New Golf Channel -Exec Hints to growth opportunities, speaks on USGA -Deal

How did the Golf Canal start with one of the most radical changes in 30-year history?

By changing absolutely nothing.

On Tuesday, Golf Channel and his new parent company, Versant, announced that it had signed the first rights agreement in the history of the incoming cable, a 6-year agreement with the USGA to keep each of his 15 championships on the same network that they have mentioned in a certain form in the last three decades. The news marked the first important announcement of any kind for Versant, the collection of the cable channels of NBC and Comcast that formally “starling” from the Comcast -Paraplu later this year.

The USGA deal is a suitable microcosm of the moment for Versant, maintaining an old partner with the golf channel, while at the same time the intention of the company to continue to formalize the course in cable TV. The announcement cools some external concern that Versant might be able to sell the collection of cable TV assets or can be drastically overhauled in response to the structural revolution of the cable industry in the streaming age. Instead, it suggests that Versant revitalizes his cable activa, so that the falling (but still profitable) company is doubled, while the brand strength of his collection of cable channels is used to look for new investments.

Golf Canal, which will shift to Versant Property in the new year, is one of the most important players in that strategy. In many ways, Versant hopes that the ‘new’ golf channel is similar to the old one, and continues to bring live golf tournaments and studies of significance for viewers throughout the country and they support additional companies such as GolfPass and Golfsnow. To implement that strategy, Golf Channel must be programmed such as the USGA, said Matt Hong, the new president of Versant, in An interview with CNBCAlex Sherman is.

“We will remain active for top sports programming of the upper shelf, such as the one with the USGA, or as the series of rights with the USGA that we announced today,” said Hong. “That is our current core activities, and we will continue to invest in our core activities. But we will also invest in the growth of our digital properties. So the organic growth of digital properties as we have in Golf with GolfSnow and GolfPass.

CorporateSpeak aside, Hong’s answer suggests that Versant is armed to make future media investments. A plausible area for those investments is in sport, where Golf Channel, CNBC and USA Network have collected some assets, and where there is still a really financial benefit for linear TV companies. In recent months, some have suggested that Versant could merge with a different sportstity to collect a number of more parties TV rights, which pursues a last dragon of sports TV profit from the linear age.

But Hong said for the time being, a merger was out of the picture.

“I don’t know that we will merge with an entity that only has sports rights because we have a lot of programming to stimulate our linear issues,” Hong said. “I think the future will be acquisitions – Inorganic Acquisitions, which help to diversify our income flows. So it will really continue to invest in our core linear activities and then be looking for inorganic opportunities that comply with those linear activities.”

It is generally assumed that every follow-up plan will be for a cable TV company including streaming, where the vast majority of media growth has taken place in the past decade. Despite signing the USGA for an agreement for TV alone, Hong did not dispute that fact.

“We still believe a lot in the power of the linear networks that we have for the Sports Division, but also for all the Versant including CNBC. We are also not blind to the reality of how Sportfans Media consuming,” Hong said. “So although this [USGA] Deal is exclusively linear, we will also have streams that you can see at GolfChannel.com early next year, and more to talk about streaming in the coming years. “

On the subject of streaming, Hong suggested that Versant could play some of their best linear TV content at streaming companies. Some partnerships can include the (current) business partners of Versant at Peacock, but some can come outside the NBCU paraplu.

“All other things are the same, we would like to continue working and collaborate with NBCU and Peacock in the future,” said Hong. “I think one of the unique things about being soon to be divorced public companies, that we may be able to collaborate with Peacock, but we can also collaborate with other third -party streamers in situations where a series of rights can or may not work for Pauw, but we want them at Versant.

For Hong is the most valuable word for Versant Today runway. For all the pearl parks around the downfall of the cable TV, most of the assets from Versant remain financially robust (if decreases with the trend of cutting cord). Although Comcast did not have the organizational patience to navigate the deterioration and repositioning for the future, for that reason, it remains visible in cable TV.

“I think we have a strong company. We have $ 7 billion in annual income and healthy free cash flow. I also think the reason why people are aligning with linear television are assets as they exist at CNBC,” Hong said. “We have strong news activa and we have strong sports activa that I am particularly partial for. And I think that it offers us a catwalk to see how we can develop this company through inorganic growth and I think this will be a focus for our company. For us in the sports division that will be a focus and I think for our entire company, that will be a focus.”

In other words, blowing the winds of change at the headquarters of the golf canal but in the short term it will probably not look that way.