This is the biggest surprise in sports television since Fox landed the NFC, and bigger in some ways. Fox bid high on pro football because it was trying to get affiliates in every city, and it succeeded, even stealing some stations from CBS and ABC. That put Fox on the map.
This gives Fox a sport it hasn't had – discounting some celebrity golf telecasts in the late 1990s – and gives Fox Sports 1 and 2 (which debut Aug. 17) plenty of hours of live programming. Between Fox, FS1 and FS2, there will be 10 more hours of the Opens, and 46 more (up from 30 to 76) of the amateur tournaments, likely all on cable.
What makes it bigger than the NFC deal? Aside from the hours to fill the new cable networks, Fox now is a two-sport network all summer. Golf joins baseball about when the NASCAR season shifts to NBC, and it's a better demographic than stock-car racing. So even as NBC basked in heisting the second half of NASCAR's year from ESPN/ABC last week, now Fox does it to NBC.
Funny thing is, I'd expected a similar bid on the entire USGA schedule from NBC / Golf Channel, and perhaps that bid was made, but Fox won the day. Can't wait to see the financials leak out. There has to be some serious money headed into the USGA piggy bank.
As to what NBC has left: the top NFL package, the NHL, the Players, most of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the Ryder Cup, the French Open, Notre Dame football, the Tour de France, NASCAR's second half returning, and that five-ring circus, the Olympic Games. The peacock will sleep well tonight, I'm sure.