Sky Sports launches Sky Sports Golf

23 years after the launch of the GOLF Channel in the United States, the UK finally got its first dedicated golf network this summer with the launch of SKY SPORTS GOLF.

On July 18, Sky Sports unveiled a total restructuring of the way in which it broadcasts sport. Since its launch in 1992 Sky has used numbered channels, to showcase all sports to a wider audience. Its schedules have and still are dominated by Football, specifically the Premier League. However, the fight for second place in Sky Sports’ priorities has always been led by Golf.

There are sports specific channels for PREMIER LEAGUE, FOOTBALL, CRICKET, FORMULA 1 and GOLF; sports such as Rugby, Tennis, Darts, Athletics, Boxing, GAA, NFL and Darts will be found across two channels – Sky Sports Arena and Sky Sports Action. And all the best live sport will be found on Sky Sports Main Event, with even more on Sky Sports Mix with all the news on Sky Sports News.

In addition to the restructuring of how Sky shows sport it has restructured how its subscribers are charged for the privilege., making it more attractive and affordable for viewers which wish to see a specific sport, whilst retaining the option of seeing it all.

Changing from numbered channels to sport-specific channels has been speculated upon for many years for Sky, especially as they predominantly broadcast Football, Golf, Rugby and Cricket. However, it is something they have not done until now, and with strong competition from BT they had to do something to give the sports which are important to them and their viewers the spotlight they needed.

Rugby and Tennis have lost out in terms of their own channel, primarily down to the competition from BT and Eurosport, who each own a significant number of rights to Rugby and Tennis respectively.

Golf has always taken up a considerable amount of Sky’s broadcast hours each year, with the sport playing a huge role in their drive into High Definition and 3D broadcasting over the last 20 years.

Pretty much since day one, Sky has shown an unwavering commitment to broadcasting golf and now the sport has its own channel, giving it an even greater platform to connect with its hardcore fans, whilst growing its audience through additional and simultaneous coverage on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Mix and Now TV.

Sky essentially began by streaming a live feed of the US Open from the host broadcaster ABC in 1991, augmented by comment and analysis from Richard Keys and Ewen Murray, but soon the true value of live sport and golf resonated with the hierarchy of Sky. In 1993, they broadcast the entire Volvo European Tour for the first time, along with the PGA Tour and installed David Livingstone as the lead presenter. “Someone at Sky recognized that this was a product that could be shown in prime time. In their wisdom they decided to choose me to present it and it was kind of embarrassing for a while. I knew about golf but I hadn’t worked on it at all.” Livingstone says, the Scot has now become arguably the standard-bearer for how to present golf on television, and Sky has become the standard-bearer for how to broadcast and produce a golf tournament.

Sky’s coverage quickly evolved from ‘showing’ events to broadcasting them, and shaping the way in which their viewers saw the sport. This really began when they first broadcast on site at the 1995 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, this was quickly followed by the 1996 US Open at Oakland Hills and the two US Majors would become the bedrock of Sky’s yearly coverage of world golf.

In 1995 they won the rights to the Ryder Cup for the first time, and quickly set about making the event their own. They became the first broadcaster to screen the event in its entirety, and the event has never looked back.

“It is almost as if the Ryder Cup and Sky’s coverage of the Ryder Cup has grown in a parallel way. Every time we have done a Ryder Cup we have tried to do something new and I think everyone involved with the Ryder Cup has tried to do whatever they can to make the event bigger and better.”

“It is more than just a sporting event now, it is a kind of a world occasion. It transcends life. What we were trying to do was to appeal to a wider audience and show them that golf can be interesting in all kinds of ways.”

“There is just no comparison between what we did in 1995 and what we do now” David Livingstone says.

Unrivalled coverage of the Ryder Cup, ever-expanding coverage of the US Open and PGA Championship, continued and enhanced coverage of the European and PGA Tours, and coverage of the women’s game, but for Sky the holy grail was the two BBC Majors.

In 2010 Augusta National Golf Club announced that Sky Sports had been awarded the UK Broadcasting rights to The Masters Tournament, ending the BBC’s stranglehold on the most iconic tournament in the sport. In 2011 Sky launched the new era with wall-to-wall coverage of The Masters on Sky Sports 4, featuring Official Masters Movies, specially produced documentaries and bonus coverage to augment the broadcast feed.

It was a monumental moment for everyone who had worked for Sky Sports’ golf team in the previous 20 years. “Of course, I was thrilled. Sky had in the past tried to add the Masters to its impressive portfolio of world events and eventually, because of its excellent production values, alongside innovative coverage, the Masters graced our screens” said Sky Sports’ lead commentator, Ewen Murray.

Then, after four years of successfully broadcasting The Masters, Sky achieved the holy grail, becoming the exclusive, live broadcaster of The Open. Originally scheduled to take over from BBC in 2017, in a joint production with European Tour Productions and NBC/Golf Channel, Sky took over in 2016. Talk about timing! Arguably the greatest final round we have seen in The Open took place, and that, allied with Sky’s unrivalled coverage, enabled The Open to win the BAFTA for Best Sports Production.

The Open was named the winner ahead of BBC's coverage of the Rio Olympics and the Six Nations clash between England and Wales, while the Paralympics on Channel 4 was also nominated.

The first tee shot of the championship was screened live for the first time on British television as Colin Montgomerie got the tournament under way on his home course, while The Open Zone was a hugely popular innovation throughout the week as the world's top players gave insight into their games.

