Sky Sports PGA Coverage

[Yosser]

I watched coverage of last year's US Open in Spain with about 1 ad break every 3 hours. I watched the leaders play the entire back nine, every single shot, every player, no ad breaks or studio analysis. It must be online somewhere for every major. No idea what channel it was but it seemed to be a Spanish gold dedicated channel. (as you would assume!)

Thank you! The chances are that you were watching Canal + Espana on the "Golf" or "Deportes" channel from 19E, they usually have an English audio channel. I was actually in Portugal this year whilst the US Open was on and was in a restaurant with a TV in the corner showing live coverage on Sport TV (Zon portuguese package) which was largely uninterrupted. Looking through the window at the bar next door I noticed Sky Sports UK showing adverts whilst live golf was being shown at the same time on the Portuguese station. It isn't just the sports channels either, if you take a look at something like the Discovery Channel, "Mythbusters" (ironic) is scheduled for 1 hour in the UK but 40-45 minutes elsewhere in Europe. For me it is clear case Sky UK being greedy and maximising profit, whilst showing contempt for their customers.

I do feel sorry for Sky UK's Golf fans as they are paying over the odds to watch the sport because much of the subscription is subsidising the poor quality channels in the "family pack" and the ridiculous price Sky have paid for English football. Many European providers offer genuine options of purchasing what you actually want at a budget you can afford.

The Augusta National Golf club are one of the few organisations who are not prepared to be dictated to by Sky UK and impose a maximum of 4 minutes per hour for commericals during the Masters as part of the T&C. They have also decided that SKy UK will not have exclusivity to the Masters which is the reason why it is still on the BBC.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

To be honest, it is something beyond my control and so with that in mind I'd rather have what coverage I can get rather than none at all. It wasn't that long ago that the only two majors shown at all were the Masters and the Open and even then the BBC could only show limited coverage from Augusta (as both Sky and BBC have to even now) for the first two rounds