NBC Sports Group and Sky Sports announced on Monday that each will offer the most coverage ever for THE PLAYERS Championship.
Being staged in March for the first time since 2006 as part of the newly enhanced golf calendar in 2019, the PGA TOUR’s flagship event will include 22 live hours of tournament coverage across GOLF Channel and NBC. NBC Sports’ week-long coverage also will include collaborations with Sky Sports Golf, which will re-brand itself as “Sky Sports: THE PLAYERS” for the duration of the Championship. In total, NBC Sports Group will dedicate more than 150 hours to live programming surrounding THE PLAYERS.
“The return of THE PLAYERS to March helps improve the rhythm of the golf calendar with six championship events across the next six months,” said Mike McCarley, president, Golf, NBC Sports Group. “The collaboration between Sky Sports and NBC Sports will help us both better serve the sports fan by providing more in-depth coverage of THE PLAYERS than ever before. Together with Sky, we’re able to enhance the fan’s viewing experience surrounding THE PLAYERS and elevate the collective coverage in both the U.S. and Europe.”
Jason Wessely, head of Sky Sports Golf, echoed those sentiments.
“THE PLAYERS Championship is one of the highlights of the year for the UK golf fan,” Wessely said. “The exciting content collaboration between NBC Sports and Sky will allow our customers to get closer to the action at TPC Sawgrass than ever before.”
Live tournament coverage will be complemented by more than 60 live hours of comprehensive news, analysis and features within “Golf Central Live From THE PLAYERS” and “Morning Drive;” nearly 45 hours of “PGA TOUR LIVE” coverage on NBC Sports Gold; and more than 20 live hours of THE PLAYERS “Launch Pad” coverage on DirecTV.
Following Comcast’s acquisition of Sky last year, NBC Sports Group and Sky Sports will employ their most extensive production collaborate to-date, led by Sky Sports Golf airing nearly 25 hours of live simulcast coverage of “Golf Central Live From THE PLAYERS.” In total, Sky Sports will air nearly 60 live hours of coverage surrounding THE PLAYERS, the most-ever for the network.
NBC Sports’ Emmy-nominated live tournament team will unveil a new graphics package customized specifically for THE PLAYERS, featuring the championship’s signature blue, gold, and white color scheme. Coverage also will implement new original theme music for the event, along with several popular NBC Sports’ production enhancements viewers are accustomed to seeing at TPC Sawgrass.
GOLF Channel will produce international news programming surrounding THE PLAYERS in both Japanese and Mandarin, featuring reports and custom content throughout the week. These productions will complement the international distribution of “Golf Central Live From THE PLAYERS,” which is distributed to markets within GOLF Channel’s worldwide footprint of nearly 500 million viewers in more than 70 countries and nine languages around the world.
