LIV Golf fans in the US waking up in the middle of the night to watch the circuit’s international events won’t be able to watch live on The CW.
Per Golf.com, the five international events this season will only air live on The CW’s app. Broadcast coverage of those five will be tape delayed. Additionally, the Friday rounds of all tournaments will only air on the app and not on The CW’s linear channel.
Under the agreed plan, five of 14 LIV events in 2023 will be broadcast on a tape delay in the U.S., including those held in Australia, Singapore, Spain, England and the team championship held in Saudi Arabia. LIV events held in North America will also be broadcast on the CW in the 1-6 p.m. window on Saturdays and Sundays, but that window will overlap with the live tournament and therefore not require a tape delay. Friday coverage from all 14 LIV events will be exclusive to the CW app.
It’s not often you hear “tape delay” when talking about live sports these days, but at least the content is still available on the app. Not airing the event live *anywhere* would be a disastrous outcome, but the app alone is better than nothing. As for the tape delay aspect, it certainly isn’t ideal, but the hardcore fans will still watch live on the app.
I feel like the worst part about these streaming notes is that all of the Friday coverage will be app-exclusive. That’s a full third of LIV’s content. Add in the five international events, and that’s more than half of The CW’s LIV coverage that will only be available live on the app.
Having access to The CW’s reach is great, but when only 18 of those rounds are airing live on The CW, the impact of that reach is being blunted.
[Golf.com]
