Sky Sports has secured exclusive live rights to The Ryder Cup Matches, two Major Championships and a minimum of 34 tournaments on The European Tour International Schedule in a series of new long-term agreements.
The contracts will see The Ryder Cup broadcast exclusively live on Sky Sports for the rest of the decade and ensure Sky Sports viewers can see live international golf from January to December every year for the next five years.
The new contracts provide Sky Sports with live coverage of The Ryder Cup Matches in 2006 and 2008, in addition to the European Team’’s defence of the trophy at Oakland Hills, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, from 17-19 September, 2004.
A minimum of 34 events will also be shown live through to the end of the 2008 season, including all the four World Golf Championships – the Accenture Match Play, the NEC Invitational, the American Express Championship and the World Cup. Agreements have also been reached to broadcast the US Open Championship through 2009 and the US PGA Championship to 2007.
Ken Schofield, Executive Director of The European Tour, said: “Sky Sports’’ broadcast of The PGA European Tour in the 11 seasons since our initial agreement was signed in 1993 has been and remains totally outstanding. The quality and depth of their coverage of The European Tour International Schedule and the last four Ryder Cup Matches has rightly been award winning.
“Today’’s announcement ensures that Sky Sports viewers will enjoy comprehensive live coverage of a minimum of 34 European Tour events from all official venues until, and including, 2008, in addition to Europe’’s defence of The Ryder Cup in 2004 and the forthcoming Matches in Ireland in 2006 and the United States in 2008.”
Vic Wakeling, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said: "The huge growth in the popularity of The Ryder Cup over the last eight years of Sky's coverage has been one of sport's big success stories. Over the same period, the development of Sky's inter-active eight-screen coverage has broken new ground for television. We are delighted this will continue.
"At the same time, we plan to use our year-round coverage of The European Tour to spotlight The Ryder Cup Team contenders, and to spot The Ryder Cup stars of the future."
The Ryder Cup agreement follows Sky's exclusive live coverage of the last four Matches at Oak Hill (1995), Valderrama (1997), Brookline (1999) and The De Vere Belfry (2002). The 1995 event was the first to be shown live in the UK from the first tee shot to last putt.
The most recent Ryder Cup, in which Europe defeated the United States 15 ½ - 12 ½ last September, offered Sky digital viewers live interactive coverage with a choice of live matches, and a wealth of information via an eight-screen Sky Sports Active service.
The five-year agreement with The European Tour renews Sky's live rights until the end of the 2008 season. A minimum of 34 events will be broadcast live as well as all four World Golf Championships events.
The agreement follows 11 successive seasons of live European Tour coverage. The first agreement started in 1993 and brought live coverage of five Tour events. The agreement was extended to ten events from 1994 and more than 30 in 1997.
The agreement with the US Golf Association gives Sky Sports the exclusive live rights to the US Open Championship and a number of other tournaments including the US Women's Open, US Senior Open, Walker Cup and Curtis Cup. It extends the current arrangement for a further five years.
The new agreement with the PGA of America extends the current arrangement for a further four years and gives Sky Sports exclusive live coverage of the US PGA Championship, and the US PGA Seniors Championship.
Golf is now the second most televised sport on Sky Sports with programming every week of the year and more than 3,000 hours scheduled in 2003. This season Sky Sports will show more than 85 live tournaments from across The European Tour, the World Golf Championships, the US PGA Tour, the Major Championships, the US Champions Tour plus the Solheim Cup and Walker Cup.
