The Open on Sky: BBC loses golf rights, is Wimbledon next?

Sky Sports has beaten the BBC to the rights for live coverage of The Open golf championship, bringing the curtain down on a six-decade relationship between the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the Beeb.

The tournament will be shown on satellite TV from 2017 after the BBC "refused to compete" with an offer from Sky believed to be worth around £15m a year, according to the Daily Telegraph, a figure more than double what the terrestrial broadcaster had paid.

Explaining the decision R&A chief executive Richard Dawson said: "We've been concerned for some time that the UK rights have been on a commercial plateau. One of our responsibilities is to keep the Open Championship at the forefront of golf events in the world."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The BBC will still show highlights of the tournament, but the news has been greeted with a mixture of anger, horror and resignation.

A 'dark day' for golf

No-one could accuse Derek Lawrenson of the Daily Mail of taking the news lightly. "A plague on all their houses," he roars. "A plague on the politicians who somehow consider The Open not worthy of Category A status when it comes to the so-called sporting crown jewels... A plague on the BBC for not fighting tooth and nail to keep hold of one of their most precious sporting assets. And, most of all, a plague on the Royal and Ancient Golf Club for an abject betrayal of their mandate to look after the best interests of the game."

Veteran BBC presenter Peter Alliss was also upset and said: "I don't think there will be a golfer that won't be bitterly disappointed at the news today." And Lee Westwood lent his opinion some credence by calling the decision an "absolute disgrace".

A hammer blow for participation

The deal marks the start of "a long and agonising retreat to the margins" for golf, argues Lawrenson in the Mail. "In another 20 years, when this space is filled by my successor bemoaning what happened to golf in this country and why we produce so few great players, remember this day."

The number of 16- to 25-year-olds playing the game has fallen by 15,000 in the last 12 months notes Owen Gibson of The Guardian. "When you look at the gloom surrounding plummeting participation figures already, it is hard to see how less terrestrial exposure will help."

A similar fate to cricket?

The R&A has taken a similar view to the English cricket authorities when they signed up with Sky in 2005, says Gibson. "Commercial logic and the realities of a changing media world made it impossible to ignore Sky’s millions any longer," he says. There could be positives, but "as with cricket it is the nagging sense that the sport will be left diminished by its increasing absence from free-to-air television that abides, particularly on those moments when it becomes part of the national conversation".

But let's not over-react

Golf is not a sport associated with innovation and change, but James Corrigan of the Daily Telegraph has been taken aback by the outcry. It appears the "R&A has sold its soul to Satan," he gasps. But "as with all knee-jerk reactions, the shrillness of the protest is absurd".

The sport has more issues than just TV coverage. "Golf's biggest problem with the youth remains its fuddy-duddy image," he says. Sky's coverage might address that, and the extra money will be ploughed back into the sport.

We won't miss the BBC

The BBC viewing figures were "pathetic", says Corrigan. The tournament was beamed into every home in the country, but the average audience was just one million. What's more, the corporation's coverage, fronted by aging commentators like Alliss, only serves to propagate the sport's fuddy-duddy image.

Sky's golfing audience is ten years younger than the BBC's and with satellite TV more common than ever, there is no reason to worry, he insists.

What's more the BBC has an opportunity of its own as its nightly highlights package could attract those viewers who are not interested in watching ponderous live golf. "All it will require is the proper promotion and an energy on the BBC's behalf to pull in more golfing viewers, something it has plainly not bothered to do in a decade of increasing lethargy and neglect," says Corrigan.

Bad news for the Six Nations and Wimbledon?

Could the BBC's loss be felt by other sports as well? Its decision not to compete for the rights could be "framed by looming talks over the BBC licence fee", warns Owen Gibson of the Guardian. The BBC is under pressure to cut its budget and The Open was not included in the so called "crown jewels" - sporting events that must be shown on free to air TV. Neither is the Six Nations rugby tournament.

"With a similar battle for the Six Nations rights looming, rugby union will be watching with interest," says Gibson.

The Times says that Wimbledon coverage could also be affected, as only the finals must be shown on terrestrial TV. "Wimbledon and the Six Nations may be the next BBC events to come under threat from richer competitors," it warns. "It is believed that the BBC has already mooted the idea of splitting Wimbledon rights with another broadcaster."