A view of the 17th green during the first round of 2019 The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
SendtoNews, a Canadian digital video platform that provides sports highlights to publishers, is extending into live sports streaming for the first time.
The company announced this week that it will distribute PGA Tour Live Featured Holes coverage of the 12th and 17th holes during The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.
The livestream will feature one of the most famous holes in all of golf. The Island Green 17th hole is a par-3, 132-yard 17th located on a small peninsula surrounded by water and grandstands for fans. The hole has yielded just eight holes-in-one over its history, while claiming 700-plus balls in the surrounding water since 2003.
STN coverage will be featured across Tribune Publishing properties, which includes the Daily News in New York City, the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel. Live coverage will run from the opening round on Mar. 14 through the final round on Mar. 17.
This PGA livestream marks the first time STN has broadcast live sports. The company is known for a proprietary tool called Smart Match. This is an artificial intelligence-powered video player that can read a news article and automatically populate it with the most relevant video from STN’s sports video library. It can build playlists from official sports highlights, interviews, and game analysis based on relevant context.
Interestingly, STN’s platform was ranked as the No. 1 digital sports video platform—surpassing better known brands like ESPN—in a January ranking from industry tracker Comscore. In the month of January, SendtoNews saw more than 11.1 unique viewers and nearly 397 million videos viewed as its content was distributed to publishing partners. The company beat ESPN by 150 million views.
“We are thrilled to use our video distribution platform to live stream this iconic event to PGA Tour fans on Tribune Publishing sites,” said SendtoNews CEO Matthew Watson. “Tribune is home to some of the leading properties in digital news and when combined with this amazing content from the PGA TOUR we know this will be a one-of-a-kind experience for golf fans across the country.”
Chris Wandell, the vice president of media business development for the PGA TOUR, said the STN partnership reflects the league’s ongoing priority to find “innovative ways to connect with golf fans across the country at their convenience.” The PGA Tour has increasingly turned to technology and streaming platforms to engage fans and expand its reach.
During February’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the PGA Tour teamed up with sponsor AT&T to add new augmented reality viewing features to coverage of the first and last holes. Called the 360° Tee Box, the feature could only be accessed through the free PGA Tour AR mobile app.
