New Golf Channel chief on network’s future, possible PGA Tour purchase

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

The cable network enters January at the beginning of a brand-new era after its longtime owners at Comcast announced Golf Channel as one of several networks spun off into a new cable bundle. For the first time, the man responsible for ushering in that future, Mark Lazarus, has spoken about his vision for the future, which is where things begin in today’s Hot Mic.

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‘THE NETWORK OF RECORD‘

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

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

Lazarus indicated that a lot is still fluid for the new company, which is expected to begin operations later this year. For example, SpinCo will still have to figure out where to broadcast its productions from, and how to allocate talent who have spent the last several years working for both NBC and Golf Channel. But the big headline? His vision for Golf Channel’s future is existing within the new business, not being sold out from underneath it.

MONEY MATTERS

Eventually, Golf Channel will have to pay someone for studio space to conduct its operations. The PGA Tour built a glistening new building in Florida for precisely this purpose, but Lazarus indicated the network could also look to stay in the Stamford area, where much of its staff is located. (“They did say if you need space, we have some,” Lazarus said.)

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

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

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BIG MONEY

As we first wrote in December, Lazarus has the benefit of stepping into a business filled with profitable assets. The problem is that SpinCo’s networks are seeing their profits dwindle as audiences move towards streaming and away from traditional cable television. Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts decided the telecoms giant was better off letting a smaller, leaner company navigate the choppy waters in cable’s future, but tapped an all-star team of executive talent to head the business, led by Lazarus, a longtime NBC Sports collaborator.

That would seem to indicate that Lazarus et al. plan to leverage the collective strength 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 could it look to expand into streaming? Will it bundle the options together under a unified price, like the new sports streamer Venu, or provide direct-to-consumer options, like ESPN?

Of course, those questions lead to larger strategic ones. Could Lazarus look to sell off the sports properties like Golf Channel to an eager investor? Could he look to raise private capital that would transform the shape of the Golf Channel business? And of course, could 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 blending its current linear offerings with the explosive world of YouTube golf. Those aren’t the words of someone looking to sell off Golf Channel IP to the PGA Tour, as has been rumored for years. When asked directly about it, Lazarus demurred, saying there “have not been any discussions about the PGA Tour, or anyone else for that matter, buying Golf Channel.”