The first season of PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will see triple the amount of digital coverage as a new media-rights pact begins in ’22. ESPN and the Tour today are rolling out details for the streaming package, for which ESPN is paying an estimated $75M annually as part of a nine-year deal struck in March ’20. The debut season on ESPN+ will see 4,300 exclusive hours of live Tour streaming across 35 events, beginning with the Sentry Tournament of Champions from Hawaii in January and going through the FedExCup Playoffs. There will be 28 events that have four full days of coverage. Starting with The American Express event in late January, there will be four simultaneous live feeds each day, including the main feed, a marquee group feed, featured groups feed and featured holes feed.
ESPN will dedicate 210 production staffers each week for PGA Tour Live (up from what was an 85-person crew), with 16 on-course camera and a 15-person talent crew for the four streams. John Swantek, Jonathan Coachman, Lisa Cornwell and Ned Michaels are among the studio personalities, while Christina Kim, Karen Stupples, Mark Immelman, Chantel McCabe, Mark Wilson, Stuart Appleby and Michael Collins will be used as on-course analysts. New hosts or analysts may also be added before the season begins. PGA Tour Live will be included for all ESPN+ subs (17.1 million currently).
