In Next Media Deal, PGA Tour Expected To Take On Most Broadcast Production

Multiple well-placed sources confirmed to GeoffShackelford.com a major change in the next PGA Tour media rights deal.

Modeled in some ways after the Olympic Broadcast System, production will be handled by a primary PGA Tour operation providing a world feed to likely broadcast partners CBS, NBC, Golf Channel, ESPN+ and GolfTV. The networks will retain production independence with the final product, along with familiar voices by producing announcers, graphics, replay and other extras beyond the “world feed”.

The move allows the PGA Tour to more cohesively produce coverage and improve PGA Tour Live streaming presentation that has often looked under-produced.

The change to a more connected production operation will allow for expanded streaming feed options on likely digital rightsholder ESPN+, including an expected instruction channel, a Red Zone style option for highlights, more Featured Groups and a Live Under Par-infused feed aimed at younger audiences.

When contacted, the PGA Tour, NBC/Golf Channel and CBS, each declined comment, citing the ongoing negotiations. The current media rights deal expires after the 2021 PGA Tour season.

"If you like vanilla, you’ll love CBS’ new lineup "

Hate to agree as we all want golf TV to be better, but John Hawkins pretty accurately sums up the rough start to 2020 CBS golf broadcasts here:

Dottie Pepper is excellent. Mark Immelman has a high ceiling and is fast becoming a source of pertinence and polish. Since David Feherty hopped to NBC in 2016, however, the Eye has gone blind to the value of building a team with people who played the game and are fully stocked with knowledge about every competitor, yet remain unfazed by the task of imparting pure objectivity when the situation demands it.

“Hopefully, that came out of the plug mark,” IBF offered after Matt Every dumped a pitch into a greenside bunker Sunday on Pebble Beach’s eighth hole.

“When things go wrong here, there’s no real way of taking the shortcuts,” Faldo added while Every cleaned up his triple bogey.

Pompoms and nonsense. They’re fine at a high school pep rally, but at a gathering of the world’s finest golfers vying for the largest share of a $7.8 million purse, a major network with more than 60 years in the business should know better than to shortchange its educated, dedicated viewership.

Early in 2020, it has been confounding as a viewer to hear announcers question strategic choices, or issue early critiques only to somehow always apologize in some way, or justify the play. Sometimes players just make a mistake or play a poor shot. As Hawkins notes, the viewers know and understand that such things happen in golf. Why pretend differently?

2020 Waste Management Ratings Hit Nine-Year Low

Paulsen at SportsMediaWatch.com reports the nine-year-low Waste Management Open ratings despite a solid leaderboard and compelling finish on CBS. Webb Simpson defeated Tony Finau on the first playoff hole for his sixth PGA Tour win.

Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Phoenix Open averaged a 1.75 rating and 2.87 million viewers on CBS, marking the tournament’s smallest final round audience since 2011 (2.70M). Webb Simpson’s playoff win, which ended shortly before the Super Bowl began, declined 30% in ratings and viewership from both last year and 2018 (2.5, 4.08M).

Third round action on Saturday averaged a 1.45 and 2.19 million, down 16% in both measures from last year (1.7, 2.60M) and down 30% and 34% respectively from 2018 (2.1, 3.30M).

Last year’s Waste Management featuring Rickie Fowler drew a 2.5/4.075 viewers, a six-year high on NBC due to it being a CBS Super Bowl year, which was the event’s second largest audience ever.

According to ShowBuzzDaily, the early round weekend coverage drew nice-sized audiences as long as you are not an age-discriminating ad executive, where the coveted 18-49’s were in short supply (126k, 132k averages).

Sunday’s .1 placed the early coverage 61st among cable shows, edging out Nickelodeon’s Lego Jurassic World.

Brooks Koepka Only Sure Of One Thing After A Week In Saudia Arabia: No In-Round Interviews

The soon-to-be-former World No. 1 as of this week, Brooks Koepka traveled to Saudi Arabia for a huge appearance fee, changed drivers, changed putters and finished T17 after a final round 72.

So while Brooks Koepka works out his bag and what to do with the Crown Prince’s cash before resurfacing at Riviera, he has no doubts about the kind of in-round chat that flustered GMac enough to put him on the clock.

From Martin Dempster’s Scotsman report:

“To be honest with you, I don’t know any other sport that does interviews in the middle of play,” said Koepka, inset, a four-time major winner, in offering his view after catapulting himself into the top ten in the $3.5 million event on the Red Sea coast with a five-under-par 65.

