“It was very successful from our perspective,” Carter said during an appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. He said the average hourly audience was about 500,000, which he said was one-quarter to one-third the size of rival PGA Tour broadcasts of the Honda Classic. “But the PGA’s been around for 40 years and this was LIV’s first broadcast. So, we’re very excited about it.
Early viewership figures for the LIV telecasts were poor based on Nielsen metered market data, but subsequent numbers from measurement firm iSpot combined with internal LIV figures boosted the tally. Last Friday, the CWit drew a total of 3.5 million viewers, with the CW app streaming Friday action and the broadcast network picking up the Saturday and Sunday rounds. LIV handles production for the broadcasts, which are the first daytime fare ever for the CW.
The company secured a three-year deal with LIV “at very favorable rates,” Carter explained. The upstart golf circuit, which features a selection of former PGA pros including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka who defected from the PGA for rich paydays, has generated a storm of controversy.
Carter gestured at the feud in explaining how the matches wound up airing on the CW. “The PGA Tour had done a really nice job,” he said sarcastically, “of discouraging any of their media partners from bidding on LIV, which kind of left us and Fox and Fox didn’t see the potential in it that we did.” In addition to helping fill out the CW’s offerings, Carter added, the broadcasts enable CW affiliates — of which Nexstar already owned a majority — to “reap substantial benefits.
Along with golf, the NBA’s LA Clippers has 15 regular-season games airing on Nexstar’s LA station KTLA this season after the team reshuffled its previous plans to direct them to regional network Bally Sports SoCal. RSNs like the Bally Sports portfolio, which is operated by a unit of Nexstar rival Sinclair Broadcast Group, are faltering due to secular increases cord-cutting and other factors.
Will never watch