Fox released its highly anticipated LIV Golf broadcast schedule on Wednesday, and there are some interesting developments.
After announcing a new media rights agreement with Fox Sports last month that would see “over 50%” of LIV Golf rounds aired on Fox or FS1, golf fans now have clarity on what the full schedule will look like. According to David Rumsey of Front Office Sports, FS1 will air 84.5 hours of coverage (41%), FS2 will air 51 hours (24%), Fox will air 46 hours (22%), the Fox Sports app will air 22 hours of exclusive coverage (11%), and Fox Business Network will air 5 hours (2%).
With 78% of tournament windows on either cable or streaming, it’s difficult to say whether LIV’s deal with Fox will actually benefit them from a viewership standpoint. However, it seems like the circuit is doing at least one thing to help itself out.
The final three weeks of LIV’s season coincide with the PGA Tour’s three postseason tournaments. As such, the warring tours will be competing for eyeballs in a way we haven’t seen in previous seasons.
LIV has smartly decided to start some of its final round broadcast windows well before the PGA Tour’s coverage typically comes on the air. On Aug. 10, LIV Chicago’s final round will begin at 1 p.m. ET on Fox, an hour before the PGA Tour usually starts main coverage for its first playoff event, the St. Jude Championship. A week later, Fox begins coverage for LIV Indianapolis at noon ET, two hours before the PGA Tour typically goes live for main coverage of the BMW Championship.
The following week, LIV’s Team Championship will actually take the opposite approach. Fox will end its broadcast window one hour later than the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship would typically end, allowing viewers to catch the final hour of play after the PGA Tour concludes its season.
These are some shrewd decisions by the folks at Fox and LIV. There will certainly be a drafting effect of golf fans channel surfing between Fox and CBS as both tours enter the crucial portions of their seasons. And staggering the times so their events don’t completely overlap with the PGA Tour will prevent them from being completely overshadowed.
Still, the amount of inventory LIV Golf will have on cable — especially on the little-watched FS2 — may prove detrimental to the league’s overall viewership figures this season. With its old deal on The CW, LIV got two guaranteed windows on broadcast television each week. Now, just 22% of its coverage will be on broadcast, albeit with a much bigger network in Fox.
Whether the Saudi-funded golf league will have enough juice to pull viewers to FS1 and FS2 will determine whether the new deal is a success.
But one thing is clear: the league has put a ton of thought into how it has scheduled its events. Players this week will be teeing off at night in Riyadh to accommodate U.S.-friendly television windows, and two of those rounds air on FS2.
LIV Golf is pulling out all the stops, let’s see if it pays off.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.