European Tour Productions and Sky win BAFTA for Open Coverage

European Tour Productions and Sky Sports have been honoured for their extensive and captivating joint coverage of The 2016 Open Championship, receiving the BAFTA in the Sport category.

In what was the first year of a joint venture between the European Tour’s broadcast production wing and Sky Sports Golf to cover Europe’s only Major, the combined Production teams beat BBC’s Olympics coverage and Six Nations coverage, as well Channel 4’s Paralympics coverage, to the award.

In one of the most thrilling finales to an Open Championship in modern history, Henrik Stenson overcame Phil Mickelson in an enthralling duel to become the first male Swedish Major Champion in history.

“It feels absolutely incredible,” said Jason Wessely, Head of golf at Sky Sports. “I have to be totally frank and honest, it was unexpected because we were up against such stiff competition but to win feels amazing.”

Hoddy Wood of European Tour Productions said: “I think The Open is the pinnacle for all of us who work in golf. We do 46 events in a year and to go to The Open, it was the biggest event we’ve ever done and it didn’t let us down at all.

“We were working as a team with Sky and European Tour Productions and the combination gave us something completely different which The Open has missed for many years.”

Jim Storey of European Tour Productions said: “I think there were probably around 600 people working on it. There are a lot of people behind the scenes from cameramen to soundmen to cable riggers. We are a massive team.”