Turner Out Of Running For British Open, Clearing Way For ESPN

By John Ourand, Staff Writer

Turner Sports officially pulled itself out of the running to renew its British Open deal, clearing the way for ESPN to pick up the rights. ESPN will pay British Open organizer R&A about $25M per year for six or seven years to put all four rounds on the cable channel, sources said, a move that would end ABC's 50-year association with the event. It also would make the British Open the first major championship in men's golf to have all four rounds carried solely on cable television. ESPN's deal will include digital and international rights. "We are disciplined in our approach to negotiating programming rights," said Turner Sports President David Levy. "While we were unable to reach terms on future rights that made economic sense for our company, we respect and value the R&A and our partnership of the past six years, and look forward in 2009 to TNT's final year of covering The Open." IMG represented the R&A for the U.S. TV rights. TNT has covered the British Open's Thursday-Friday rounds since '03. Its highest rating was a 1.0 US rating in '05, which was won by Tiger Woods and is remembered for Jack Nicklaus' final British Open appearance. In the six years that it has carried the tournament, TNT's live coverage has averaged a 0.9 US rating.