Early this year the golf media was loud because of the Open Championship deal (worth at least £75m) with Sky Sports. Now, I can herald another golf media deal. The Ladies' Golf Union and IMG announced today that the Ricoh Women’s British Open and the Curtis Cup, when it is played in Great Britain and Ireland, will be televised by NBC Sports Group in the United States from 2017 – 2028.
The new partnership agreement includes coverage across all media of The Open, The Senior Open Championship, and The Amateur Championship, and not just the Ricoh Women’s British Open and the Curtis Cup.
This came just in the right time, since NBC Sports lost the U.S. Open to Fox.
NBC Sports Group will deliver extensive coverage across its television and digital channels when the Ricoh Women’s British Open is played at Kingsbarns Golf Links, outside St Andrews, for the first time in August 2017.
I think it is a great leap forward in women's golf history. The media arsenal of NBC Sports (NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, NBCSN (NBC Sports Network), Golf Channel, 10 NBC Sports Regional Networks, NBC Sports Radio and NBC Sports Digital) will be able to boost the visibility and reach of the Ricoh Women’s British Open and the Curtis Cup. I hope this will also help to increase the number of female golfers in our golf clubs.
Just to get the feeling of the media arsenal of NBC Sports: Golf Channel is present in more than 200 million households, 80 countries and 11 languages around the world.