It qualifies as an extreme irony that the LIV Golf Tour has found a television home on a network that has a show named Prodigal Son. It is perfect, actually. The upstart golf tour, bankrolled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, announced a multi-year broadcast and streaming agreement with the CW Network last week. The Nexstar Media Group Network will stream Friday rounds on their app and weekend rounds will air live on The CW.
In case you aren’t familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son, it is a story told by Christ of a son who spurns the known comfort of his father’s business to chase wealth and prosperity in another city. That’s the Biblical version, anyway, I’ve no clue what The CW version is like. In the end, the destitute son returns to the open arms of his loving father. The LIV Tour hopes this CW deal is another step to avoid destitution.
I doubt the PGA Tour would be willing to play the role of the loving father.
LIV organizers had made no secret of their desire to find a more traditional media arrangement. Their entire U.S. distribution model in their inaugural season was a live stream on YouTube. The channel attracted more than 272,000 subscribers in less than a year and the live streams of their early tournaments attracted anywhere from 440,000 to 850,000 views. Football season was not kind, however, as views dropped significantly for the September and October events.
Not even the most passionate LIV Tour apologist would try to convince you their product came anywhere close to approaching that of the PGA Tour. No reasonable person expected that to be the case in year one, and maybe not even in decade one. But it is clear the LIV Tour thinks a more traditional media rights arrangement is the way to go. I, for one, will be stunned if the round-one viewership increases year-to-year.
In the inaugural season, the LIV first rounds averaged 307,500 views on their YouTube channel. The CW app has been downloaded 90 million times, but I’ve seen more white-spotted leopards than phones with a CW app. I can’t imagine more people will find the LIV Friday rounds on a CW app than would have on the LIV controlled YouTube channel. We may never know the numbers, even for Saturday and Sunday rounds, because The CW is only rated for two hours a day.
None of that matters to the LIV Tour, this has never been a money-making venture. This has always been about two things, ego and public relations. Organizers made massive guarantees to some of the sport’s biggest names in an effort to build a brand that would make Saudi Public Investment Fund headlines for only positive reasons. Tournaments didn’t have valuable title sponsors and the YouTube presentations didn’t have paid commercials. None of that was the goal.
The fact we may never see ratings for The CW’s coverage of the LIV means we may never be able to gauge any sort of LIV growth as it relates to the PGA Tour. Though they may pluck other big names from the PGA, the LIV Tour has very likely stolen the biggest names they will ever get. So, why leave the platform that allowed you to completely control content and hand it over to The CW? That’s the question that puzzles me.
On YouTube, the LIV Tour fully controlled their production. The negative to that is there’s no programming around you to deliver an audience. You start at zero for every round. At least CBS or NBC has something, anything, leading into their PGA Tour telecasts. Many times, it is other sports programming. At this moment, the LIV will be the only sports going on The CW. You’ll be catching the LIV after DC’s Stargirl or another episode of World’s Funniest Animals.
Maybe it is the skeptic in me, but I don’t see a ton of crossover in those audiences. Again, that has never been the LIV’s goal but nobody spends that kind of money and doesn’t want to be viewed as the best at what they do. I have to think the Saudi Public Investment Fund isn’t in this long term to be viewed as an insignificant gnat circling the PGA Tour. They must feel as though a more traditional rights deal with any network is a step further along.
It is wholly possible that fewer people see the LIV Golf product moving forward than saw it on YouTube. If that is the case, the LIV might appear on a different The CW show: Coroner.
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.
They needed a tv partner. they should not have given up all control of the broadcast. I think keeping the Friday rounds would have been a better option.