It appears the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open aren’t going anywhere.
According to Puck, the USGA is near an agreement with NBCUniversal to retain the rights to its national championships after the association’s contract with the network expires at the end of 2026.
Netflix, though, reportedly made a strong bid, while ESPN, CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery also expressed interest in acquiring the media rights. Netflix has recently dipped its toe into streaming live sports, holding the rights to Christmas Day NFL games, Monday Night Raw and the next two FIFA Women’s World Cups.
Along with the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open, the USGA’s other prominent championships, such as the U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur, will remain with NBC’s family of networks: Golf Channel, USA Network and CNBC.
However, Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, has spun off a pack of cable networks, including USA, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel, to a new publicly traded company called Versant.
Meanwhile, in 2020, the USGA prematurely ended its 12-year, $1 billion media rights deal with Fox Sports after dissension over live coverage of the pandemic-delayed U.S. Open in September. The contract was then transferred back to NBC.
The renewed agreement for 2027 is expected to be worth around $1 billion.
After broadcasting the U.S. Open from 1962 through 1965, NBC regained rights to the USGA championships in 1995 from ESPN and ABC, and televised those events through 2014.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as USGA on Verge of New TV Deal With NBC Despite Netflix Bid.
