In 2022, the Opens are moving. Not to new venues or new dates, but to a new network.
As part of NBCSN's decommissioning at the end of the year, coverage of the USGA and R&A championships will be moving to USA Network.
Early-round and weekend lead-in coverage of the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, British Open and AIG Women's Open will air on USA Network. Other sports, such as NASCAR, Indy Car, the Premier League, Tour de France and Olympics will also be moving to USA Network.
On Monday, Sports Business Journal's John Ourand reported on the shift.
"The entertainment viewer will be exposed to these sports properties in ways that they haven’t been before," Tom Knapp, NBC Sports programming executive vice president, told Ourand. "And the sports fan will be exposed to entertainment properties in ways that they haven’t before. We believe that cross-pollination will be good for everybody.”
All PGA Tour coverage will remain exclusively on NBC or Golf Channel. Also, Peacock will continue to stream live golf coverage.
"We are excited to transition the cable coverage of many of our premium sports events to USA Network, Peacock, and other widely-distributed NBCUniversal platforms, which will give us a significant boost in television homes and will put us in an even stronger position as we grow our business," said Pete Bevacqua, chairman, NBC Sports, in a prepared statement released Tuesday morning.
