Women's Olympic Ratings Wrap: Nice Final Day

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In spite of a forecast-driven tee time change that killed chances for a lengthy NBC look-in, viewers tuned in to Golf Channel for the medal day of women's Olympic golf. Hopefully some international numbers will trickle in at some point like they did with the men.

For Immediate Release...

Golf’s Return to the Olympics Posts Record Viewership for Women’s Golf
 
Golf Channel schedule for the Olympics featured the most live coverage ever for a women’s golf event (34.5 hours), which was bolstered all week with an additional 35.5 hours of live news coverage with Golf Central’s Live From The Olympics and Morning Drive. In total, Golf Channel dedicated 124 hours of programming to this week’s women’s golf competition and as a result, generated record-breaking viewership. Wrap-up of Men’s Final Round is below.
 
Saturday, August 20: Final Round

Golf Channel’s coverage of the conclusion of the Olympics’ women’s final round is the highest-rated and most-watched in more than six years for peak 90-minutes of coverage from any women’s stroke-play event on cable in any daypart, including primetime (11:15 am-12:45 pm ET; 0.54 US HH rating, 803,000 average viewers), dating back to the 2010 Women’s British Open on ESPN (8/1/2010; peak 90 minutes, .59 US HH rating, 824,000 average viewers).

Coverage peaked with 924,000 average viewers (12:15-12:30 pm ET), the most-watched peak finish for any women’s golf event on cable in more than six years since the 2010 Women’s British Open on ESPN (8/1/2010; peak finish, 1.275 million average viewers)

Despite leaders teeing off earlier than plan on the account of potential bad weather, average viewership for the final round (691,000 average viewers) was +77% vs. Friday’s comparable 3rd round coverage (390,000 average viewers)
 
Friday, August 19: Round 3

Golf Channel’s afternoon coverage of the third round is the most-watched third round in more than five years for any women’s stroke-play golf event on cable in any daypart, including primetime (Noon-3:36 pm ET; 0.28 US HH rating, 390,000 average viewers), dating back to the third round of the 2011 Women’s British Open on ESPN (7/30/11; 476,000).

Golf Channel’s Friday afternoon coverage of the third round was up 212% among average viewers and up 180% for U.S. household rating vs. the same Friday in 2012 opposite the London Games.
 
Thursday, August 18: Round 2

Golf Channel’s second-round coverage is the highest-rated live weekday round of any women’s golf event (at the time, now second behind Olympics Round 3) in more than two years in any daypart, including primetime (Noon-3:14 pm ET; 0.23 US HH rating, 316,000 average viewers), dating back to the second round of the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst (6/20/14; 0.44 U.S. HH rating on ESPN2).
 
Wednesday, August 17: Round 1

Golf Channel’s coverage tied as the highest-rated round one of any women’s golf event in 2016 (Noon-3:54 pm ET; 0.17 US HH rating, 217,000 average viewers), matching the rating for coverage of the ANA Inspiration Major Championship, which aired in primetime (3/31/16, 7:12-9:12 pm ET).

In general ratings news, New York's Eric Levit considers the fall in overall Olympic viewership numbers by the most important generation to have ever live, and wisely notes that even they get it wrong sometimes.

Grow The Game Files: TNT Reminds That TV Matters

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Golf on TV could be the greatest, it could be the best, it could be King Kong banging on its chest!

Standing in the Hall of Fame, and the world might even know golf is not lame!

I'll stop now before you get nightmares since I'm pretty sure Omega's latest ad (key word, ad), will be running a bunch during the Rio games.

Not being present at this year’s PGA Championship afforded an opportunity to be reunited with the early 2000s, a.k.a. a TNT broadcast at a major championship. But this is not to pick on any one network (well, maybe a little), as some of the same issues TNT exemplifies afflict all of the major broadcast presentations, though no major has the annual commercial and promo dump that is the PGA of America's dreadful presentation.

Shoot, even CBS head man Sean McManus talked to Golfweek.com's Martin Kaufmann right after the PGA to address the telecast and suggest the commercial load needs to be dealt with for the next three years of the deal. 

No, the affliction I refer to runs deeper than the annual overcommercialization of the fourth of four majors. It's the tendency to stick to what got you here, what has worked over the decades, and to not give up screen space to anything but green grass and golfers. But most of all, to do what will please “partners” who want to play it safe while also preaching how we need to do things differently to save the sport.

