Golf Channel preparing for its future ahead of pending spinoff from NBCUniversal

Posted by author January 31, 2025 Golf

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It was announced in November that Golf Channel would be among the TV networks spun off by parent company Comcast. Golf Channel sounds like it’s ready for this new world, according to a report by Eric Fisher at Front Office Sports.

“We’re definitely going to operate as two different companies, for sure, independent of one another,” NBC Sports executive vice president of golf Tom Knapp told Front Office Sports. “We will continue to be who we need to be, and have synergies with NBC, but clearly, we will be an independent business.”

Comcast’s spinoff plans for its NBCUniversal cable TV networks include another channel that occasionally carries golf broadcasts, USA. Others to be separated are MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, E! and Syfy.

During a quarterly earnings report, Comcast reported a 28 percent revenue increase for Peacock of $1.3 billion. While it’s still working to be a profitable entity, Comcast revealed that Peacock’s viewership is 98 percent “from content not on the cable channels it plans to spin off,” according to FSO’s report.

Golf Channel celebrates its 30th year in 2025. On Jan. 17, 1995, it became the first 24-hour single-sport station when it was launched in a mere 10,000 households, capitalizing on the cable-TV boom. Joe Gibbs, a Birmingham businessman who made his fortune in cable and cellular phones, conceived the idea and partnered with Arnold Palmer, who gave it instant credibility.

Golf Channel first secured rights to the PGA Tour in 1994. It became part of the NBC Sports Group in 2011. Peacock went online July of 2020. It carries a simulcast of the live golf carried on NBC. Golf Channel’s coverage is on cable packages only.