LIV Golf Enters Multi-Year 'Mutually Financially Beneficial' Agreement With TV Partner
LIV Golf has its long-awaited television partner, a large affiliate network in the United States that has no other sports programming but will offer the controversial league a large platform to show its product.
The CW Network—the C is for CBS, the W for Warner Media—has entered into a multi-year agreement to televise LIV Golf tournaments including this year’s 14-tournament schedule that begins late next month in Mexico.
Sports Illustrated reported earlier this week that an agreement was near, and the two sides jointly announced the deal on Thursday, one that will not see LIV Golf get paid a traditional rights fee but that the league says is “mutually financially beneficial."
That basically means that while LIV Golf will not be paid up front for the rights to its broadcasts, it will share advertising revenue with the CW and will also likely be expected to shoulder a good bit of promotional work. The deal is believed to be for at least three years with the possibility of a rights fee being paid after two years.
Various reports had LIV Golf close to a deal late last year with Fox Sports that would have seen a “time buy" from LIV Golf, meaning it would pay the network a fee to broadcast its tournaments and attempt to sell advertising revenue on its own.
The events will also be streamed live on the CW app. Only streaming coverage will be available on Fridays; LIV will announce at a later date how Friday play will be handled with CW affiliates.
“It was critical for us to get to this point, no question," Greg Norman, LIV’s CEO and commissioner, said Thursday in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “Our goal was to do that from the outset. To be honest, when you look at our calendar, maybe nine and a half months ago when we decided to London (for the first LIV Golf event), we actually had planned to have two beta seasons. And we have excelled across all aspects of what we wanted to deliver. We have our own production team and showcasing golf in a whole new light.
“Of course we knew that getting this out on a network was critical for us. But for us to be sitting here with a contract that is signed is really a very, very proud moment for our players and for our sponsors."
Will Staeger, LIV’s chief media officer, said CW's sales team would be charged with selling advertising inventory while LIV's team would continue to seek sponsorships for its events, as well as its franchises. Both emphasized that this is not a "time buy" and that the LIV and CW are partners who are sharing in revenue. As was the case in 2022, LIV is responsible for production costs.
The CW is a national network that is in some 220 U.S. markets via local affiliates. It was the 21st-most-watched network last year in the U.S. for average prime-time viewing.
Nexstar Media Group, which owns nearly 200 local television stations in the U.S., purchased a 75 percent stake in the CW Network last year. Paramount (CBS) and Warner Media (Discovery) still retain minority stakes in the company.
The trick for LIV Golf will be getting golf fans to the CW Network, which has no other sports properties and is mostly comprised of syndicated programming, including a bevy of courtroom shows and reruns of various TV sitcoms and dramas. There is also local programing in various markets, including live news broadcasts and web coverage.
LIV Golf played its inaugural invitational series of eight events in 2022 strictly via streaming via YouTube and its own website. Despite enormous production costs—which LIV Golf will still cover as part of this arrangement—the viewing numbers were poor, despite LIV’s desire to reach a younger demographic, per its motto “Golf, But Louder."
With shotgun starts and 48-player fields, LIV Golf promoted the idea of showing all of the players numerous times in a five-hour window.
The broadcast team that worked the 2022 events will return, led by longtime broadcaster David Feherty, who is in the booth beside fellow analyst Jerry Foltz and play-by-play announcer Arlo White.
There are also on-course and feature reporters Dom Boulet, Su-Ann Heng and Troy Mullins.
LIV’s full schedule for 2023 has yet to be announced, but the first event will be Feb. 24-26 at the Mayakoba Resort in Mexico.