PGA Tour seeks greater control over media with launch of new studios

PGA Tour executives say they are preparing for a new era in the sport, in which leagues will have to exert significantly more control over the content created from the games, matches and tournaments each media outlet chooses to show.

The financier of golf’s most popular events on Wednesday unveiled a new 165,000-square-foot production facility, PGA Tour Studios, on its Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida campus, as part of an effort to gain new oversight of thousands of hours of sports content offered by its top club . Executives believe it will only be in greater demand in a future dominated by streaming video – and different types of media entities that watch sports in a very different way. The new facility is the first new manufacturing entity the PGA Tour has built since 1997.

“The traditional model was that we would enter into a licensing agreement. We would license our rights to a domestic partner like NBC and CBS. They did all the sports production. What we did is organize the event, but they went out and did everything during the production,” said Luis Goicouria, PGA Tour senior vice president of media, during an interview, adding: “As we go into 2030 and we When we talk to companies like Amazon, Netflix or Apple that don’t traditionally produce sports, let alone golf, it’s really powerful that we can offer them a turnkey product.”

Executives declined to discuss the investments needed to launch the new production facility. A study by market research firm RKG estimates the new structure will have an economic impact of $112 million in North Florida.

PGA Tour takes a new turn in an increasingly complex era for sports and the leagues that host them – despite their growing fortunes as backers of one of the few entertainment formats that still command the broad, simultaneous audiences that advertisers and distributors still crave . Yes, the sports rights they control are worth billions. And yet some of the new giants eager to make deals don’t operate in the same way as their traditional partners, including PGA Tour Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Disney.

Most streaming upstarts that have entered the entertainment sector do not have their own sports production teams. For example, Netflix relied on CBS Sports to produce its recent Christmas NFL games. Amazon tapped NBC Sports to get “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts off the ground. Apple partnered with Major League Baseball itself to produce Friday night coverage of baseball games. Amazon and Netflix have used top talent to deliver game by game, but usually not on an exclusive basis. Netflix, for example, turned to ESPN’s Mina Kimes for its NFL coverage, while Amazon relied on Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit for “TNF” — even though they continue to work for NBC and ESPN, respectively.

At the same time, there is increasing demand for more than just the basic game. Fans crave digital clips. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have shown new interest in immersive behind-the-scenes documentaries that give viewers unique access to an individual team or single player experience over an entire season. More leagues are interested in reaching fans outside the US, with a focus on players who have come to America to compete.

Such dynamics are causing sports leagues to think more broadly about what they oversee. “PGA Tour Studios will play a critical role in our commitment to putting fans at the heart of everything we do, from providing expanded access to PGA Tour stars – both inside and outside the ropes – to dynamic entertainment projects that extend beyond the traditional crowd,” said Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner. He says the new facility will make the PGA Tour “better suited than ever to bring incredible stories of our generation of athletes to life for a growing, engaged fan base wherever they are.”

More leagues have been working to tighten their grip on their production in recent years. NASCAR entered into a pact with CAA last February that called for the development of new relationships in film, television, music and podcasts. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has shown more interest in acquiring local rights for several of its teams, especially as regional cable sports networks begin to falter and struggle to keep up demands for high fees from distributors as fans can doing. find games in a range of new locations.

After PGA Tour struck a media rights deal in 2021, PGA Tour Chief Commercial Officer Rick Anderson realized they needed to up their game. “It made a lot of sense to try to build a facility that was state-of-the-art and that would allow us to deliver 100% live and original content,” he says. “So if at some point in the future we were to get to a point where the business model, for example, was completely direct to consumer, it could be done from this facility without having to rely on anyone else to do it.”

The new PGA Tour studio facility will feature eight production rooms, eight audio control rooms and seven LED-equipped studios, capable of monitoring and displaying thousands of video and audio feeds, and capturing action from up to 144 cameras or live feeds.

The demand for content for competitions has increased exponentially. PGA Tour currently produces content for more than 50 different social platforms, including YouTube, said Michael Riceman, PGA Tour senior vice president of content and production. And then there’s a website, international partners and original programming for CBS and NBC. One program that airs on NBC’s Golf Channel, “The Cut,” will be overhauled and presented as a studio show in the second quarter, Riceman said.

More lies lie ahead. PGA Tour plans to launch a new ‘World Feed’, a content stream produced and curated exclusively for international media partners and their viewers, with a customized graphics package and specific cameras aimed at international golfers. This live broadcast will feature reporters on site each week and include up to six dedicated cameras. Following its debut at The Players, the feed will be produced for all remaining events on the 2025 schedule. The PGA Tour sees the launch as a first step in producing localized live feeds specific to certain countries in the coming years.

Executives recognize that what works today may not have as much value in the future, given the pace of change in technology and entertainment. So the new studio was built with the concept that it might have to evolve, Goicouria says. “Are we going to build a facility that meets our needs from day one?” he asks. “Or are we going to build a facility that meets those needs but also has room to grow?”