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PGA Tour adds smart TV livestreaming

The PGA Tour is creating another digital channel as it continues its quest to attract a wider audience.

 

The tour has partnered with Xumo to stream live and video-on-demand content through a dedicated, free internet provider channel on various smart TV brands, including LG, Vizio, Sharp and Panasonic.

The channel, included in some 25 million TVs, will include live coverage of featured holes streamed from the tour’s PGA Tour Live over-the-top network as well as tour-produced highlights, interviews and tournament previews beginning on Wednesday, the first day of the World Golf Championships Dell Technologies Match Play event.

The deal will run through the 2018 PGA Tour season. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“It is the first time that the tour has ever built an experience that is specifically targeted toward smart TV platforms,” said Chris Wandell, vice president of media business development for the tour. “We are trying to reach new and different audiences that we’re not reaching today. We launched our OTT product PGA Tour Live two years ago that is reaching a lot of fans and the goal is the same with Xumo.”

The tour would not disclose streaming figures for PGA Tour Live.

Xumo will stream live, VOD content from PGA Tour Live to smart TV brands beginning this week.

Xumo provides more than 100 live streaming and on-demand channels across sports and entertainment. The live coverage on the new PGA Tour smart TV channel will stream three to four hours of live coverage on Thursdays and Fridays of tournaments with other content to fill 24 hours of programming.

The new channel comes as the tour has been aggressively adding ways for golf fans to consume content. The tour recently added an augmented reality app to provide 3-D content through mobile devices at various tournaments. Last year, at the Players Championship, the tour distributed a live 360 virtual reality experience on Twitter and signed a deal with Intel to produce and distribute live VR and live 360 video through Twitter at six PGA Tour events in 2017 and 2018.

The rollout of the new digital channel also comes as the return of Tiger Woods to the PGA Tour drives viewer interest. The tour wants to use that rush of interest and the added ways to view tournaments to attract more casual fans.

“We want to make sure we are serving our fans,” Wandell said.

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