European Tour Set For Extended Adventure With Sky Sports

Broadcasting giants Sky Sports have agreed to extend its long-running agreement with the European Tour, with three additional Ryder Cups and another six years of Tour golf in the pipeline.

Sky Sports and the European Tour have been partners for nearly 20 years, so news of an extended association is sure to be rewarded as a result of a healthy relationship and loyalty towards each company’s brand. The new deal is set to expire in 2018. It provides the broadcaster with TV, mobile, online and tablet rights for the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in 2014, Minnesota in 2016 and Paris in 2018. A minimum of 28 European Tour events from the Race to Dubai including for the first time, exclusive live coverage of all four days of both the BMW PGA Championship from Wentworth and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart is also featured, along with all four World Golf Championship events.

“Our viewers have seen the growth of the Tour, the rise of the Ryder Cup and European golfers on top of the world rankings,” said Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports. “Now they can be promised even more. We have a valuable partnership with the European Tour; they have the events our viewers want to see and we have enjoyed the European Tour’s continued growth. We now look forward to taking this relationship well into its second decade.”

George O’Grady, chief executive of the European Tour, added: “We commend Sky for their pioneering and innovative technological advancements during the term of our previous agreements, embracing the move into High Definition coverage of the whole of the Tour and, for the first time ever, the development of groundbreaking 3D transmission of the Ryder Cup. Our television supporters have benefitted from seeing virtually every shot played in this unique match. The Tour has unquestionably benefitted from this outstanding commitment over those previous agreements, during which time we have seen so much new talent emerge from all the countries that we visit. We are pleased to announce this agreement when the top three in the Official World Golf Ranking are all European Tour members representing Sky’s home territory of GB and Ireland.”

The new deal with the European Tour follows recent renewals or new contracts for Sky Sports with the UEFA Champions League, Football League, Scottish Premier League, England and Wales Cricket Board, Formula One and Rugby Football League.