“I know in football you’re not doing it, unless it’s in the Pro Bowl basketball you’re not doing it unless it’s half-time. This is the only sport where you’re talking to people while they are playing. I won’t do it. I’m not interested in talking about what just happened or the difficulty of the holes ahead. I’m just focussed on one shot at a time, where my ball’s at. I understand why it might be beneficial for the fans, but I don’t get it.”

As the first world turns…

We discussed today on Morning Drive:

One Night Only: Feherty And McCord Reuniting, For Now

Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic learns from David Feherty of a one-night reunion with his former CBS sidekick Gary McCord.

Instead of his normal standup, Feherty will do his first half then return with McCord at Phoenix’s Orpheum theater. He says “God knows where this is going to go.”

This should be a lively evening given McCord’s recent non-renewal from CBS and believe that he was unfairly blamed for the state of their broadcasts. James Colgan at Golf.com with that backstory.

Given last weekend’s rough start for CBS, he may be smarting even more.

As for Feherty, he had some good things to say in the discussion with Goodykoontz. Including this:

Q: Do golf announcers take themselves too seriously sometimes?

A: Oh, without question, I think every sport does. The bottom line is it’s a game, it’s a diversion from everyday life. It shouldn’t be taken that seriously. There’s a whole lot of things more important (laughs).

Q: I don’t want to leave the impression that all you and McCord ever did was make jokes. You make serious calls, too.

A: There’s a time to do that and a time to have fun. It’s recognizing the difference, I think. It’s still golf.

Q: And if it’s going well, you comment on that.

A: It can also be bad. We’ve had telecasts where I thought, (expletive), it’s like a pro-am broke out. I mean, these guys can’t play at all. That’s when the broadcaster earns his money — when it’s not so good on the screen. I trust viewers to be able to watch. It’s a visual medium. When the golf is really good, it needs punctuation, and that’s all.

Ratings: LPGA Benefits From Network Airing In Rare Victory Over PGA Tour

You can understand when LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan pines for network coverage after seeing last weekend’s ratings. That’s when the Diamond Resorts TOC aired on NBC while The American Express (formerly the Bob Hope/Chrysler/Humana/Clinton/Careerbuilder/Desert/) was on Golf Channel.

According to Showbuzzdaily.com’s wrap-up of weekend sports ratings, the LPGA drew a .40 on NBC each weekend day, averaging 595,000 and 587,000 viewers respectively.

Meanwhile, the final round of the The American Express won by Andrew Landry, went up against the NFL’s Titans-Chiefs AFC Championship game on CBS and averaged 227,000 viewers to draw a .04. The round did, however, edge out a particularly powerful episode of Vet Exotic on National Geographic to be the 137th cable show of the weekend.

Also airing at the same time as the LPGA and the PGA Tour on ESPN2: the tape delayed final round of the Latin America Amateur. That telecast drew a .03 and 121,000 average viewers.

**Some added context to the LPGA’s strong week:

VIEWERSHIP: @diamondresorts Tournament of Champions delivered 306K viewers per minute and was seen by more than 4.25 million unique viewers across @GolfChannel and @NBCSports, +3% YOY. The past two years of this event are the most-watched @LPGA Tour season-openers in 11 years. pic.twitter.com/HkjzvvIJEL

— Golf Channel PR (@GolfChannelPR) January 23, 2020

Going Against The NFL Playoffs, 2020 Sony Open Rates About How You'd Expect

We’ll just move on past how the weather and freak show that was the 2020 Sony Open may go down as one of the worst PGA Tour events ever played. It ended on Sunday, and that’s all that mattered.

Then again, as considered in this post and poll last weekend, you as golf fans agree that trying to compete against the NFL makes little sense. Yes, a Monday Sony Open finish would have meant finishing against the start of college football’s national championship game. Then again it probably could not rate any worse than the weekend rounds of the 2020 Sony.

According to ShowbuzzDaily.com, Saturday’s overnight was a .03, averaging 215,000 in the 18-49 yo demographic, making it the 142nd ranked cable show that day while going against two NFL Divisional games.

Sunday’s Sony final round against the Seahawks and Packers on Fox drew a .03, with 282,000 avg viewers, making it the 137th ranked cable show. Good news though, it just beat out Secrets of the Zoo: Tampa on National Geographic. Though they drew more 18-49 year olds with a 309,000 average.

It’s supposed to be a great zoo!

