Sky Sports will become the exclusive live broadcaster of the Masters tournament in the UK from 2020.
The new multi-year agreement will extend the pay-TV broadcaster’s partnership with the prestigious tournament into its second decade, but brings to end the BBC’s live free-to-air coverage after more than 30 years.
The 2020 Masters is due to be held on 9-12 April, with all four days of tournament action from Augusta National broadcast exclusively live on Sky Sports’ dedicated golf channel, with round-the-clock coverage on Sky Sports News and Sky Sports’ social and digital platforms.
Alongside all four tournament rounds live, Sky Sports will show live coverage of the Par 3 Contest, as well as a daily practice range show featuring interviews and analysis from the practice range.
The usual supplementary live coverage, such as Featured Groups, Amen Corner and 15 and 16 holes, will also continue to be broadcast via Sky Sports’ red button and online platforms.
Considered among the most iconic events on the annual sporting calendar, The Masters has provided some of the most dramatic moments in golf over the years.
This includes the 2019 tournament, when Tiger Woods defied the odds to win his fifth Green Jacket, capping one of the most remarkable comebacks the world of sport has ever seen.
Sky Sports has broadcast the Masters Tournament since 2011, holding exclusive rights to live coverage of the first two rounds, before sharing the live action from the final two rounds with the BBC.
On securing exclusive live rights to the event for the first time in 2020, Sky Sports managing director Rob Webster said:
“The Masters has provided some spectacular moments on Sky Sports – not least Tiger Woods’ unforgettable comeback this year – and we look forward to broadcasting many more at one of the most iconic global sporting events.
“We are proud of our 10-year association with Augusta National, and our golf team does a great job sharing the magic of the Masters with our viewers.”
Sky Sports broadcasts to more than 100 tournaments every year on its dedicated golf channel, and in 2019 the broadcaster provided live coverage all four men’s Majors, all five women’s Majors and the Solheim Cup.
The Masters Committee’s new exclusive live rights deal with Sky, which was expected following the 2019 tournament, now leaves the BBC with no yearly live golf coverage in its portfolio for the first time since it started covering The Open in 1955.
The BBC will now broadcast only daily TV highlights of The Masters for terrestrial viewers in 2020. A BBC spokesperson told The Mirror:
“We continue to operate in a period of huge financial restraint and as such, all sport rights decisions must be scrutinised closely. Our audiences will still be able to follow the Masters extensively across BBC radio and on the BBC Sport website, in addition to the daily television highlights.”
The corporation recently renewed its deal with the European Tour to show highlights of its flagship events, including the Ryder Cup, until 2022, which sits alongside its deal to show primetime highlights of The Open.
The BBC will have access to some live TV coverage of the Tokyo Olympic golf competitions in 2020, although its new Olympics deal with Eurosport restricts the BBC to just network TV coverage and one additional live stream on the Red Button and online.
This means the BBC’s coverage of the Olympic golf events could be marginalised, unless there is significant British medal interest in the latter stages of the men’s and women’s tournaments.