Those partners--the PGA of America (this week), the PGA Tour, the USGA, the R&A--all talk relentlessly about growing the game and reaching the all-important millennials, yet refuse to see that their biggest growth tool is in how they present golf on television. Outside of the cost to play, I can’t think of anything more stifling for growth than an aspiring golfer, turning on the suffocatingly safe presentation of golf at the PGA Championship.

TNT’s presentation undermines the event’s place in the major spectrum by appearing to work out of an early 2000’s playbook. (The addition of some fun split screens showed some sign of life and fresh voices in Mike Weir and Amanda Balionis were huge positives.) Yet the ultra-conservative approach to the PGA Championship is even more maddening because of TNT's bold approach to the NBA. That’s where innovation and must-see pre and post game shows have spiked ratings, establishing the cable network as the best at bringing us pro basketball.

In golf, it's vital that television presentation be strong to "grow" participation in the game. More people watch golf on TV than avidly play it. That's an amazing notion suggesting how vital telecast presentation may be in motivating people to play.

With the PGA Championship that TNT airs through 2019, the cable network’s idea of a pre and post game show amounts to reruns of something from their highly-rated catalog. Those cash cows merely require a few an engineer to push a few buttons takes priority for TNT over even now-standard re-broadcast for major rounds (which are appreciated by working folks or those with DVR’s full to the brim).

Adding to the pain is what appears to be a reluctance on CBS’s part to share its gadgets with the TNT broadcast. Can't we all get along here?

Good TNT broadcasts will make more people watch CBS!

As with NBC’s coverage, the beauty of the golf course is a CBS priority and in the early days of high definition, no one disagreed with this approach. But now that nearly all viewers are watching on an HD flat screen and enjoying access to Internet-enabled information, the minimalist approach to screen acreage has begun to give core fans the impression of laziness and casual fans a sense that things could be better. In a day when people can handle more graphics and social media information on screen, golf is still holding back real-time information.

Knowing how hard the people in golf television work, particularly during majors, the impression of laziness is an unfair one. Golf is by far the most difficult sport to cover. Nonetheless, as we get more fun stuff like Protracer, on-screen graphics/Trackman data, split screens that give us a better sense of the golf hole faced, and full-field scores, the broadcasts that eschew such progress only give the impression to viewers that golf is stuck in a different decade. This was TNT last week.

When something controversial happens--like the PGA’s miscue with a hole location and repeat of its 2005 refusal to move up tee times--the lack of broadcast discussion looks lame while social media covers the story. This undermines the credibility of the networks and tournament host. (Especially when it’s the network home to Ernie, Charles, Kenny and Shaq, where nothing is off limits and controversies are embraced). Also, do recall that Fox’s breakthrough at the U.S. Open came at the expense of actually covering its partner’s mistakes. Painful for the USGA, yes, but also a huge boost to their partner overpaying for the product.

The people who want to grow the game need to stop focusing so much on the production values of their public service announcements. They need to look within and start pushing their broadcast partners to rethink how they present the sport, even if means giving back a few bucks to help the networks expand certain production values. These conversations are long overdue and more necessary than another short term feel-good initiative. Because those PSA-driven grow the game concepts pale compared to motivating people  by giving them a telecast that inspires them to run to the range.

NBC's First Open Off To Solid Ratings Start

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Sports Media Watch breaks down some of the numbers and the real eye opener may be Saturday's third round out-rating the U.S. Open's, which was in the evening presumably when there would be more eyeballs. But who knows! Maybe golfers like their televised play early and June summer evening golf.

From SMW's report:

The 2.75 is the highest for third round coverage of the British Open since 2013 (3.1). The last time third round coverage aired on a broadcast network — ABC in 2009 — it earned a 2.4 overnight.

Of note, Saturday’s telecast scored a higher overnight than the third round of the U.S. Open on FOX (2.5). Keep in mind the U.S. Open aired in a later timeslot (11 AM-8 PM, versus 9 AM-2:30 PM).

Forward Press: Golf Channel Does Its First Major

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For this week's Forward Press, I preview some of the things you can expect with NBC/Golf Channel's first Open Championship, plus offer some information on the long programming windows.

Their neatest sounding new production element to show off bump-and-run approach shots may not get much use if Troon remains soft.

I do not, however, have the bootleg yet of Yanni's re-imagined theme, with bagpipes. Something tells me you can wait.

"Golf Channel Posts Most Watched Second Quarter Ever"

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Interesting bumps from NCAA golf and the KPMG, now the most watched women's major outside of the U.S. Women's Open.