Kapalua Ratings: Going Against NFL A Bad Idea, Finishing Against Golden Globes Worked Better

As Sports Business Daily notes, the NFL’s Saturday Wild Card games were up, with massive peak audiences of 31.4 million for Titans-Patriots and 29.4 million for the Texans-Bills overtime thriller on ESPN.

The NFL saw gains for both of its Wild Card games on Saturday. CBS led the way with 31.4 million viewers for the Titans’ win over the Patriots, which is the best audience for the Saturday primetime Wild Card since Saints-Eagles drew 34.4 million in ’14 on NBC.

Third round play at Kapalua went up against the Patriots game and did not rate among the top 150 cable shows, where a .3 minimum was needed to rank.

The news was better Sunday as NFL games ended earlier, freeing up eyeballs for the 2020 Sentry’s conclusion, won by Justin Thomas in sudden death playoff over Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed.

Sunday’s live PGA Tour coverage on Golf Channel ranked 79th, with only the Golden Globes as major competition. The Sentry drew a .09 with an average audience size of 634k, 319k were 18-49 year olds. That means the peak audience was significantly higher during the exciting conclusion.

Still, there may also be viewers lost to a pair of NFL games already played and limits to how many hours one can watch television in a day. Not to mention, most Sunday night, Monday coverage centered around the NFL games.

And circling back to Sunday’s reader poll asking about Monday finishes for the entire Hawaii/La Quinta swing, 68% of you voted in favor of such a setup to avoid football. As always, thank you for voting!

Monahan On Next TV Deal: More Work To Do Than Has Been Suggested

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan spoke to the light sprinkling of golf reporters on hand for the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions, reports GolfDigest.com’s Dave Shedloski. He covered an array of topics, but for those eager to see how the PGA Tour positions media rights for 2022 and beyond, it seems no decision will be coming imminently.

“We have more work to do. Probably more work than has been suggested,” Monahan said. “But I've been bullish on our prospects before we entered the process, and I'm as, if not more, bullish as we get through it.”

And this on TV vs…platforms:

He said that much more attention is being given to the delivery platforms as opposed to a straight television deal. “I’m probably more focused on that than I am anything else,” he said. “Making certain that … we continue to provide our content to our fans in the way that they want to consume that content.”

Instant Poll Asking For A Friend: Would You Support Monday Finishes During The NFL Playoffs?

We’ve run into this question seemingly every year. But with the NFL’s already high ratings on the rise again as a strong leaderboard plays against wildcard weekend. It takes little imagination to know that golf is annoying blip to casual fans following the games, and is even asking its core audience to keep their remotes or second screens busy.

In between remote control flips to wildcard games, I ask, what would be so terrible if the first three events of the PGA Tour season started on Friday and ended on Monday?

The Sentry Tournament of Champions, Sony Open and Bob Hope Chrylser Humana Careerbuilder Workday American Express Desert Classic could all finish on Mondays and in eastern U.S. prime time on Golf Channel.

For the sponsor, a Monday finish might allow the event to get a similar rating on cable and get more recognition in media cycles when the only major sporting event.

The major negatives: a potentially smaller final round gallery at the Hawaii events, a tight turnaround from the desert event to Torrey Pines and the end of any chance a major network would carry the final round. And such a move would mean finishing near the start of the national college football championship but also on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday.

And then there is this point from reader Mark:

So I am trying to figure out why the @PGATOUR did all this work to end before the @nfl started but start the main part of the 2020 season on wild card weakened @GeoffShac @the_woke_yolk @NoLayingUp

— Mark Wittig (@MarkWittig) January 5, 2020

So, simple yes or no…

Should the PGA Tour's opening events avoid NFL playoff games with Monday finishes?

Yes

No

 

pollcode.com free polls

Worldwide Leader Watch: Will PGA Tour Learn From USGA's Mistake?

In writing about the near-completion of the PGA Tour’s next rights deal, John Ourand writes in his exclusive Sports Business Daily piece:

ESPN has made an aggressive play for the rights, which in addition to PGA Tour Live, includes tournament coverage before the networks go on air. ESPN+ would carry the digital rights. Discovery also has emerged as a serious contender for the digital rights and appears likely to share them with NBC Sports if they can manage to work out a deal. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally.

While we have no idea what the deal terms look like, what the coverage windows might entail and what the PGA Tour’s goals are for their streaming coverage, news that ESPN is relegated to bidding on pre-network coverage and PGA Tour Live begs this question: will the PGA Tour learn from the mistakes of the USGA?

