Golf Channel

Golf Channel

Headquarters	Orlando, Florida, U.S.
Ownership
Owner	NBCUniversal

Golf Channel, known as The Golf Channel before the July 2008 dropping of The, is an American cable television network with coverage focused on the game of golf. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, the American headquarters and studio are currently located in Orlando, Florida. Golf Channel is available in the United States, Canada a few nations in Asia and Latin America through cable, satellite, and wireless transmissions. Worldwide, it is available in over 100 million households.

History and programming

The network was launched on January 17, 1995. The idea of a 24-hour-a-day golf network came from media entrepreneur Joseph E. Gibbs of Birmingham, Alabama, who first got the idea for the channel in 1991. Gibbs felt there was enough interest in golf among the public to support such a network, and commissioned a Gallup Poll to see if his instincts were correct. With the support of the polling behind him, Gibbs and legendary golfer Arnold Palmer then secured $80 million in financing to launch the network, which was among the first cable networks developed to cover one singular sport. The first live tournament the channel televised was the Dubai Desert Classic, held from January 19-22, 1995.

Golf Channel features a range of golf programming, including PGA Tour, European Tour, LPGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour events. The channel devotes considerable time to news coverage of golf, including a nightly program, Golf Central. There are highlight shows of past tournaments, and a reality television competition show, The Big Break, whose premise is to help aspiring professionals gain exemptions into PGA Tour and LPGA events. In 2005, Golf Channel helped set up a special match play event called Big Stakes Golf, in which teams of two paid a $100,000 entry fee to play in a special tournament where the winning team split a $3,000,000 first-place prize, the largest in golf history. In the end, mini-tour professionals Garth Mulroy and David Ping won the grand prize.

In 2007, Golf Channel embarked on its 15-year agreement as the exclusive cable television home for the PGA Tour. The network’s annual coverage will feature early-round coverage of the entire FedEx Cup season, including the World Golf Championships, The Tour Championship and The Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s crown jewel. In total, early-round coverage of 30 events will air on Golf Channel. Also included in the package will be 13 full, four-round events beginning with the season’s first three tournaments – SBS Championship, Sony Open in Hawaii, and the Bob Hope Classic – and the five official money events following The Tour Championship. The network also will provide full coverage of three tournaments played opposite golf’s majors and World Golf Championships. Every PGA Tour event will be aired live and then rebroadcast in prime time, a first for the PGA Tour.

In January 2011, Comcast, owners of Golf Channel, acquired Vivendi's majority stake in NBC Universal. As part of the acquisition, a restructuring occurred within Comcast's sports networks to increase its ties with the NBC Sports division, resulting in NBC Sports' senior vice president Mike McCarley becoming the new head of Golf Channel. Beginning in February 2011, Golf Channel also began to integrate itself with the NBC network's golf telecasts, re-branding the telecasts as Golf Channel on NBC.

Golf Channel HD

Golf Channel HD logo

Golf Channel HD logo

Golf Channel HD is a 1080i high definition simulcast of The Golf Channel. It launched in January 2007. Formerly in some markets Golf Channel shared an HD channel slot with sister network Versus which programmed based on the priority of each network's event; this channel was known as VS/Golf HD. As of December 8, 2008, both channels are now distributed individually in high definition.

Comcast planned to have Golf Channel HD available to 12.5 million viewers by January 2009, with a promise of 750 hours of HD content in 2009.

Golf Channel UK

There was a British version of the channel called Golf Channel UK for a time. It was operated by sporting goods retailer JJB Sports, and was available on BSkyB satellite television. It broadcast many of the shows from the U.S. channel, but was unable to attract a viable audience as it offered little live golf, and it ceased broadcasting on 31 December 2007. All the major tours have their main UK contract with either Sky Sports or Setanta Golf, and BBC Sport covers several major tournaments each year.

Programs

Tournament coverage

• Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented By MasterCard, played at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Bay Hill, Florida (venue's location promoted as Orlando, Florida.)
• Champions Tour, played at various venues in the United States, Canada and South Korea.
• European Tour
• LPGA Tour, played at various venues worldwide.
• Nationwide Tour, played at venues in the United States, Mexico, Panama and Colombia.
• PGA Tour, Played at various venues in the United States and worldwide.

News and analysis

• Golf Central
• Grey Goose 19th Hole
• Morning Drive

Entertainment

• Being John Daly
• Donald J. Trump's Fabulous World Of Golf
• Golf In America
• Golf's Amazing Videos
• Inside The PGA Tour
• Pipe Dream
• Quest For The Card
• The Big Break
• The Haney Project
• The Story Of Golf
• Top 10

Instruction

• Champions Tour Learning Center
• Golf Fitness Academy
• Playing Lessons From The Pros
• School Of Golf
• The Golf Fix

Travel

• GolfNow

On-air staff

Main article: List of Golf Channel personalities

External links

• Golf Channel US