The Masters has long held its television broadcast windows as sacred ground. Once upon a time fans could only watch the Back 9 closing stretch while Augusta’s opening holes might as well have been Parts Unknown. But over the years the tournament has become more and more accessible as it has slowly expanded its television hours. And that trend will continue with the 2025 edition of golf’s marquee event with more television coverage than ever before.
CBS and The Masters announced on Tuesday that the tournament will receive an extra hour of coverage on the Saturday afternoon broadcast window, that will now begin at 2 PM ET. This is the same time that coverage begins on Sunday and means that fans should be able to see the leaders play all 18 holes on both days of the weekend.
But most significantly, Paramount+ will gain exclusive windows on both Saturday and Sunday, showcasing early weekend coverage from 12-2 PM ET before CBS takes to the airwaves.
CBS Sports’ multiplatform coverage of the 2025 Masters Tournament will debut five additional live hours of the third and final rounds, including two hours on Paramount+ for both rounds. pic.twitter.com/yiKv8eP0u8
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) September 17, 2024
While this may seem like a minor move, it actually signals some huge developments.
We have rarely seen CBS leverage their streaming platform, Paramount+, for airing live sports. Really, outside of some top Champions League contests, Paramount+ hasn’t ever offered sports fans something exclusive that you couldn’t access on linear television.
Compare the CBS streaming strategy to NBC and Peacock, who has made a habit out of doing everything they can to build up subscriptions for their streamer through live sports including NFL playoff games, the Olympics, EPL games, Big Ten action and more, and the difference is night and day. The fact that Paramount+ now has two Masters windows is the first real flag being planted for being a potential sports destination.
And who better to partner with than The Masters, which has been a bedrock of CBS’s sports portfolio for decades? The one wrinkle in the plan is that The Masters already offers every shot from every golfer online on their own website in addition to featured groups and featured holes, which might lessen the demand for these Paramount+ windows. But it does mirror other major telecasts on ESPN and Peacock that have streaming components and is the first real sign of CBS wanting to push Paramount+ as a sports destination.
