First the PGA Tour and the upstart LIV Golf were implacable enemies. Then they were going to work something out. Now, as the Masters is set to begin, the tension is mounting again.
Two top officials of the PGA Tour said the sport’s governing body had no choice but to reach a truce in its yearlong battle with LIV Golf and try to reach a merger with the Saudi-funded tour. The comments came during a contentious Senate hearing Tuesday at which the truce between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, as well as the Saudi government, were subject of harsh criticism from senators.
The Saudi-backed pro golf tour just signed a deal with ReachTV to air non-exclusive live Friday coverage — and reruns of past coverage — of its tourneys in U.S. airports.
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has invited PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, LIV Golf League CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, to testify at a July 11 hearing regarding the entities’ planned alliance in men’s professional golf. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee, and ranking member Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) invited the men to testify at the hearing in a letter Wednesday.
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia-backed challenger LIV Golf avoided calling their proposed partnership a merger. But their shock announcement is already raising serious concerns with US and European antitrust enforcers, according to people familiar with the matter. The tie-up, which was announced Tuesday, is being viewed by officials as a brazen play loaded with red flags, not the least of which is creating a giant monopoly in an industry that had only recently gained a competitor, said the people, who asked not be identified discussing non-public matters.
Opinion: PGA Tour Goes Full Hypocrite In Its Merger With LIV Golf
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After that, the newly merged golf entity’s broadcast rights need to be hammered out.
the PGA Tour and European tour agreed to a merger with Saudi Arabia’s golf interests, creating a commercial operation designed to unify professional golf around the world. As part of the deal, the sides are dropping all lawsuits involving LIV Golf against each other effective immediately.
For the last two years, LIV Golf has rivaled the PGA Tour. It started during the inaugural season, where LIV Golf spent over $800 million to lure some of golf’s biggest names like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, and more to the Saudi-backed league. Since then LIV Golf has tried to run its own league with a different setup and format than the PGA Tour. The format has guaranteed fields, no cuts, only 54 holes (three rounds), lucrative purses, team play, and more. While LIV Golf has definitely made some noise, it’s struggled with viewership numbers.
The field at this season’s first PGA major is already being reshaped by the tumult in the golf world — and it foreshadows more drastic effects to come.
The deep-pocketed pro golf upstart has a revenue-sharing arrangement with Nexstar CW and pays for all of its TV production expenses.
iSpot and Nexstar’s The CW have announced that the network will use iSpot to measure cross-platform premium video campaigns and sponsorships associated with the 2023 LIV Golf Tournament across linear and digital properties.
Using data from iSpotTV along with internal CW and LIV results, CW says LIV’s opening weekend at Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course in Mexico averaged more than 3.2 million total viewers across all linear and digital platforms from Feb. 24 to 26. Day one of the tourney streamed on the CW app. Days two and three aired on affiliates, as well as indie stations and diginets.
Earlier this month, The CW proudly trumpeted how the 2023 LIV Golf League season will air in 100% of markets across the U.S. The 14-event schedule kicks off Friday at the El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course in Mexico, with the CW app streaming coverage on Fridays and linear CW broadcast picking up on Saturdays and Sundays. What was missing from the surprise announcement last week was the list of CW affiliates that declined to air the Saudi-funded tour that has deeply divided professional golf (and kept CBS/Paramount, NBCUniversal and Disney/ESPN on the sidelines when LIV looked to upgrade its media deal in year two after launching last year with free YouTube streams). Since CW affiliates are only contractually obligated to air primetime programming, all eight of the CBS-owned CW affiliates declined to air the weekend tourneys. So did the Weigel-owned CW affiliate WCIU in Chicago, and Tegna-owned CW stations like KFMB in San Diego and WCCT in Hartford-New Haven, Conn.
The old league’s reforms have its deep-pocketed rival sputtering again.
A federal magistrate judge denied LIV Golf’s sovereign immunity claims and ruled that its Saudi Arabian benefactors are subject to discovery, must turn over relevant information and sit for depositions. The ruling marks a significant victory for the PGA Tour in its legal battle with LIV Golf and could hold implications beyond the antitrust case that has divided the golf world. Abpve. LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman (l) and Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
The CW said today that the LIV Golf’s first official full season of the Saudi-backed league will blanket the U.S. via some CW stations and on Nexstar owned and operated stations in key markets including Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Tampa and Hartford, Conn.
Three Trump National Golf Club courses to see action from the controversial competition.
After its splashy challenge to the PGA Tour last year produced few tangible results, LIV’s managing director, chief marketing officer and chief communications officer have departed. Above, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman (l), and Majed Al Sorour during a ceremony after the final round of the LIV Golf Team Championship in October 2022.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the LIV/CW deal — details of the agreement between the Saudi-backed league and the Nexstar-owned network were not announced, including financial specifics — but in the days since the news was first reported, there’s also much we’ve learned about how this deal came to be, and what fans can expect from LIV broadcasts in 2023 and beyond. Here’s what we know.
A U.S. television deal was seen as critical for the rival league, which last year was available only through streaming on its website and on YouTube. The next season of LIV Golf League, with an emphasis on the 12 four-man teams it hopes to create as franchises, starts Feb. 24-26 on the Gulf coast of Mexico at Mayakoba, which hosted a fall PGA Tour event. Above, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, left, walks off the course after the final round of the LIV Golf Team Championship at Trump National Doral Golf Club, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022, in Doral, Fla.
The deal would mark one of the first major moves for the network since being acquired by Nexstar.
Saudi-funded LIV Golf refuted a report Tuesday that it was close to a U.S. television deal in which it would buy time to be shown on FS1. Golfweek cited multiple sources it did not identify in saying the agreement is still being finalized. Above, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman tosses beer to fans on the 18th green during the final round of the LIV Golf Invitational-Boston tournament, Sunday, Sept. 4.
LIV Golf has lured some of the world’s most famous golfers to its upstart golf league, but it is having a much more difficult time finding a major U.S. media partner to broadcast its tournaments. Amazon and Apple have both passed on the media rights to LIV Golf, people familiar with the matter said, leaving the Saudi-backed circuit with a dwindling number of options.
