Match Play Ratings Soar: It's The Synergistic Cross-Channel Prioritization!

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For Immediate Release...

NEW YORK – March 1, 2011 – NBC Sports and Golf Channel generated significant viewership increases for the combined 28 hours of live coverage (55 hours total coverage) of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship Wednesday through Sunday.  With Tiger Woods eliminated on Wednesday and Phil Mickelson eliminated on Thursday,

...hint, hint, that used to spell doom...

and with England’s Luke Donald defeating Germany’s Martin Kaymer in Sunday’s final,

...two really nice but boring guys...

Golf Channel’s three-day average viewership was up 84 percent from last year while viewership for “Golf Channel on NBC” coverage rose 71 percent.

Golf Channel’s strong viewership for the WGC-Accenture helped propel the network to its second most-watched February ever (15.3 million unique viewers). Through the first eight weeks of the 2011 season, viewership of the PGA TOUR on Golf Channel is up 59 percent over last year.

Get ready, it must be the horrible winter rebranding!

“GOLF CHANNEL ON NBC” VIEWERSHIP:  The weekend coverage on NBC (2-6 p.m. Saturday, 2-7 p.m. Sunday), which has been rebranded as “Golf Channel on NBC,” averaged 2.5 million viewers, a gain of 71 percent from last year’s 1.5 million viewers on CBS, and the most-watched since 2008 when Tiger Woods won the event, defeating Stewart Cink.
 
GOLF CHANNEL VIEWERSHIP: Golf Channel’s early round coverage of the WGC-Accenture started Wednesday with its best day overall since 2009’s President’s Cup coverage and continued on Friday with its most-watched early round without Tiger Woods since THE PLAYERS in May 2008.

Whoa, let's try that again. Most watched since '09 Presidents Cup and most watched minus-Tiger round since '08 Players.

Highlights include:
 
·        Three-day average viewership up 84 percent over 2010 (771,000 vs. 419,000)
·        Wednesday’s Day 1 up 86 percent over 2010 (712,000 vs. 318,000).

Now that's impressive! Thank God we only have match play once a year.

·        Thursday’s Day 2 up 95 percent over 2010 (768,000 vs. 393,000).

That's even more impressive considering you-know-who was eliminated.

·        Friday’s Day 3 up 83 percent over 2010 (890,000 vs. 486,000).

Now this is getting silly. So glad we have put the kibosh on more match play. It's so unfair...and so ratings friendly!

·        Saturday’s earlier-than-scheduled, five-hour coverage of the quarterfinal match that concluded on NBC was up 71% over 2010 (562,000 vs. 328,000).
 
State of the Game Live, a Golf Central special that featured a panel of golf’s most-respected voices from NBC Sports and Golf Channel, including Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo discussing the most pressing issues in the sport, doubled Golf Channel’s year-to-date prime-time average for non-PGA TOUR programming.

Okay so it wasn't entirely an across-the-board ratings slam dunk.

CROSS-CHANNEL PRIORITY: The WGC-Accenture on Golf Channel and NBC was identified by NBCUniversal’s Marketing Council as a cross-channel priority.

So is that when they make sure you show the highlights on the local news and in general, place promotion over actual news as the priority? You know, like when my local NBC station opens with a story about Charlie Sheen's interview on Today...tomorrow?

It received extensive promotion across NBC Universal’s 20 channels and more than 40 websites. The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship marked the first shared coverage for NBC Sports and Golf Channel since both organizations became members of the NBC Sports Group on Jan. 28 when the Comcast-NBC Universal transaction was completed.

It's not match play, it's the co-branding!

GOLF CHANNEL AND NBC SPORTS CO-BRANDING: All golf coverage on NBC has been re-branded as “Golf Channel on NBC.”

Yes, we noticed. Over and over again.

Be careful Golf Channel On NBC Powered By Jack Donaghy, you keep up these ratings home runs and the Commish is going to be asking you to write a big fat check this fall!

"Golf Channel On NBC" Coming Saturday...How About "NBC On Golf Channel"?

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For Immediate Release...

Golf Channel on NBC – Golf Channel and NBC Sports will combine resources this week in their first event together under the newly-formed NBC Sports Group.  Golf telecasts on NBC Sports will now be re-branded as “Golf Channel on NBC,” with NBC golf coverage incorporating the Golf Channel look and feel throughout every telecast.

Why can't we get Wednesday through Friday with Dan Hicks, Johnny, Gary and NBC graphics on Golf Channel, then on the weekend switch over to GC on NBC? A little cross pollination, if you will?

Johnny: Tiger Needs A Win, Especially Since NBC Televises The Next Six Events

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From today's conference call, reported by Randall Mell:

“Tiger just needs a win, the bottom line is that it could be the Hershey Bar Open,” Miller said. “He needs to say, `Hey, I can win again.' . . . He better win something before Augusta, because it's just too hard to go a couple years, or whatever it's going to be, to win at Augusta without winning. I’m not saying he can't do it, like Jack Nicklaus did winning the Masters out of nowhere in '86, but he needs a win.”

"I hope it happened in time, because I don’t have a whole lot of time left."

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Sean Martin posts a Q&A with Frank Chirkinian on the CBS producer/director's Hall of Fame induction.

Q: What is your thought on golf on TV today?

A: I’m ambivalent about that. I think that there are too many graphics on the screen today. They miss an awful lot of live golf shots. That was my forte. I showed a lot of golf shots live, and therein lies the difference. My only problem is that it looks like they’re all doing the same thing. They all look alike.