By JOHN STEINBREDER
Senior WriterSome PGA Tour pros grumbled about the inaugural FedEx Cup, but complaints from TV executives and advertisers have been few and far between.
Their satisfaction comes from the Tour fulfilling its promise to make post-PGA Championship competition relevant on TV: The four playoff events, which each featured at least eight of the world’s top 10 players, collectively reported an average weekend ratings increase of 18 percent from a year ago.
More important, the FedEx Cup likely will help make the first year of the Tour’s new TV deal profitable – at least for some of its TV partners, says a network executive speaking confidentially. (CBS and NBC as a matter of policy do not comment about contract finances.)
Another network source confirmed the improved fiscal performance, saying “the rights fees we are now paying are probably 10-15 percent less than they were before, while our sales revenues are up 10 percent.” Such gains, in part, came from a “slight” advertising premium charged for FedEx Cup events, new business from pharmaceutical companies and continued support from the financial services and auto industries, according to the source.
The turnaround in golf viewership is significant, considering the networks reportedly lost millions during the final years of the previous TV deal that expired following the 2006 season.
Said NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer in an e-mail: “Golf advertising sales were very strong for both our PGA Tour and USGA packages. We were delighted with how the first year (of the new TV contract) went. Our numbers were strong, overall interest was high, and the public seemed to like it.”
As for cable partner Golf Channel, it will be years before analysts accurately can evaluate its unprecedented 15-year deal with the Tour. But there is no doubt Golf Channel has prospered from its Tour alliance, gaining a boost in stature, much-needed programming and better ratings.
“The broadcast networks are a lot more comfortable with the new deal, and considering this was a first-year launch of a postseason schedule, it did better than many may have expected,” said Neal Pilson, president of TV consulting firm Pilson Communications and former head of CBS Sports. “The Tour competed effectively with the start of the college and pro football seasons, and the FedEx Cup got people talking about golf at a time of year when they normally don’t.”
The talk, however, wasn’t always positive. Fans heard or read as much about Tour players griping about the duress of the four-week format as they did about their stellar play when they competed. Steve Stricker’s hot streak and the duel between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at the Deutsche Bank Championship arguably rank among the most compelling moments of golf television this season. But such highlights mask what remains an ominous problem for the Tour: Professional golf still struggles to draw much of an audience for anything but the majors.
Consider that on Sunday, Aug. 26, the Little League World Series finale posted better ratings going head-to-head with the fourth round of The Barclays, the playoff opener.
Perhaps more troubling, the following weekend at the Deutsche Bank outside Boston, the final-round blockbuster pairing of Woods and Mickelson failed to match ratings of the same event’s conclusion from a year ago. And of the four playoff tournaments, only the Tour Championship produced significantly better weekend ratings (see chart), and that’s largely attributable to improved scheduling – mid-September this year vs. a football-filled November in 2006. This year’s gains were practically predictable, too, because of Woods’ and Mickelson’s participation; both skipped the Tour Championship last year.
In the long run, Golf Channel may prove to be the biggest beneficiary.
“Having the PGA Tour has given them a lot of credibility, and they are going to be a higher growth cable service as a result,” Pilson said.
Aside from increasing ad rates, Golf Channel is leveraging its Tour relationship in other ways: In the spring it signed an agreement with Cablevision, making Golf Channel programming available to an additional 2 million homes in metropolitan New York.
According to Golf Channel president Page Thomson, the network, using a standard cable audience metric, reported its highest rating to date for its combined live and prime-time delayed coverage of the second round of the Tour Championship. It also experienced gains for its news and talk shows during the playoffs.
Said Rob Yowell, senior vice president for business development at IEG, a sports sponsorship agency: “At the end of the day, you had four top-level events that attracted the best players in the game. They had great fields, great competitions, and the guy who should have won, won.”
• • •
John Steinbreder is a
Golfweek senior writer. To reach him e-mail
jsteinbreder@golfweek.com.
Posted: 10/5/2007
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