LIV Golf trying to cover up unimpressive ratings?
Sep 3, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Greg Norman CEO of LIV Golf before the second round of the LIV Golf tournament at The International. Mandatory Credit: Richard Cashin-USA TODAY Sports
LIV Golf was proud to provide ratings figures after the Saudi-backed league signed a broadcasting deal with the CW earlier this year, but those reports have suddenly disappeared. There is probably only one reason for that.
LIV chief media officer Will Staeger said back in January that the league would “certainly” make viewership information public and called it “critical to all of our plans.” Those ratings reports have not been made available since March, when viewership had decreased significantly from one week to the next.
Sources told James Colgan of Golf.com that LIV will no longer be reporting data from U.S. broadcasts. LIV had previously argued that Nielsen data from its broadcasts was inaccurate.
The last figures LIV provided showed that 409,000 viewers watched the league’s Tucson, Ariz., event in late March. That was a decrease from the 537,000 average viewers LIV says it had for its season-opening CW broadcast from Mexico. There have been four LIV events since, and viewership figures have not been provided for any of them.
If viewership was holding strong or increasing, LIV would almost certainly continue to provide the numbers. The fact that they have stopped is probably not a good sign for the league or the CW.