For Immediate Release:

For 24-hour Total Day (6AM-6AM), 125,000 average viewers per minute were tuned in to Golf Channel during second quarter, a +1% increase vs. 2Q 2015. This growth was driven by the most-watched April and June ever, along with these year-over-year gains:

·       PGA TOUR: +5%
·       PGA TOUR Champions: +20%
·       European Tour: +8%
·       LPGA Tour: +6%
·       Millennials (P25-34): +29%
·       Prime viewership (8P-11P): +7%
·       Retained No. 1 ranking for quarter, delivering most-affluent audience in television in Total Day and Primetime

And...

NCAA Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships:
·       Live Coverage of the Men’s Championship (218,000 average viewers) is +70% vs. 2015.
·   Live coverage of the Men’s Wednesday night final match delivered 325,000 viewers per minute (+139% year over year).
·       Live Coverage of the Women’s Championship (152,000 average viewers) is +12% compared to 2015.
·     Live coverage of the Women’s Wednesday night final match delivered 249,000 viewers per minute (+25% from last year).

And...

KPMG Women’s PGA Championship: Second Most-Viewed Women’s Golf Event since June 2014:

·       The 2016 KMPG Women’s PGA Championship aired across Golf Channel and NBC for the 2nd year and was seen by 6.1 million unique viewers. That’s the second largest audience for a women’s golf event since NBC/ESPN’s coverage of the US Women’s Open in 2014 (9.8 mm) and the first time since 2010 that any LPGA Tour major other than US Women’s Open was seen by more than 6 million viewers.

Ratings: 2016 U.S. Open Earns Second Lowest Final Round

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The overnights do not include cumulative audience numbers, which would logically seem more important than ratings given the length of Fox's 2016 U.S. Open coverage.

Nonetheless, for now we have overnights to consider from SportsMedia Watch and some analysis on Twitter from SBJ's Austin Karp.

Only Martin Kaymer's 2014 runaway was lower rated than this year's finale (3.8), and Saturday's rain-delay expanded coverage that reverted to FS1 for the last hour earned the worst third round number since ratings have been tracked (1988).

In two years on FOX, the U.S. Open has delivered two of its four lowest final round overnights. Including the record-low of 2014, the past three years join only 1988 as the lowest rated on record in the metered markets.

Saturday’s third round coverage posted a 2.5 overnight on FOX, down 27% from last year, when coverage went later into primetime (3.4), and down a tick from 2014 on NBC (2.6). The 2.5 is the lowest on record for third round coverage, falling below the previous mark set in 2014.

The second round coverage earned the third-lowest for second round coverage, ahead of only 2014 and 2011.

This from SBJ's Karp:

Fox offered this related to Saturday's coverage:

U.S. OPEN SATURDAY RATINGS NOTES: FOX Sports enjoyed an extended broadcast window Saturday, with nine hours of continuous coverage of the 116th U.S. Open Championship on local FOX stations from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM ET. Highlighted by perfect playing conditions and a fluid leaderboard, coverage of the second and third rounds yielded 19.8 gross ratings points over the course of the Saturday network window, a +11% increase over the 2014 U.S. Open (17.9 – nearly eight hours; most recent East Coast U.S. Open). Coverage peaked with a 3.0 rating and 4.4 million viewers from 5:30 – 6:00 PM ET.

And this:

U.S. OPEN SATURDAY RATINGS NOTES CONT': Saturday's U.S. Open coverage began with two bonus hours airing on FS1 from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM ET, garnering an average of 819,000 viewers, the second most-watched Saturday morning telecast in FS1 history.

I'm torn on whether the ratings news is that bad given what a dark day this might have been. While Fox handled it well and no doubt upset their USGA "partner" that seeks house organ coverage, golf would not have appealed to many casual fans if DJ was cost a U.S. Open by the rules committee.

That said, I still want to see the cumulative audience to see just how bad the number is. And at year's end I'll try to get the cumulatives for the four majors and Olympic golf.

A more detailed review of the highs and lows from the telecast is coming along with links to some other takes. But the Johnson rules situation takes priority for now.

Forward Press: Paul Azinger Provides The Main Reason To Be Optimistic About Fox

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Joel Beall offers nine reasons to be optimistic that Fox won't stumble during the U.S. Open broadcast this year, and I agree with most of them, including Paul Azinger's presence.

Here is this week's Forward Press, where I chat with Azinger about the announcer plan and why he's golf's version of John McEnroe.

And the column includes the necessary Fox, USOpen.com and Golf Channel coverage times.