Discovery Inc in $2 billion deal for international PGA golf rights

[June 05, 2018]  (Reuters) - Discovery Inc, the owner of Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, will invest more than $2 billion over the next decade to broadcast and stream golf's PGA Tour outside the United States, the company said on Monday.

The 12-year partnership involves the development of a new PGA Tour-branded video streaming service, the company said.

Discovery will get global TV and online rights to all PGA tour media properties, including tournaments such as The Players Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs and the Presidents Cup.

The company will start investing in 2019, it said.

Discovery, best known in the United States for cable networks such as TLC, is already an established sports broadcaster in Europe through its subsidiary Eurosport.

The PGA partnership will be led by Discovery's Alex Kaplan, previously executive vice president for Eurosport Digital.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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