LIV Golf might be on the cusp of landing massive TV rights for their events beyond 2024, with news emerging that the Saudi-backed circuit has been in negotiations with Fox in recent days.
LIV Golf has reportedly discussed a new broadcasting rights agreement with Fox Sports for its breakaway league’s events in 2025 and beyond to enhance the league’s value during its merger with the PGA Tour.
Previously, LIV had their tournaments broadcast on The CW Network in 2023 and 2024, after failing to secure a TV deal during their inaugural season in 2022. Their agreement with CW gave them the option of an additional year for 2025, but this has not been taken up
According to Sports Business Journal, the Saudi-funded series has now initiated discussions with Fox over a potential deal that would see their 54-hole events broadcast there. This would be a significant shift for the LIV setup, as the attractiveness of their events to some of the major broadcasters has been questioned.
The league’s agreement with CW saw the network broadcast the second and third rounds of tournaments on TV, with the first round only available via The CW App. It remains unknown whether a similar deal would be implemented if finalised with Fox.
Who watched figures on The CW failed to achieving the sort of targets that LIV bosses must have dreamt of when inking the deal for 2023; this was especially clear after the last regular season event in the year held in September. The championship leaderboard revealed an average viewership of only 89,000 golf fans who tuned into see Jon Rahm clinch the title of the league’s 2024 individual champion in Chicago on The CW during the final round – a figure that was already down from 134,000 in the second round, according to the Mirror US.
They compared that favorably to their PGA Tour competitors who garnered an average of 2.2 million viewers on Sundays during the season and a 19 percent decrease from the previous year. Golf fans can watch LIV tournaments on the breakaway league’s LIV Plus App, but the international fans have access only YouTube streaming.
Speaking to SBJ on Tuesday, Scott O’Neil, who is expected to take over the CEO position at LIV from Greg Norman, is in Las Vegas this week to officiate ‘The Showdown’. The matchplay at Shadow Creek will be LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka going head to head with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler of the PGA Tour which played a Pro-Am on Monday.
The report also confirmed that O’Neil competed in the Pro-Am together with Alan Gold, the head of sports media of CAA Evolution. On the same note, it was revealed that Jordan Bazant, who serves as the EVP of business improvement and television for Fox Sports, was also in the same Pro Am group.