Asian Tour Strike Golf Channel Deal to Enter New Markets

Golf’s Asian Tour has agreed a media rights deal with the Golf Channel which will take television coverage of its tournaments into three major new territories in a deal brokered by Asian Tour Media.

The agreement will see the Golf Channel broadcast the tour in north America, Latin America and Japan.

Launched in 2009 as a joint venture of the Asian Tour and IMG, Asian Tour Media has already agreed broadcast deals with the likes of Sky Deutschland, Sky Sports in the UK, and Guangdong and CCTV in China, meaning that dedicated coverage of the tour can now be seen by viewers in over 420 million homes worldwide

Asian Tour executive chairman Kyi Hla Han spoke of his “delight” at breaking into new markets, adding: “The standard of the Asian Tour has increasingly grown over the years and we look forward to giving golf fans in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Japan the opportunity to watch Asia’s elite golfers.

“These new agreements by Asian Tour Media will play a big role in further accelerating the growth of the game and deliver wider benefits to our sponsors and partners.”

Michael Mellor, who is head of IMG Media, Asia Pacific, said: The vast breadth of coverage that the Asian Tour now enjoys globally is testament to the increasing interest in the players on the tour, and to the quality of the tournaments that now take place in Asia. It is also an endorsement of the high standards of production that Asian Tour Media is now setting.”