Battle For Open Championship TV Rights Intensifies As R&A Meets With Sky Sports

The battle for the broadcast rights to the Open Championship "intensified last week after the R&A met Sky Sports to negotiate taking one of sport’s most iconic events from free-to-air television," according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. A delegation from British golf’s governing body, led by CEO Peter Dawson, "travelled to the Sky Sports headquarters on Wednesday for talks" with its Managing Dir Barney Francis. The summit last week "was further evidence of the R&A’s willingness to seriously entertain for the first time a pay-TV broadcast partner, thereby stripping the BBC of live Open coverage from 2016." The 261-year-old organization "had publicly resisted the overtures of Sky Sports after the championship was removed from the list of events protected for terrestrial broadcast." However, that commitment "has been tested to breaking point since it last extended the BBC’s contract, with Dawson tellingly leaving the door open for a pay-TV partner" (TELEGRAPH, 1/17).