A sports media bombshell: the US Open is leaving FOX and returning to its former TV home, NBC.
NBC Sports has acquired the remaining seven years of Fox Sports’ media rights deal with the USGA effective immediately, it was announced Monday. The news was first reported by the Associated Press Sunday night.
NBC and Golf Channel will carry all of this year’s scheduled USGA events, starting with the US Women’s Amateur five weeks from now. The new NBC streaming service Peacock will also carry “extensive coverage” of USGA events, per USGA CEO Mike Davis.
The surprise move is a direct result of this year’s US Open being postponed from its traditional Father’s Day weekend date to mid-September. With the new date conflicting with the NFL and college football, Fox and the USGA were unable to agree on how to schedule the event. Per the AP, the USGA objected when Fox suggested putting the Open on FS1.
NBC, which held US Open rights from 1995-2014, entered the picture when the USGA began looking for an alternate partner for this year’s tournament. According to the USGA, that discussion “led to a broader conversation and eventual agreement” with NBC to take over full-time. Per the AP, Fox asked out of the remainder of its deal.
The USGA did not disclose financial terms, except to say that it will receive its full rights fee ($93 million/year) through the end of the deal in 2026. According the AP, NBC will pay just under half of that figure. The Wall Street Journal reported that Fox will pay the rest.
Fox stunned the industry when it acquired the US Open in 2013. Its first year of coverage in 2015 was not well-received, but the network had been slowly improving. There had been some thought that Fox would try to acquire more golf properties to go with the Open, particularly when PGA Tour rights were up last year, but that never came to pass.
The Fox-USGA breakup would seem to be amicable, given the inclusion of a warm Fox statement in the USGA’s press release announcing the move. Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks called the agreement a “win for golf fans everywhere, a win for the USGA and a win for FOX and NBC Sports.”
