The PGA Tour yesterday announced the creation of PGA Tour Live, a new OTT digital streaming video service set to debut later this summer. Developed in partnership with MLBAM, PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of two featured pairings on Thursday and Friday play from more than 30 Tour events per season. PGA Tour Live will also serve as a prelude to afternoon Golf Channel broadcast tournament coverage. The subscription-based service will be available through PGATourLive.com, a new mobile app now being developed by MLBAM, and a wide variety of connected devices. Pricing has not yet been finalized, but some content will be offered for free. “We’ve seen the success of these types of initiatives in other sports with MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, MLS, the WWE Network,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. “We thought this was the right time for us to enter this space.” PGA Tour Live also builds substantially on an OTT service it began offering experimentally earlier this year in New Zealand. The Tour and MLBAM have previously worked on several initiatives, and are also partners together in 120 Sports. The Tour has not offered complete live coverage of morning marquee groups in the past, and a key intent of PGA Tour Live is to make previously unseen tournament action available to fans. “I want to see it, I want to understand it,” MLB President of Business & Media Bob Bowman said of the expanded coverage of early tournament rounds. “While Sunday is the payday and Saturday is moving day, Thursday and Friday really set the stage.” Financial terms of the MLBAM-PGA Tour partnership were not disclosed, but the two entities have signed a multiyear contract for the development and distribution of PGA Tour Live.
