NBC Sports Group Seals 2016 Rights for British Open Championships

NBC Sports Group has secured rights to one of golf’s marquee events, the 145th Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland, set for July 14-17, 2016. The accord expands NBC Sports' partnership with the R&A, golf’s British-based governing body, and includes coverage of the Senior Open Championship and Ricoh Women's British Open. In 2016, the British Open will kick off a 12-week stretch of premiere golf events for NBC Sports Group, including the Olympic Games.

“First and foremost, we want to congratulate ESPN for their company’s successful stewardship of The Open for the last several decades, and we thank them for allowing us to start our partnership with The R&A one year early,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Sports Group. “2016 promises to be exciting for all of golf.”

Golf returns to the Olympics in Rio next year, going down Aug. 11-14.

The Open is golf’s oldest championship.

(Photo via Matt Trostle's Flickr. Image taken on Oct. 12, 2015 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.