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NBC To Keep U.S. Open On Broadcast TV Despite Busy Schedule

NBC, NBCSN, Golf Channel and Peacock provide platforms to ensure the U.S Open is well coveredGETTY IMAGES

NBC Sports President Pete Bevacqua said the final two rounds of the U.S. Open "absolutely" will be on broadcast TV on Sept. 19-20 despite a crowded schedule that has the potential to include the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Notre Dame’s home football game against Western Michigan. However, NBC’s exact schedule is a long way from being finalized. Bevacqua said with a laugh, “We’re not even 24 hours from cutting this deal (to reacquire the U.S. Open). Think about NBC, NBCSN, Golf Channel and Peacock. We have a lot of platforms now that we can utilize to make sure that we’re well covered.” Bevacqua became animated when he spoke of NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, which will have some live rights. “I can’t tell you how key it was for us to make sure that the USGA knew the importance of the Peacock platform for us,” he said. He pointed to the USGA’s 100-plus years worth of archival content as an anchor for a USGA channel on the service. “There’s such a great story of golf to tell there. Peacock is the perfect outlet for that because we have endless real estate on it.”

FOX ON THE HOOK FOR RIGHTS FEE: NBC as part of its new deal with the USGA will pay a rights fee in the low $40M range, sources say. That is far less than the $93M Fox was set to pay annually though ’27. The USGA release announcing the deal said that the "financial remuneration for the USGA will remain the same for the duration of the agreement.” That means Fox is on the hook for the difference. It shows how costly the rights, combined with exorbitant production expenses, were for the network. However, golf never fit into Fox’ plans. The Fox execs that originally cut this deal -- Chase Carey and Randy Freer -- left the company soon afterwards, and nobody was left to champion the sport. Fox never was close to adding to its golf portfolio; it was not a serious contender for either the Open Championship or PGA Tour rights, which should have been the first sign that it wanted to get out of the USGA deal. The USGA was repped by Proskauer in the deal transferring the rights to NBC.

NBC TALENT GLAD TO HAVE IT BACK: Some of NBC’s golf talent made appearances on Golf Channel over the past 24 hours to talk about the deal. Anchor Dan Hicks appeared on “Golf Central” and talked about reacquiring the U.S. Open being a “dream come true.” He called the process by which the USGA ended up back at NBC “very, very surreal.” He said, “To hear that Yanni theme music at the top … when that music plays and we come on the air at Winged Foot for the first time at the U.S. Open, it will be incredibly special to a lot of people that made this happen.” Notah Begay III said this morning on “Morning Drive” that NBC is “going to do exactly what we did heading into the end of our previous contract.” He added, “We’re going to showcase these venues, showcase the players and really demonstrate how immense the championship is.” Meanwhile, Robert Damron on “Morning Drive” dropped a suggestion for the U.S. Open telecast this September. He said, “I would love if we could … call Johnny Miller, have him stop by for an hour or two, because we're going to miss his voice in the U.S. Open.”

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