FOX Sports Announces 2015 USGA Championships Multi-Platform Coverage Schedule
New York – FOX Sports today announced its live event programming schedule for its first year as the United States Golf Association’s (USGA) principal domestic media partner, featuring over 300 hours of coverage across eight championships and a record 38.5 hours of coverage from the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, University Place, Wash. The announcement was made today by FOX Sports President and COO Eric Shanks. Coverage begins in May with the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship May 5-6 from The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
FOX Sports is scheduled to provide approximately 320 hours of USGA championships and related programming in 2015 across its linear and digital platforms, including FOX broadcast network, the No. 1 network for sports television since 1997; FOX Sports 1, the nation’s fastest-growing cable channel; FOX Deportes, the leading Spanish language sports network in the U.S.; and FOX Sports Digital platforms, including its critically-acclaimed FOX Sports GO mobile app. FOX Sports’ programming schedule offers the most extensive coverage ever assigned to the U.S. Open in its history. In addition to the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, FOX Sports is scheduled to provide extensive coverage from the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in May; U.S. Senior Open in June; U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Junior Amateur in July; and U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur in August.
“We are incredibly excited and honored to launch our partnership with the USGA this year,” said Shanks. “Our preparations to cover these championships have been underway for the past 18 months, and we’ve assembled a terrific team in front of the camera and behind it who are committed to providing world-class coverage.”
“This is an exciting time as the USGA begins its long-term association with FOX Sports,” said USGA President Thomas J. O’Toole Jr. “Our broadcast partner has made a tremendous commitment and is dedicated to enhancing our national championships. Both players and fans will benefit from the expanded coverage.”
Planned linear and digital media coverage for the 115th U.S. Open Championship is unprecedented. FOX Sports is scheduled to offer 38.5 live hours from Thursday through Sunday on FOX and FOX Sports 1, a three-and-a-half hour increase from a year ago. Moreover, FOX Sports is televising 22.5 hours on FOX, up from 19 hours on broadcast television in 2014. Of the 22.5 FOX hours, 11.5 hours of live action are slated for prime time, up from five prime-time hours scheduled for broadcast television in 2012, the last time the U.S. Open was played in the Pacific Time Zone. In addition to almost 40 hours of coverage on FOX and FOX Sports 1, FOX Deportes domestically televises three hours of U.S. Open coverage on both Saturday and Sunday in Spanish, a first in the championship’s storied history, and FOX Sports Digital offers three distinct alternate production feeds available daily on USOpen.com for desktop viewers and via FOX Sports GO and U.S. Open digital platforms, adding an additional 120 hours of coverage.
The USGA, which conducts 13 national golf championships annually in addition to its governance role and support of the game’s health initiatives, and FOX Sports announced a comprehensive 12-year multi-media agreement in August 2013. The landmark agreement brings premier major championship golf to FOX for the first time, already home to the country’s greatest sports events, including the World Series, Daytona 500, Super Bowl LI, 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Full schedule can be found in PDF below.
