Tiger Woods sponsor GolfTV tells customers its service is shutting down

Discovery's streaming service GolfTV, which in 2018 announced an exclusive content deal with Tiger Woods, has today sent an email to its customers notifying them that the service will be discontinued from December 12, 2022. 

The PGA Tour and pay-TV operator Discovery created GolfTV in October 2018 off the back of a huge $2 billion, 12-year deal for its media rights outside of the United States.

But fast forward just over four years, and it would appear things have taken a turn for the worse. 

RIP the golf Netflix, as branded by David Zaslav, who kills GolfTV off in Warner Bros. Discovery cuts. Unclear what happens to the remaining hundreds of millions owed the PGA Tour for international streaming rights. https://t.co/J9DkeURL9x

— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) November 11, 2022

"RIP the golf Netflix, as branded by David Zaslav, who kills GolfTV off in Warner Bros. Discovery cuts," tweeted renowned golf writer Geoff Shackelford.

"Unclear what happens to the remaining hundreds of millions owed the PGA Tour for international streaming rights."

The Los Angeles Times last month reported how Warner Bros. Discovery were about to "incur up to $1.5 billion in costs to shrink the company, cancel programming and provide severance packages to laid-off workers, among other expenses."

In October 2018, Discovery formed its Discovery Golf division by naming Eurosport executive vice president Alex Kaplan as president and general manager of the division, and officially announced that the service would be known as GolfTV, which would replace PGA Tour Live international.

GolfTV, which set out to broadcast 150 tournaments annually, launched on January 1, 2019, with PGA Tour events readily available for users in many different countries around the world. 

Related: Netflix producer teases date for PGA Tour series as he confirms "blowup" moment

GolfTV's global content partnership with 82-time PGA Tour winner Woods came to light in November 2018 as part of a multi-year deal. 

Woods famously went on to win his 15th major title just five months later when slipping on the famous Green Jacket at The Masters for a fifth time in his career. 

GolfTV's deal with Woods included instructional content and a series of events with him, inspired heavily by his 2018 money 'Match' against Phil Mickelson, who now finds himself on the LIV Golf Tour. 

They then debuted their 'A Round with Tiger' celebrity series in July 2021 with the footage filmed back in February that year and just hours before Woods' horror car crash in Los Angeles. 

Despite those difficult circumstances for Woods, the full four-episode series was released with his blessing and his guests that included David Spade, Jada Pinkett Smith and Dwyane Wade. 

Woods is still recovering from the serious leg injuries he sustained in that car crash but he this week confirmed he will be returning to the fairways for the first time since the 150th Open Championship in July at his annual Hero World Challenge in early December.

He will also then join Rory McIlroy for a Match against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas shortly after that, and it is anticipated that he will play alongside his young cub Charlie Woods in the PNC Championship just before Christmas. 

Here's all you need to know about the upcoming Match. 

At the time of Woods' partnership with GolfTV in 2018, he said:

Woods added:

But in an email sent to its customers earlier this afternoon, GolfTV confirmed in advance to its users that it will soon be discontinuing its service.

Here's a look at the email, which was posted on Twitter by Brent Weisflock (@bweisflock25): 

The email highlights what happens to access, upcoming payments, refunds, data retention and content availability. 

Here is the entire email pic.twitter.com/WpdXPrZVWw

— Brent Weisflock (@bweisflock25) November 11, 2022

We will publish more information as and when details emerge from GolfTV... 

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