Golf Channel’s new boss talks future of network, PGA Tour acquisition

It’s a new year and also a new dawn on the Golf Channel.

The cable network enters January at the start of a whole new era after its longtime owners Comcast announced the Golf Channel as one of several networks distributed in a new cable package. For the first time, the man responsible for ushering in that future, Mark Lazarus, has spoken about his vision of the future, where things start in the present. Hot microphone.

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‘RECORD NETWORK‘

Lazarus, the chief executive of the new company, now called SpinCo, gave the startling confidence to the Golf Channel in an interview with SBJ’s Josh Carpenter. Lazarus suggested that Comcast’s decision to spin off the Golf Channel had no impact on the health of the business and emphasized his optimism about the network’s future in the era of cord-cutting.

“Golf Channel was, is now and will remain the network of record for all things golf,” said Lazarus. “I am as confident in the future of Golf Channel as I have been in the past.”

Lazarus showed that or LOT it is still fluid for the new company, which is expected to start work at the end of this year. For example, SpinCo will still have to figure out where to stream its productions and how to distribute the talent that has spent the last several years working for both NBC and the Golf Channel. But the big headline? His vision for the future of the Golf Channel is spot on WITHIN the new business, not being sold out from under it.

MONEY DOES MATTER

Eventually, Golf Channel will have to pay someone for studio space to carry out its operations. The PGA Tour built a shiny new building in Florida for just that purpose, but Lazarus indicated the network may also look to stay in the Stamford area, where most of its staff is based. (“They said if you need space, we have some,” Lazarus said.)

As for talent handling, Lazarus indicated that Golf Channel would look to sign existing talent to contracts that would allow them to switch between NBC and Golf Channel.

“We’re not going to hurt one business for the betterment of another,” he said.

BULLETIN

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BIG MONEY

As we first wrote in December, Lazarus has the benefit of entering a business loaded with profitable assets. The problem is that SpinCo’s networks are seeing their profits shrink as audiences move toward broadcast and away from traditional cable television. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts decided the telecommunications giant was better off letting a smaller, weaker company navigate the troubled waters of cable’s future, but tapped a talented executive team to lead the business, led by Lazarus, a longtime NBC Sports associate. .

This will SEEMS to show that Lazarus et al. plan to leverage the collective power of SpinCo’s cable networks in building a new product, but that approach is a secret for now. Will SpinCo be exclusively a cable business, or might it look to expand into broadcasting? Will it bundle options together under one unified price, like the new Venu sports stream, or offer direct-to-consumer options, like ESPN?

Of course, these questions lead to larger strategic questions. Could Lazarus look to sell sports properties like Golf Channel to an eager investor? Could he be looking to raise the private capital that would transform Golf Channel’s business model? And of course, can Golf Channel look to change the shape of its core business? All options are still on the table.

STRATEGY

In his interview with Carpenter, Lazarus repeatedly winked at the idea of ​​Golf Channel mixing its current linear offerings with the exploding world of golf on YouTube. These are not the words of someone looking to sell the Golf Channel IP to the PGA Tour, as has been rumored for years. When asked directly about it, Lazarus was dismissive, saying “there hasn’t been any discussion about the PGA Tour, or anyone else for that matter, buying the Golf Channel.”