LIV Golf (Saudi PIF), "Mergers," and More

[boogielicious]

I wonder if Phil gambled all his signing bonus away yet.

[Aguirre]

On 12/30/2022 at 7:28 AM, iacas said:

https://www.si.com/golf/news/liv-golf-2022-end-of-year-daily-cover

Tremendous article.

Yes, excellent article. Also reminds me of how I'm less interested in the results of professional golf than I've been since I was a teenager. Which, unfortunately, was three decades ago. I'll be there for the majors. Everything else? Maybe not.

[dennyjones]

Lynch: Saudis dodging a U.S. court, impact on LIV Golf could be huge

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Another risk to LIV is playing out in a Northern District of California courtroom

 

[BlackDiamondPar5]

After rejecting LIV's early overtures, Adam Scott proves he's all in on PGA Tour by joining PAC | Golf News and Tour Information | GolfDigest.com

Adam Scott doing something Phil never did. Take on an active advisory role in the PGAT, instead of just complaining and getting in bed with the brutal Saudi's. 

[Carl3]

Thanks to LIV I got to watch Tony Finau win back-to-back events last year and yesterday I got to see Hayden Buckley(?) at the top of the leaderboard before I turned the TV off and did something productive with my time. 🤣

The PGA better get its act together. Competition is the American way.

[iacas]

4 hours ago, Carl3 said:

The PGA better get its act together. Competition is the American way.

A) This isn't the PGA. It's the PGA Tour.
B) "Competition" ≠ "One company has a virtually unlimited budget"

This isn't about competition.

And FInau is great. And a really good dude.

Slights against him will not be tolerated.

😉

(But I'm serious, too.)

[Carl3]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

A) This isn't the PGA. It's the PGA Tour.
B) "Competition" ≠ "One company has a virtually unlimited budget"

This isn't about competition.

And FInau is great. And a really good dude.

Slights against him will not be tolerated.

😉

(But I'm serious, too.)

Thanks for the correction on the PGA. I like Finau too, but back-to-back is a rare thing that you would expect perhaps from a multiple major winner.

I think a better approach from the tour would be to let these LIV golfers back into the fold if they like. What better way to hurt them by letting players take their tens and hundreds of millions and then come back. Drain their coffers. 

Competition is allowing the best golfers in the world to play against each other at major events no matter what tour they align with. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

I like Finau too, but back-to-back is a rare thing that you would expect perhaps from a multiple major winner.

FInau has been one of the best players in the world for the last five years or so. He's been robbed of a few more wins, has finished in the top ten in multiple majors:

• T10 Masters 2018
• 5th U.S. Open 2018
• T9 British Open 2018
• T5 Masters 2019
• 3rd British Open 2019
• T4 PGA 2020
• T8 U.S. Open 2020
• T10 Masters 2021
• T8 PGA 2021

He's currently 12th in the OWGR. He was one of the lone bright spots on a Ryder Cup team in France. Here's a chart of his OWGR since 2017:

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

I think a better approach from the tour would be to let these LIV golfers back into the fold if they like.

Why would they want to do that?

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

What better way to hurt them by letting players take their tens and hundreds of millions and then come back. Drain their coffers.

What's the incentive to stay?

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

Competition is allowing the best golfers in the world to play against each other at major events no matter what tour they align with. 

You do realize that last year, 16 of the top 50 players in the world played at the Sony, while this year… 14 of the top 50 did. Basically, nothing this weekend really changed because of LIV.

[phillyk]

LIV Golf finally (!) has a TV deal

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LIV Golf is finalizing a multi-year media rights deal with the CW, an agreement that will bring the...

LIV is paying CW for the coverage. They needed this step, for sure. We’ll see how their ratings do. 

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, phillyk said:

LIV is paying CW for the coverage. They needed this step, for sure. We’ll see how their ratings do.

SI said it was a revenue sharing deal.

https://www.si.com/golf/news/liv-golf-on-verge-of-announcing-tv-deal-with-cw-network

Or maybe they'll pay, but then split the revenues after that.

[dennyjones]

9 hours ago, iacas said:

SI said it was a revenue sharing deal.

https://www.si.com/golf/news/liv-golf-on-verge-of-announcing-tv-deal-with-cw-network

Or maybe they'll pay, but then split the revenues after that.

