USA Network lost a major sporting event as The Masters moved to ESPN today. Back in the early 1980’s, USA had the Masters, Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA, PGA Golf, college basketball, the French Open and the US Tennis Open. All that’s left from that tremendous sports inventory is the US Open.
ESPN and USA had a big rivalry early on, but now, it appears everything is going to Disney as the Augusta National Golf Club announced that the Alleged Worldwide Leader will become the cable home for the first two rounds of the Masters in the US. ESPN has had The Masters’ international rights for Africa, Asia, Canada, parts of South America and the Middle East since 1993. Now, it gets the tournament which will be aired on ESPN, ESPN HD and ESPN Deportes. While ESPN no longer has the PGA Tour, it has the cable rights to the Masters and US Open and the over the air rights to the Open Championship, the first three legs of Golf’s Grand Slam.
Alan Kreda of Conde Nast’s Portfolio says this is a big feather in ESPN’s cap.
Bob Gillespie of The State newspaper in South Carolina says the new agreement also includes digital rights for ESPN.com. Expect ESPN.com and ESPN360 to stream the first two rounds. This year, both Masters.org and CBS Sportsline streamed the opening shot of the tournament and one hour of online coverage for each of the four rounds of the Masters.
Bryan Steirs blogs in USA Today that the Masters new TV partner is part of Augusta National’s chairman Billy Payne’s strategy to expand the tournament’s reach globally.
Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun suggests ESPN bring Kenny Mayne to break up the seriousness at Augusta National. If Kenny does a piece that the humorless members don’t like, watch ESPN get booted in the middle of coverage.
Just breaking now, ESPN’s Ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber has come out with a piece criticizing Gregg Easterbrook for some slanted pieces on Bill Belichick and Spygate. We’ll have an update coming up.
