Posted on 02/28/2023 12:04:27 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Not only was LIV Golf’s first-ever TV broadcast a ratings disaster, it was blown out of the water by the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic — which featured arguably its worst field of golfers of the year.
According to viewership numbers obtained by Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter, LIV Golf Mayakoba — the controversial, Saudi-backed golf tour’s first event of the season — attracted 286,000 viewers on Saturday and 291,000 on Sunday during its maiden broadcasts on The CW. The PGA Tour, in broadcasts on NBC and the Golf Channel, outdrew LIV on each day — even the Thursday afternoon broadcast of the first round.
On Saturday and Sunday on NBC, the Honda Classic attracted 1.61 million and 2.38 million viewers, respectively. The Golf Channel broadcasts drew between 342,000 (Thursday) and 631,000 (Sunday) viewers.
All of this came on a weekend where the PGA Tour had one of its lowest-pedigree tournaments of the year. Ironically, the Honda Classic was one of the biggest victims of the new PGA Tour rules enacted in response to LIV. To combat the breakaway circuit’s huge payouts and guaranteed money, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan increased purse sizes for the Tour’s “elevated events” and designated four more events on the calendar as such.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
No question they have a relatively small group of big names, all in all it’s a made up league with no real future IMO. Yes, many of those names will be in all the majors and might win one or all four, who knows.
Week in and week out the best golf in the world is played on the PGA Tour and that’s not likely to change for years to come.
The TV ratings and overall list of players proves that.
That’s true but I was responding to TV ratings which on the LIV tour were non-existent, next week the Player Championship and in early April The Masters will produce big ratings for the PGA Tour.
We are one week in to the first televised season of the LIV. The LIV will compete and merge with the PGA if one thing happens, they keep spending money for talent.
That’s actually pretty good numbers for their first on American TV. And keep in mind LIV isn’t just aimed at America. They’re international, TV contracts all over the place. Plus the streaming. I’ve been talking about this with my sports mad friend at work and he sees a lot of similarities between this and what happened in British darts in the early 90s. They had a similar problem where low end guys couldn’t make money and a new league sprouted up that was paying more down the line. Took them a few years to really get it all together, but by 4 years in most of the big players had switched and the BDO was scrubs. LIV is targeting old players with an audience, but they’re also targeting young players coming up, and they’re aiming internationally. And remember this is only their 2nd season, while they started the press announcements pre-covid they were just in “planning” until last year.
Maybe, if the Saudi backed group financing everything gets tired of losing money even though they have untold wealth then it’s all over.
I could see a LIV tour for aging players sort of like a bridge between the PGA tour and Senior Tour but for players in their prime I can’t see how it’s beneficial other than the purses are so much bigger, OTOH the endorsements can’t be as good on the LIV tour since no one watches the sport on TV.
We're talking as if the LIV has been around on TV for years. Last week was the first week. If the money keeps flowing they will make it and compete as another world golf league.
Maybe, but I don’t see a long term future for LIV golf, multiple professional tours already exist all around the world. Will one more work, perhaps, not if the TV remains non-existent.
Americans are American sport centric. Some people don't even realize how popular soccer is on a global scale. LIV is geared as an international/global league. It's a niche market and it has funding.
I understand the funding, when you have 3 major professional tours in the USA alone, combined with the DP World Tour and other tours is Asia and other places the LIV tour will survive on a relatively few name golfers some of whom should be on the Senior Tour.
One thing I did not realize until recently, the huge money you hear about on LIV that is guaranteed is a little misleading, the bigger stars on the LIV tour get paid no matter what, any money they supposedly win comes out of the guaranteed money we hear about, any money they win in a tournament is not on top of the guaranteed money you hear about.
I second this.
I had no idea they had any tv contract. They are gearing their broadcasts toward younger viewers. Shorts allowed , the music in the background(a lot of golfers now have music going in their carts with speakers working off their phones). The PGA knows they’re going to be in trouble….eventually
Plus recently announced that all 4 majors will accept LIV players.
There's a number of players on LIV that I have enjoyed watching for years now, including some very young guys; Matthew Wolf and Cam Smith, and the kid from Michigan State.
I like the shotgun starts, teams, and just pushing the envelope on the PGA. There's nothing wrong with competition between players, teams or leagues.
Mar 2-5, Arnold Palmer Invitational
Mar 23-26, WGC Dell Technologies Match Play
Apr 6-9, Masters
Apr 13-16 RBC Heritage
CW carried it but was televised by WGN where I live.
Not sure if WGN has the national exposure it used to have back in the day. And I thought CW & WGN divorced years ago.
I understand all that and said so multiple times in my responses, it’s not about that, it’s about the long viability of the LIV when basically no one pays attention to it, even if someone on the LIV tour wins a major tournament this year will anyone even care is what I’m wondering.
Some of LIV players have exemptions for a number of years, for example Cameron Smith won the Players Championship and the British Open last year, he’s exempt for any tournament for the next few years and anyone who is a past Masters Champion gets invited back for life so long as they are reasonably competitive.
When those other exemptions run out, assuming the LIV Tour is still around I wonder how some of those players will qualify.
Without Tiger contending in tournaments, Golf was already losing popularity as it is. They really don’t have marketable players like they used to.
Since I don’t trust the Saudis, it always seemed to me, in the back of my mind, that the main reason for LIV allows the Saudis to now get their nose further under a lot of tents, world wide.
Mexico
USA(a lot of cities)
Singapore
Australia
SPAIN
UK
So a gold event broadcast in what can barely be called a network was out watched by another golf event broadcast on a major network and. Gold dedicated cable channel.
That’s not news.
Event on golf channel and major network could have the worst golfers in thr world playing and it would still draw significantly more eyeballs
Not defending LIV could care less about golf in general, but this is not news
LIV is global. It will mushroom and the team play will catch on.
This is like the old AFL vs NFL rivalry. The NFL finally gave in because the AFL played a more exciting kind of ball.
Global viewership of LIV will eventually swamp the PGA. Most countries are now just coming along with TV packages.
LIV has provided players a way to keep playing without killing themselves to make a buck.
Think of all the tour players you remember who absolutely disappeared? The grind and the paltry winnings took them out.
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