The PGA of America left Turner for ESPN to handle the first two rounds of the PGA Championship starting in 2020 and the Masters first two rounds remain on ESPN. When the USGA signed on with Fox and Fox Sports 1 for its exclusive coverage, it essentially said goodbye to a pair of the world’s largest media companies in Comcast and Disney while welcoming in another.

Even rival executives shake their head to this day at the stupidity of cutting off ESPN, which, even with fewer homes and ratings declines since 2013 when that decision was made in Far Hills, remains immensely powerful. They can decide how much to cover and promote a sport while still establishing the sports conversation. The USGA has presumably learned their lesson after falling off the relevancy cliff by shunning two hugely powerfully companies with their deal. So will the PGA Tour find a way to invest ESPN in the PGA Tour, or go with a unproven entity in Discovery’s GolfTV Powered by the PGA Tour?

Even their rivals have to be hoping the PGA Tour learns from the USGA’s mistakes for the betterment of American professional golf coverage.

CBS, NBC, Golf Channel Have Scooped Up Majority Of Next PGA Tour Contract Through 2030

John Ourand predicted the outcome just hours before reporting exclusively for Sports Business Daily on the PGA Tour’s next TV rights deal, which looks very similar in many respects to their current arrangement.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Any baseball fan can tell you how the discombobulated structure of network and playoff games takes something away from the simplicity of knowing where to find a telecast. And while streaming, cord-cutting and other sports chip away at the number of viewers, golf has posted smaller declines compared to some sports, in part because final rounds are found on networks and the core audience knows where to find early round coverage.

That said, Ourand says deals haven’t been officially signed pending the resolution of “minor sticking points”. Left undecided is the provider of digital streams for PGA Tour Live coverage and other digital elements. But he still reports many exclusive details worth considering beyond the money stuff, which only PGA Tour VP’s care about as they look to upgrade their X3’s to X5 M’s this holiday shopping season.

Ourand says the annual value of the deal jumps from $400 million to $700 million. And….

CBS and NBC essentially will keep the same regular-season packages. The big difference will be seen with the FedEx Cup Playoffs. CBS and NBC will produce all three playoff tournaments, including the Tour Championship, in alternating years. As part of the nine-year deals, NBC will carry the playoffs five times and CBS will carry them four times. Previously, NBC and CBS shared these rights, with NBC producing most of them each year.

I’m not sure of the reasoning behind this. Nor can I envision why fans will care.

An official announcement is not expected to come until early next year. The big hold-up is with digital rights, which are currently held by NBC Sports as part of PGA Tour Live and are still being negotiated. ESPN has made an aggressive play for the rights, which in addition to PGA Tour Live, includes tournament coverage before the networks go on air. ESPN+ would carry the digital rights. Discovery also has emerged as a serious contender for the digital rights and appears likely to share them with NBC Sports if they can manage to work out a deal. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally. After initial interest, it appears that Amazon has dropped out of the bidding. Sources said it was too difficult to handicap a favorite for the digital rights.

Again, this is pre-coverage on PGA Tour Live and remains a small part of the equation. More fascinating is that the PGA Tour Live broadcast window and role sounds about the same in the new deal as the old.

The Tour hired Evolution Media as counsel on its rights deals. CBS and NBC also emerge as winners, keeping rights to a property that generated a lot of interest among media companies. The deal answers a lot of questions about the new ViacomCBS, whose merger became official two weeks ago. Coming on the heels of its UEFA Champions League deal, this PGA Tour deal shows that CBS will be aggressive in getting sports rights. The deal shows how important the Tour is to Golf Channel -- and how important Golf Channel is to the Tour. As part of its offer, AT&T said it would turn Headline News into a golf-centric channel, but sources said AT&T never got close to a deal.

In the battle of media moguls, does this mean Brian Roberts closed out Randall Stephenson 6&5?

Left unsaid: how much AT&T’s debt issues and activist investor impacted willingness to introduced a new channel as the future becomes OTT/app-focused.

Also to be explained: what happened to anticipated interest from Fox, Amazon and ABC, or the to-be-created PGA Tour Network. Are the first three outlets cited saving their money for the NFL or did they decide golf just wasn’t for them.

The structure outlined appears to be a small victory for network and cable where a majority of golf fans still reside. However, we’ll hopefully learn of efforts addressed in the new deal to provide cord cutters the option to pay for this coverage via OTT services, and also of PGA Tour demands for certain production values.

