusta National event will return to Seven for the first time since the 1980s, when Nine secured the rights before Network Ten took over six years ago.

Channel 10 and its offshoot One HD seem to have lost interest in the golf, as has Channel 9, where the British Open rights have sadly lain dormant and unused for the past few years.

Seven on the other hand is proving a real godsend for Australian golf fans – especially all those without Foxtel.

Last year Seven renewed its long-standing broadcasting of the Australian Masters and the Perth International and the year before returned to covering the Australian Open.

[quote]All that remains for Seven to really get in the free to air golf fan’s good books is to take over the British Open coverage.[/quote]

All that remains for Seven to really get in the free to air golf fan’s good books is to take over the British Open coverage.

Seven is believed to have been in negotiations for many months for the US Masters coverage with at least one other network in competitive bidding.

No doubt Adam Scott’s historic win last year as the first Aussie to don the hallowed Green jacket only added to the interest.

Seven’s agreement with the Augusta organisers extends beyond exclusive free broadcast television rights to online, IPTV, mobile and Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television.

Seven’s head of sport, Saul Shtein, was reported in The Australian saying it was “a terrific signing for Seven.”

“The signing of the Masters reaffirms a key strategy in our future: a focus on live coverage of major sports events across our broadcast television platform and leveraging and expanding that presence into new forms of content delivery,” he said in a statement.

The important thing for Seven now is to plan on broadcasting the Masters on its HD Channel and not leave it languishing in Standard Definition on what used to be known – in the olden days – as its “main” channel.

The azaleas just don’t look the same in SD.

Leave a Reply