Apple Eyes US Broadcast Rights to The Open as NBC Deal Nears Its End
Apple has held preliminary talks with the R&A about bidding for US broadcast rights to golf's Open Championship, according to The Guardian. The discussions are exploratory at this stage. The formal tender process — the official auction in which broadcasters submit competing offers — will begin at the start of 2027.
The R&A, which organises golf's oldest major, also expects Netflix and Amazon to show interest when the bidding opens. The Open's current US rights are held by NBC, which has broadcast the tournament since 2017, when it outbid then-incumbent ESPN to secure a 12-year agreement. NBC shares those rights with Versant, the media company that operates the Golf Channel. That deal runs through 2028.
For Apple, the move fits a pattern of steady investment in live sports. Last year the company secured a five-year, $750m deal for exclusive US rights to Formula One. A source with knowledge of Apple's plans told The Guardian that the company remains committed to investing in sports rights despite one notable setback: its 10-year, $2.5bn deal with Major League Soccer was terminated three years early by mutual agreement amid disappointing viewing figures.
The Open is one of golf's four major championships — the most prestigious tournaments on the calendar, alongside the Masters, the PGA Championship, and the US Open. Winning one defines a career. Broadcasting one, for a US network or streaming platform, means access to a devoted audience that tends to tune in for all four days of competition.
A separate wrinkle arrives in 2028. The Open Championship will move from its traditional July slot to August that year to avoid a scheduling clash with the Los Angeles Olympics, Reuters reported in December 2025. That shift falls in the same year NBC's current deal expires, meaning whoever holds the rights will broadcast a rescheduled Open from the start.
What makes this particular auction worth watching is the field of bidders. NBC has the advantage of incumbency and a built-in golf audience through the Golf Channel. But Apple and Amazon can offer something traditional networks cannot — deep integration into a broader streaming ecosystem, where a live tournament sits alongside films, series, and other sports properties. Netflix, meanwhile, has already built a golf audience through its documentary series "Full Swing," though it has not yet carried live tournament coverage in the US.
For golf fans in America, the practical question is simple: where will they watch The Open in 2029 and beyond? The answer will not arrive for months. But the conversation is already underway.
