GolfTV, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned golf streaming service, is shutting down next month. The company has started letting subscribers know of the pending shutdown via email.
In 2019, Discovery announced a 12-year, $2 billion agreement with the PGA Tour for its international streaming-rights package. With that deal came the advent of GolfTV, which was available in a variety of countries outside of the United States.
The GolfTV service will shut down Dec. 12.
However, Warner Bros. Discovery will continue to remain the PGA Tour's international streaming-rights partner in most international markets, per Geoff Shackelford. Some markets will go away, though.
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Update: @wbd retaining the @PGATour streaming rights for its + app in most international markets, but not all. Due to rights issues, OTT and linear coverage will be on other platforms in some markets. But checks will keep coming to the Tour for 8 more years. Just no more @GolfTV.
— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) November 11, 2022
In many markets, Discovery produced linear TV (that is to say, on traditional TV channels) for PGA Tour coverage. Some were solely streaming through the over-the-top GolfTV product. In many cases, those relationships will continue, though streaming options will be available through other Warner Bros. Discovery-owned platforms, likely Discovery+.
GolfTV and Discovery likely had a hand in producing a piece of golf history.
In 2019, Tiger Woods competed in the GolfTV-produced "The Challenge: Japan Skins," with Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama. That event brought Woods to Japan to compete in the inaugural Zozo Championship at Narashino Country Club, the same venue as the then-debuting PGA Tour event. Woods went on to win the Zozo Championship for his record-tying 82nd PGA Tour win.
GolfTV turned out to ultimately be a victim of the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger, which brought about the end of several streaming platforms. The CNN streaming platform, CNN+, launched with disastrous results, lost a nine-figure sum and was shut down within 30 days of its launch.
Back in April, Discovery officials came to grips with their struggles to launch individual streaming services. JB Perrette, Discovery’s head of streaming, reportedly said at the meeting, “We have failed almost at every turn launching these products."