The PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger is still in the talking stage, and the former has another goodness ahead. Think about the TV records the Tour set at the recently concluded Valspar Championship. According to Josh Carpenter, the final round saw a massive 2.187 million viewers, up from last year’s 1.886 million! Before that, we had a massive 2.807 million viewers for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. What do these numbers mean?
It means that the Tour is finally taking significant steps to improve its television broadcasts, and acknowledging past issues of being too large and slow. And now, the Tour includes more live golf shots and increased player-caddie interactions. The result? Booming TV rights deal with the PGA Tour and its broadcasting partners, CBS and NBC, and less headache for Jay Monahan!
This topic became the subject of discussion on the Smylie Kaufman Show. James Colgan was asked about the future of the deal. “Ok, so there’s like a few things happening at one time. You have TV ratings that are falling across the boards for sports, but the value of sports on TV is consistently increasing.” A sweet paradox!
Back in 2020, the Tour made a massive $700 million TV rights deal with CBS, NBC, and ESPN. This deal began in 2022 and will run through 2030. Of course, this does not mean the 2025 season has been all sunshine for the Tour. At The American Express, it saw a 57% drop in viewership. But it still looks good. And, according to Colgan, many things could affect this deal in the next five years. “There have been big conversations about what big changes could be coming to the professional golf in the next 5 years.” In Colgan’s words, we may be looking at a World Tour, or a merger between the two formats. Or, maybe we are looking at fewer prestigious events in a year.
NBC draws 2.187M viewers for Viktor Hovland’s win in the Valspar Championship on Sunday (no streaming included). That’s up 16% from 1.886M last year (Peter Malnati).
Prior two years were 2.594M (Moore) and 2.454M (Burns).
For the weekend, NBC averaged 1.745M (+10%) pic.twitter.com/MTcH7Sb6IQ
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) March 25, 2025
Colgan predicts the tour’s next media rights deal will surpass the current $750 million, potentially reaching at least $1 billion annually. His words seemed to echo in Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, in 2020. McManus also said that sports programming is important for the sheer amount of audience it generates. But what’s driving this race in the PGA Tour’s favor? Let’s look at a few points.
The reasons bridging the gap between the PGA Tour and the fans
The first reason could be the star golfers themselves and their wins. The more the fans see the familiar faces on the screen, the more likely they are to stick with it. And, honestly, it makes sense. You can easily include Rory McIlroy‘s two wins, favorable weather during top PGA Tour events, final-round narratives, and exciting finishes. After fiercely defending the PGA Tour for a year, McIlroy felt betrayed and blindsided, calling himself a “sacrificial lamb” when the LIV merger happened without players’ input.
And let’s not talk about how many times we have seen the tables turn in this season alone! Plus, during the Genesis Invitational, the signature event drew more than 1.6 million viewers on CBS alone. Essentially, you can say that the golf TV performs well because of the quality of its product.
Secondly, we have the Tour’s initiatives to thank for. The schedule changes to its format and broadcasts. Then, the Fan Forward program, which gathered over 50,000 responses from fans, eventually enabled the Tour to work on its issues. The result? It better understands how to reach the fans–even if it doesn’t know how to solve that big old commercial issue.
One of the major reasons why we see this PGA Tour win is from poor LIV Golf performance. Fans consider this a major win for the Tour. But then again – it hasn’t been that great for the PGA Tour either. The Valspar Championship saw 2.187 million viewers in its final round, an increase from 2024. However, it was also lower than 2.594 million viewers (2023). So, if the merger deal brings back Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Jon Rahm in the Tour, its impact on TV ratings and revenue might be overhyped.
Regardless, only time will tell how it will move further in the 2025 season. Until then, we wait and watch.
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