LPGA Tour & Golf Channel Sign 10 Year Agreement

The LPGA Tour is really getting its ducks in order on the television side.  They have agreed in principle to a 10 year agreement with Golf Channel to ink the network as the exclusive cable home for the Tour starting in 2010.  The agreement was jointly announced Wednesday at the SBS Open with Commish Bivens and Golf Channel President Page Thompson.

The biggest kicker?  The Golf Channel will be paying rights fee to the LPGA Tour for broadcasting the Tour.  That makes Golf Channel the first network to pay to broadcast a women's professional league.  It obviously also marks the first time that the LPGA Tour is paid rights fees in the United States.

What will be a part of the deal?

Golf Channel will carry three- and four-round coverage of domestic events, including one major championship, and international feeds of LPGA global events, as well as early round coverage of events that will have weekend coverage on other networks. The network also will continue with exclusive rights to the biennial Solheim Cup, pitting the U.S. against Europe.

What is unclear is if Asian events that are not broadcast here in the States will be a part of the package.  LPGA Tour fans may still be in the dark during those weeks because of exclusive contracts to broadcast those events elsewhere. 

The highlight of this is that the LPGA Tour can now tell fans exactly where to find the Tour on television.  That's a good thing for many fans who have been confused by the Tour's lack of a single home.  (I still get emails about that.)

“We are excited to announce this historic partnership with the Golf Channel that will, for the first time, provide the LPGA with an exclusive cable partner,” Bivens said. “Our long-term goal has been to establish a consistent platform for LPGA viewership, improve the production quality of our telecasts and enhance the season-long promotion of our players and events. We were able to achieve this through our partnership with the Golf Channel.”

You have to give credit to the LPGA Tour on this one.  They went about this in the right order.  They sured up where they would be on TV, and that they were valuable enough to Golf Channel that they would pay to broadcast LPGA events.  They can take that good news to the large portion of the schedule up for sponsor renegotiation.  It may not get back the four events that are gone now - or even save the SBS Open - but it is a great starting point.

Hey, Golf Channel, you know you could become the title sponsor of this event.  The Golf Channel Open at Turtle Bay?  If a Korean broadcaster can do it, you can do it better.

Regardless, Bivens has said that the rights fees are not necessarily going to increase purses because the LPGA Tour will not underwrite them like the PGA Tour.  The money will be shared with the tournament owners which they could use to offset expenses or the cost of the purse.

Bivens even went so far as to claim that the rights fees were not the real kicker, but so as to have a consistent cable partner that is vested in the Tour. 

Golf Channel now is and Page Thompson said that the network is exploring LPGA-specific programming.  Bottom line for you Golf Channel viewers is that your weekends will have an awful lot of professional golf programming.