Television
Early round coverage of USGA and R&A Opens to move from Golf Channel to USA Network
Icon Sportswire
The sunsetting of NBC Sports Network at the end of the 2021 is causing NBC Sports to migrate its various sports programs—Premier League soccer, NASCAR, Olympic sports to name a few—to another one of its cable properties, USA Network. On Tuesday, NBC Sports executives announced that the reshuffling would also impact four of their golf properties: the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open along with the Open Championship and the AIG Women’s Open.
Beginning in 2022, USA Network will broadcast early round coverage of the USGA and R&A signature men’s and women’s championships, which previously had been airing on Golf Channel. USA Network will also air lead-in coverage on the weekends ahead of NBC broadcasting from the tournaments.
All linear coverage will be streamed (via authentication) on NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app.
“We are excited to transition the cable coverage of many of our premium sports events to USA Network, Peacock, and other widely-distributed NBCUniversal platforms, which will give us a significant boost in television homes and will put us in an even stronger position as we grow our business,” Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports, said in a press release.
Early round coverage of PGA Tour events will remain on Golf Channel.