Also unaddressed yet: what happens to LPGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry coverage rights?

And the most pressing question of all should settled soon: is the CEO mid-final round interview a thing of the past?

Ourand Predicts PGA Tour Broadcast Incumbents To Return, GolfTV Will Get Digital Rights

In his 2020 predictions column, Sports Business Daily’s media writer John Ourand says this about the PGA Tour television rights negotiations:

Incumbent broadcasters CBS and NBC Sports Group will renew their PGA Tour deals, including Golf Channel. What’s particularly interesting about this deal, though, will be the tour’s U.S. digital rights. After initial interest, talks with Amazon will not materialize, and ESPN+ will put in an aggressive bid. But the tour ultimately will decide to sell its digital rights to Discovery, which will make it part of its GolfTV business.

The latter portion of his prediction would be fascinating given the enticing possibilities of including Amazon and/or ESPN/Disney as a media partner given how established both already have become in the streaming world.

Of course it’s all a prediction at this point and news of deal particulars could drop any moment.

Which reminds me, a new Mandalorian drops Wednesday!

**Not long after this post went up, the Forecaddie reported the retirement of CBS producer Lance Barrow at the end of 2020. The longtime head of their golf team replaced the late Frank Chirkinian.

Ramifications Of 2019's Presidents Cup's Big Ratings: 141% Increase Since Korea

Of course naysayers will score a few points noting Tiger’s involvement, which still draws up to a million more eyeballs than most golf telecasts. And they won’t be wrong.

But consider what the Presidents Cup was facing this year in drawing an audience: late night finishes in the Eastern Time Zone, Christmas party and event season when people are less likely to be home on a Friday or Saturday night, and the Presidents Cup coming on the heels of a fall when cartoon reruns drew larger ratings than most of the PGA Tour’s fall events (especially non-Tiger Asia swing tournaments).

First, For Immediate Release:

MOST-WATCHED CABLE TELECAST IN PRESIDENTS CUP HISTORY

Saturday’s Final Day Singles Matches on GOLF Channel Featuring Playing

Captain Tiger Woods Sees 141% Increase vs. 2015 Final Day in South Korea 

Viewership Peaked at 2.15 Million Viewers Per Minute (11:15-11:30P ET)

as United States Team Was Completing its Come-From-Behind Victory 

ORLANDO, Fla., (Dec. 16, 2019) – Saturday’s Final Day singles matches at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia became the most-watched cable telecast in Presidents Cup history, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. 

Airing live in primetime on GOLF Channel (6 p.m.-12:05 a.m. ET), the final day posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.742 million viewers per minute (+141% vs. ’15 Final Day), including 1.705 million viewers per minute tuning in to the linear telecast. Viewership peaked at 2.15 million viewers per minute (1.37 U.S. HH rating) from 11:15-11:30 p.m. ET as the United States team was completing its come-from-behind victory over the International team. Saturday also became the most-streamed Final Day in Presidents Cup history.

There was also this regarding Friday’s eleven hour telecast featuring two sessions. Note that viewership average over eleven hours of golf:

VIEWERSHIP: @PresidentsCup Day 3 matches TAD (Total Audience Delivery) averaged 841K viewers per min on @GolfChannel, +47% vs '15 Pres Cup in South Korea.
- Peaked 8:45-9 pm ET with 1.172 million viewers
- Most-streamed Presidents Cup day on record with 13.8 million live minutes pic.twitter.com/bf6sj9JF9S

— Golf Channel PR (@GolfChannelPR) December 14, 2019

Yet to come in as of this post: NBC’s numbers from the weekend showing the repeat of the sessions. Later in the week we should have a sense of total audience.

But we already know enough from such strong numbers in weird time slots to highlight a few things.

—Sports fans will watch for long spans or dip in for decent-lengths of time if it’s compelling, featuring elite players at a quality venue.

—Team events and match play continue to engage fans in ways that stroke play cannot.

—Never hurts to have a close match.

—The PGA Championship, played at night in Australia, in a winter month, and in Olympic years as many suggested, would have been a ratings success along with a “grow the game” extravaganza.

Video: Live From Sends Nobilo Off In Style

While you were sleeping, Rich Lerner and Brandel Chamblee paid tribute to Frank Nobilo on his last “Golf Central Live From” show. He’s off to CBS full-time, but over the last fifteen years has been a huge part of our enjoyment of major championship coverage.

The segment: