Golf’s U.S. Open is reportedly staying put with its current partners.
The USGA is nearing a deal to renew its current rights deal with NBC and the network’s soon-to-be-spun-off cable platforms USA Network and Golf Channel, John Ourand of Puck reported Thursday. According to Ourand, the new deal is “expected to get close” to the $93 million/year of the current deal, which was originally struck by Fox Sports in 2013.
As was the case for Formula 1 until Apple reportedly swooped in, and as appears to be the case for Major League Baseball, the market for the USGA had become stagnant. NBC’s exclusive negotiating window lapsed earlier this year and there was little indication that the USGA was generating much interest on the open market.
But Ourand on Thursday reported that Netflix put in a “serious bid” to acquire the rights, which include not only the U.S. Open but the U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open and various amateur events. According to Ourand, Netflix outbid several other challengers, including CBS, ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery. (ESPN’s interest had been previously reported by Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal.)
It is not clear how close the Netflix bid came to that of the incumbents.
For NBC and the cable outlets — which will be officially part of the new spinoff company “Versant” later this year — the renewal extends an agreement that came together during the disruption of COVID. Fox Sports was unable to carry the rescheduled U.S. Open, which was moved to NFL season in September, and an agreement to have NBC take over that particular year of coverage resulted in a deal to shift the remaining years of the Fox contract to NBC.
Per reporting at the time, Fox has continued to pay the majority of the rights fee since ceding the package to NBC in 2020, or about $53 million/year based on the reported NBC figure of $40 million.