Earlier this year, when reporting seemed to suggest the NFL would be striking early media rights renewals with its broadcast partners before the start of the 2026-27 season, thereby taking billions of dollars out of network coffers that could hypothetically be spent on other sports properties, it seemed like there would be a mad rush from leagues to beat the NFL to market.
That hasn’t been reality, at least not yet. Despite PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp reportedly telling broadcast partners back in February that he’d like to negotiate new media rights deals early, before the NFL came to market, the PGA Tour now seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach not too dissimilar to the NHL.
Speaking with CNBC at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on Thursday, Rolapp demurred on whether the PGA Tour would look to strike early renewals on their current broadcast deals, which go through 2030, in order to avoid the NFL.
“Listen, I think the NFL is one-of-one. It’s an amazing business and product. You can’t really plan your rights around what they’ll do,” Rolapp, the NFL’s former media boss, told CNBC. “I can only worry about what I can control … our deals go through ’30, we may go early, we may not. We haven’t really had those discussions yet. I think the first step we’re just finishing, which is, just get the competitive model right so you know what you’re actually going to be in the market with,” he continued, alluding to the PGA Tour’s recent announcement of a new two-tiered format with fewer top-flight events, promotion and relegation, and a reworked playoff structure.
As for how the PGA Tour got to the new competitive model, Rolapp says he engaged both the Tour’s current media partners, CBS and NBC, as well as other potential future partners, “digital streamers and others,” to help draw up the new system.
“Blank sheet of paper, if you could redesign this competitive model, what would it look like?” Rolapp posed to current and potential partners. “We didn’t take all of their ideas, but a lot of their fingerprints and their influence is on this.”
Rolapp also addressed a potential expansion of PGA Tour inventory into streaming. The Tour currently has a deal with ESPN to stream PGA Tour Live on the ESPN app, but Rolapp kept open the possibility of putting more inventory on streaming, while still acknowledging that linear television is where the bulk of the sport’s audience currently sits.
“You need a very good digital strategy, but at the same time, you need a very good linear strategy because linear’s not going anywhere, it’s still where you aggregate the bulk of your audiences. So it’s not an either or, it’s an and,” Rolapp said.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.