Playing Through: PGA Tour Rights Help Golf Channel Add HHs

Golf Channel Available In About 75 Million U.S. HHs

Golf Channel is profiled by SI’s Alan Shipnuck, who notes that between signing its 15-year cable TV rights deal with the PGA Tour in January ’06 and its first tournament this January, the net’s distribution increased to more than 75 million homes. Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said, “In practical terms there’s not much difference between 75 and 90 [million HHs]. Golf Channel is almost always offered on newer digital tiers, which skews to a much more affluent demographic. The 15 million who don’t get the channel are almost exclusively analog customers, and those households probably don’t have many golf fans anyway.” Golf Channel CEO David Manougian said, “It’s really a matter of when, not if, we get to 90 million.” PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said that the Tour “will be satisfied if it happens by 2010, but he adds, he doubts it will take that long.” PGA Tour Policy Board member Joe Ogilvie said players “benefit as the channel grows. There are kickers in the contract to guarantee that” (SI Golf Plus, 5/8 issue).

LET’S PLAY TWO: In this week’s SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, John Ourand reports advertisers “are content because Golf Channel is delivering the ratings numbers and demographic reach that it promised four months ago, thanks in large part to the primetime re-airings.” One ad buyer: “This is the first time that the network is delivering the ratings that they promised. This PGA Tour deal has allowed it to act like a legitimate network.” Ourand notes Golf Channel uses a “controversial strategy of combining its live and replay ratings [for PGA Tour events] into one rating number that it uses to sell the tour coverage and in press releases.” The net says that 92% of its viewership is unduplicated between the two broadcasts. Golf Channel VP/Strategic Partnerships Tom Knapp said of reporting the combined number, “The fact that nobody’s done this in the past doesn’t make it wrong” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/30 issue). Knapp added of the late-night replays, “Early-round golf takes place during the day when a proportion of those business decision-makers are busy at work. So we thought, let’s put it on when they have the ability and the opportunity to watch it in the evening” (TV WEEK, 4/30 issue).

INVENTIVE MINDS: Golf Channel will debut “Fore Inventors Only,” a new eight-episode reality program showcasing golf inventions on July 10 at 10:00pm ET. The show will be hosted by Vince Cellini (Golf Channel).