Eclat Media, the Korean sports broadcasting company, has acquired exclusive rights to golf’s British Open and Women’s Open in a three-year deal struck with the R&A, the UK-based governing body for the sport.
Under the agreement, which runs from 2022 to 2024, Eclat’s SPOTV sports channel in Southeast Asia will broadcast all rounds of the prestigious golf championships live on linear television and digital platforms.
SPOTV’s deal covers the territories of Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Macau (non-exclusive rights), Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The contract also includes rights to air the Senior Open and the Amateur Championship.
The Open, one of men’s golf’s four majors, will take place from 10 to 17 July next year at St Andrews in Scotland for its 150th edition, while Muirfield will play host to the Women’s Open from 4 to 7 August.
Mitchell Hong, chief executive of SPOTV and Eclat Media Group, said: “SPOTV’s premier sports content has been further enriched with the addition of the R&A’s prestigious golf championships to its platform.
“These are some of the most-watched events in golf and we feel privileged to be able to show them in Asia where the sport has such a huge fan base. The Open is arguably the biggest and best of the majors and one of the highlights of the year on the global sports calendar.”
Malcolm Booth, director of sales and marketing at the R&A, added: “There is a real appetite for watching golf’s most prestigious championships in southeast Asia and we are delighted to be working with SPOTV to broadcast our flagship events to the millions of sports fans in the region.”
Eclat recently launched its SPOTV and SPOTV2 regional pay-TV linear channels in 10 territories across Southeast Asia.
Sports content on the channels includes the Wimbledon and US Open tennis grand slams, motorcycling’s MotoGP, as well as Asian motorcycling, baseball and volleyball.
The streaming platform SPOTV Now is also due to be launched in 2022.
