The PGA Tour, and perhaps other sports leagues, are maneuvering to make sure they secure their piece of the media rights pie before the NFL comes and eats the rest.
That’s the story Puck sports correspondent John Ourand is reporting out of Super Bowl week in San Francisco. Per Ourand, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has told broadcast partners he’s willing to negotiate media rights extensions early, perhaps over “the next year or two” in order to avoid entering a market where the NFL has gobbled up the majority of content budgets for live sports.
The PGA Tour’s current set of media rights deals with CBS, NBC, and Versant run through 2030. But with the NFL exploring its own early extensions, well before the league’s opt-out options in 2029 and 2030, shrewd leagues are looking to cut the line and guarantee their security.
Ourand reports it’s likely that other leagues aside from the PGA Tour are also considering such a play.
“It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that execs with other looming deadlines—the Premier League’s deal with NBC is up next year, the NHL and MLB’s current packages run through 2028, and FIFA’s World Cup rights will hit the market after this summer’s event—have been thinking similar thoughts,” Ourand writes.
The question is, how much will broadcasters be willing to commit to non-NFL leagues before reaching extensions with the NFL? Leagues that opt to cut the line could be sacrificing some amount of revenue to ensure stability over the medium- to long-term. However, that stability might be worth it when considering the prospect of negotiating deals after the NFL demands massive increases to its own rights fees.
It’s a situation not too dissimilar to what NASCAR faced when negotiating new contracts in 2023, the same year the NFL’s current deals began. NASCAR ended up needing to sign with five different media rights partners just to secure a modest increase over its prior deals. No league wants to be in that type of bind.
Suffice it to say, even though there aren’t a ton of media rights deals on paper that are expiring in the next few years, this year and next could be surprisingly busy when it comes to negotiating new TV agreements for leagues.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.