| MUMBAI:
ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has announced its multi-year regional television broadcast
partnership to showcase the new OneAsia golf series, Asia Pacific's first consolidated
professional tournament for elite golfers. The
partnership comprises an exclusive five-year television agreement to showcase
live coverage of OneAsia events across 24 territories across ESPN Star Sports'
regional footprint till 2014.
Golf
enthusiasts can also look forward to daily live broadcasts of all OneAsia tournaments
and coverage on ESPN Star Sports' news programmes SportsCenter and Score
Tonight and weekly magazine show Golf Focus. Says
OneAsia CEO Ben Sellenger, "We are delighted to welcome ESPN Star Sports
as our broadcast partner for the next five years. ESPN Star Sports'
extensive reach across the region will play a key role in our end goal to maximise
elite playing opportunities for Asia-Pacific's finest." ESS
executive VP, programming and production Craig Dobbs adds, "The OneAsia series
comprises some of the biggest golf tournaments across the region, and we're pleased
to showcase this new premium golf series across Asia. "The
OneAsia series adds to a stellar list of golf events on ESPN Star Sports including
golf majors such as The Masters, US Open and The Open Championships well as the
PGA Grand Slam of Golf and PGA Euro Pro Tour." The
OneAsia tournament schedule has grown to 11 confirmed events after its first year
with most of the events scheduled in 2010 offering a minimum purse of $1 million.
Of
the current list of events, ten remain full field OneAsia tournaments purely for
the leading golfers in the region, providing players with an alternative pathway
to the PGA Tour and the European Tour. The
OneAsia season will kick off at the Luxehills Chengdu Open in Beijing on 1 April. | 
