PGA Tour taking back digital rights from Turner Sports

Starting in January 2013, the PGA Tour will end its relationship with Turner Sports, which has managed the business side of the Tour's digital operations since 2006, according to a report in Sports Business Daily.

The Tour decided not to extend its current deal with Turner and will manage pgatour.com in-house. Turner will no longer oversee the site's sales and marketing, and the Tour will continue to produce its own editorial content. The Tour plans to increase its digital sales staff and has hired Omnigon Communications to handle technical support for pgatour.com.

According to the article, the Tour weighed its options for nine months and considered staying with Turner or striking a deal with CBS and NBC, its main broadcast partners.

Turner will continue to manage PGA.com, the official site of the PGA of America, and sell golf content on Yahoo!

“This was a collaborative decision," said Matt Hong, senior vice president and general manager of Turner Sports. "We're not getting out of golf, and we will continue to move forward looking to leverage our existing portfolio across all platforms."