Tiger Woods will be taking on the world in a global series of unique golf matches created by Discovery.
The media giant signed Woods to an exclusive content partnership late last year, promising to provide an unprecedented look at his life on and off the course. These new golf events, the first of which will be in Tokyo, will pit Woods head to head against another golfer. In some cases, the opponent could be from the host country. No timetable has been revealed, and Discovery has not finalized distribution plans.
The matches will be similar to Woods’ one-on-one battle — dubbed “The Match” — with Phil Mickelson last year, which was sold on a pay-per-view basis. Discovery could return to the pay-per-view model or it could use the matches to drive subscriptions for its new streaming service, GolfTV.
Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav (right), speaking with SBJ’s John Ourand, sees huge potential in golf’s global appeal.tony florez
Woods is working with Discovery to determine what types of competitive formats will be used in the upcoming matches.
“We’re going to do a number of those type events,” said David Zaslav, Discovery’s president and CEO. “Tiger’s going to decide what is the best format. Should it be one on one? Should it be two on two? Should we have two matches going on at the same time? But he’s all-in to play around with that format, and it could evolve from there.”
Speaking last week at the CAA World Congress of Sports, Zaslav said creative content like Woods’ international matches is central to both Discovery’s golf strategy and its OTT planning. Earlier this year, Discovery launched the GolfTV streaming service for viewers outside the U.S. A significant portion of the programming will come from Discovery’s 12-year, $2 billion deal with the PGA Tour.
Discovery’s enthusiastic approach to golf is driven by the sport’s global appeal.
“Golf’s powerful. Golf is really, really powerful,” Zaslav said. “I was at the Olympics in South Korea. Golf’s the NFL in South Korea. But it goes to this issue of sport. It’s not just golf. It’s the power of sports and sports personalities, and it’s becoming more powerful.”
Creating such unique content is seen as a differentiator for Discovery as the company competes with behemoths Disney, Netflix and HBO for subscribers. In addition to PGA Tour rights outside the U.S., Discovery scooped up European Tour rights for Europe and Asia. That live coverage on GolfTV will be supplemented by programming about clubs, instruction, apparel and golf-related travel.
“If you like what Rory’s [McIlroy] wearing, you can buy that outfit. And you can take lessons from your favorite instructor,” Zaslav said of content on the digital channel. “So, we think we’ve got a hell of a chance with this. Great demo, local players, tons of IP, tons of transactional opportunity. Golf has got a real chance of being a big global scale business force.”