I wonder if the CW will require their TV superheros show up in cosplay at the golf tournaments.   Isn't that what the reputation of the CW?

• Green Arrow
• Superman
• Stargirl
• Lost Girl

and many more.   

[boogielicious]

2 hours ago, dennyjones said:

I wonder if the CW will require their TV superheros show up in cosplay at the golf tournaments.   Isn't that what the reputation of the CW?

• Green Arrow
• Superman
• Stargirl
• Lost Girl

and many more.   

The CW has one of my favorite shows Penn and Teller Fool Us. Maybe they will have Teller come and pull Greg Norman’s head out of his ass live!

[BlackDiamondPar5]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

The CW has one of my favorite shows Penn and Teller Fool Us. Maybe they will have Teller come and pull Greg Norman’s head out of his ass live!

^^^OMG that was funny 🤣🤣🤣

[iacas]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

[DaveP043]

This is from Sportico, for which I don't have a subscription, but Yahoo has published the entire article:

Nielsen Ratings Currency Will Not Back LIV Golf Ad Inventory on the CW

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The Saudi-backed challenger to the PGA Tour has landed a U.S. broadcast TV deal, as LIV Golf on Thursday announced it had inked a multiyear distribution pact with the CW. Per terms of the agreement, Nexstar’s the CW will air 14...

Apparently the Nielsen system doesn't rate CW programming outside of a couple of hours of prime time.  Consequently, advertisers won't be able to get a very accurate idea of viewership, they'll have to rely on CW's in house estimates.  I don't know much about that business, but this seems to be at least a minor obstacle to attracting advertisers. 

[ChetlovesMer]

8 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

This is from Sportico, for which I don't have a subscription, but Yahoo has published the entire article:

Nielsen Ratings Currency Will Not Back LIV Golf Ad Inventory on the CW

---

The Saudi-backed challenger to the PGA Tour has landed a U.S. broadcast TV deal, as LIV Golf on Thursday announced it had inked a multiyear distribution pact with the CW. Per terms of the agreement, Nexstar’s the CW will air 14...

Apparently the Nielsen system doesn't rate CW programming outside of a couple of hours of prime time.  Consequently, advertisers won't be able to get a very accurate idea of viewership, they'll have to rely on CW's in house estimates.  I don't know much about that business, but this seems to be at least a minor obstacle to attracting advertisers. 

It's interesting on how its phrased. The story I heard on the radio yesterday said words to the effect of most sports TV deals the league gets paid. The network pays the league to carry their games/events etc.. It sighted that the PGA tour gets paid like 600 million for the rights to carry it on TV. The NFL gets paid close to $60 billion (yeah, with a "B"). This deal is different in that LIV Golf paid the network to carry them. I guess the CW needs the cash, LIV needs a partner = Win/Win. 

The radio story didn't say how much LIV is paying. But it made it clear that it's LIV that is paying not the CW paying. 

[DaveP043]

2 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

It's interesting on how its phrased. The story I heard on the radio yesterday said words to the effect of most sports TV deals the league gets paid. The network pays the league to carry their games/events etc.. It sighted that the PGA tour gets paid like 600 million for the rights to carry it on TV. The NFL gets paid close to $60 billion (yeah, with a "B"). This deal is different in that LIV Golf paid the network to carry them. I guess the CW needs the cash, LIV needs a partner = Win/Win. 

The radio story didn't say how much LIV is paying. But it made it clear that it's LIV that is paying not the CW paying. 

Actually I read it differently.  LIV will be paying for production of the telecasts, and CW isn't paying LIV for the rights, but I didn't read that LIV is paying CW.  I did read that revenues (from ads, I believe) will be shared.  The more recent article I posted simply says that ad rates won't be able to be calculated using the normal measurements of viewers.

[iacas]

11 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Actually I read it differently.  LIV will be paying for production of the telecasts, and CW isn't paying LIV for the rights, but I didn't read that LIV is paying CW.  I did read that revenues (from ads, I believe) will be shared.  The more recent article I posted simply says that ad rates won't be able to be calculated using the normal measurements of viewers.

Very low risk add for the CW.

They get live sports at no real cost to them.