Sky presented its first Open Championship on a specially themed channel – Sky Sports The Open.

Sky Sports The Open took over Sky Sports 4 as a completely Open themed channel for seven days, showing Open Films, Interviews, a new series ‘Chronicles of a Champion Golfer’ and completely unrivalled coverage of the championship itself. With the first tee shot shown live for the very first time.

Sky Sports The Open was the second golf themed channel, following Sky Sports Ryder Cup launch in 2014.

Sky Sports’ Ryder Cup coverage had always taken place on Sky Sports 1, but now an entire channel dedicated to Ryder Cup coverage including live, highlights and ancillary programming, was made available to Sky Sports’ subscribers. Ewen Murray and the team were understandably excited by this: “The launch of the "Sky Sports Ryder Cup Channel" for the duration either side of and including the match is wonderful news for golf fans. I remember sitting at home as a youngster eagerly awaiting the start of The Masters and there it was, Augusta National in all its glory, then it was straight into the golf, then it was over. It's what we did then.”

“Nowadays, through the innovations Sky Sports are famous for, golfers can now access the pre-tournament build up, be part of it, and be right up to speed with the interviews, the form of both sides, the course lay out and the views of the two teams and their Captains. This is the complete Ryder Cup experience.”

Sky Sports Ryder Cup returned in 2016 for the epic match at Hazeltine. Then this May Sky debuted ‘Sky Sports The Players’ a themed channel dedicated to coverage of the PGA Tour’s Players Championship.

Then in July Sky announced its biggest shake-up in channels since it launched multi-channel television in the early 1990’s. Sky Sports Golf was to launch alongside Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Cricket, joining Sky Sports F1 as channels dedicated to one sport. Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 was essentially replaced by Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Arena.

With ALL FOUR MAJORS, THE RYDER CUP and every PGA Tour and European Tour event live on Sky Sports Golf, fans of golf and Sky Sports were understandably excited.

However, just a couple of days after the announcement that Sky Sports Golf was to launch, the PGA of America put a Major spanner in the works.

“We had a good partnership with Sky but the 2017 US PGA Championship will not be on Sky,” said the PGA of America’s chief commercial officer, Jeff Price.

The PGA of America and Sky had one year to run on their deal, but the PGA of America have decided to look at a new media model for the distribution and broadcast of their championship. This was a blow to Sky’s claim to be the home of the majors.

Then in the days after this blow it emerged that Sky were still to secure the rights to show the 2018 Masters. So, after having it all in 2016, Sky faces only having two of the four men’s majors in 2018. And perhaps even more worryingly their deal for the European Tour, which includes the Ryder Cup, is up at the end of 2018.

So what do Sky do to maintain their position as the home of live golf in the UK and tempt Augusta National Golf Club and the PGA of America back?

All sports and their governing bodies are torn between the exposure which terrestrial television offers and the unmatched riches offered by commercial, subscription networks such as Sky.

So can Sky offer the best of both and how can they do it?

Social media has tremendous power in the 21st century, and many events across sport are now broadcast on sites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Sky Sports seems to have fallen behind when it comes to use of YouTube, with rival BT Sport offering live simulcasts of its coverage of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League Finals. And it is crystalized by the fact that BT Sport has over 380,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel, and Sky Sports has a little over 7,000.

There are said to be over 30 million users of YouTube in the UK, and Sky, the PGA of America, Augusta National and the sport of golf could tap into this massive market. YouTube is easily accessed through all devices and used by an increasingly young and diverse demographic.

With social media channels, such as Twitter, making a move into live sports streaming, Sky could also stream some of their coverage on Twitter and Facebook. Featured groups have been part of The Open broadcast for over a decade, and this year Sky gave their viewers the chance to vote for the featured group on the first day. This sort of engagement could increase with the use of Twitter and Facebook, with the chance of having different featured groups in the morning and afternoon of the first two days on each channel.

Twitter signed a deal with Sky Sports in the summer of 2016 to show Premier League goals, and Sky Sports’ own Twitter account has nearly 4.5 million followers. Perhaps the featured groups and the last hour of broadcast coverage could be streamed on both Twitter and Facebook.

An alternative for Sky would be to purchase a terrestrial network, or create one of its own. The most recent addition to the UK terrestrial channels was Channel Five in 1997, and Sky could either look at purchasing Channel Five or lobbying the government to launch ‘Sky’ as a stand-alone, new terrestrial network. This channel could offer the best of Sky’s subscription channels, with Premier League football on a Friday night, Boxing, Formula 1, Cricket and of course, Golf.

In 1996 the Walt Disney Company purchased ABC television in the United States, and ABC Sports became ESPN on ABC, with the channel’s entire sports production owned by ESPN. This would enable Sky to broadcast the majority of its Major golf on the subscription channel, Sky Sports Golf, but show weekend coverage on ‘Sky’ the terrestrial channel. This would provide the likes of the PGA of America the wider audience it craves, with total access to the UK viewership.

Despite the fact Sky have lost the Masters and PGA, it should be remembered that they previously lost the PGA Tour to Setanta, and gained it back quickly, and their portfolio of live golf is still unrivalled. It should be something golf fans celebrate, having a Golf channel in the UK which offers so much live golf. Sky Sports is very much a part of golf’s present and future.

SHANK, by Matt Hooper (originally appeared in St Andrews Magazine)