Fox ended its USGA deal with seven years left on it, sources said, meaning this year’s U.S. Open from Winged Foot and other USGA events will return to NBC for the next seven years. Fox in '13 signed a 12-year deal worth about $1B; that deal started in '15 and ran through '26. Fox looked to exit its contract after the USGA moved its U.S. Open to September because of concerns around the pandemic. Fox’ fall schedule is dominated by college and pro football, and it explored a one-year deal with NBC for this year. Talks eventually moved to include the entire Fox deal -- a conversation that Fox welcomed. The Wall St. Journal reports NBC’s new deal is "only slightly more than the $37 million it and ESPN were paying six year ago.”
Fox surprised the sports industry when it first bought the USGA rights, but the net never seemed committed to golf and did not try to pick up other properties to build its golf portfolio. Fox was not a serious bidder when the PGA Tour signed new media-rights deals with CBS, NBC and ESPN earlier this year. Those deals are worth an average of $700M over nine years and represent a 75% increase. The AP broke this story last night. A formal announcement is expected to come as early as today.
This marks the second time in less than a week that a U.S. media company has opted out of a high-priced sports media contract. Turner last week told UEFA that it was pulling out of its Champions League deal.
