Bones Trades In His Bib For A Headset

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Jim "Bones" Mackay, not to be confused with another McKay, has raked his last bunker but is probably reserving the right to tell a spectator "no cameras" after signing a multi-year deal with Golf Channel/NBC.

For Immediate Release:

“BONES” JOINS NBC SPORTS GROUP

Veteran PGA TOUR Caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay Becomes On-Course Reporter, Starting with The Open at Royal Birkdale; Adds Unique Perspective from 25-Year Partnership Alongside Phil Mickelson’s Hall-of-Fame Career

ORLANDO, Fla., July 6, 2017 – NBC Sports Group today announced that Jim “Bones” Mackay officially will join the network’s live tournament coverage as an on-course reporter, adding his unique perspective to Golf Channel and NBC’s coverage of The Open, FedExCup Playoffs and Presidents Cup in 2017. The multi-year agreement will fold Mackay into NBC Sports’ tournament coverage team with a full schedule of events on Golf Channel and NBC in 2018.

“For years, I have admired the fashion in which the NBC Sports team goes about covering the game and I am thrilled to be joining the team,” said Mackay. “During my years as a caddie, I had the opportunity to watch Tommy Roy work his magic in the production truck, and walk the fairways with Notah Begay, Roger Maltbie and Mark Rolfing. To join them and be a part of the coverage of some of golf’s biggest events – starting with The Open – is an opportunity I’m very grateful for, and I’m eager to add my take to help illustrate the strategic decisions golfers face inside the ropes.”

“Bones’ keen observations and ability to draw insight from personal experience will bring an original perspective to our coverage and complement our already well-respected broadcast team,” said Tommy Roy, lead golf producer for NBC Sports. “The player-caddie dynamic in golf is often one of the most compelling and unique narratives being captured during our coverage.

Bones has a career’s worth of experience being immersed in the most pressure-packed situations on golf’s biggest stages working alongside Phil, one of the most cerebral champions in the sport.”

This is the first occasion in which a full-time PGA TOUR caddie has been signed for a tournament broadcasting role. However, Mackay’s decision to join NBC Sports Group isn’t the first time he’s traded in a caddie bib for a microphone, as he – along with fellow caddie John “Woody” Wood – took part in Golf Channel’s live tournament coverage as on-course reporters at the 2015 RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Ga.

Mackay caddied for Mickelson during a 25-year stretch that ultimately would encompass a Hall of Fame career, led by five major championships, 42 PGA TOUR wins, as well as representing the United States on 22 consecutive occasions as a member of Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams.

Steve DiMeglio at USA Today says Bones has long been a hardcore telecast watcher.

TV feels like a natural move for Mackay, who said he loves the game and was a golf rat as a kid.
“I would watch everything from start to finish. I would read golf magazines from beginning to end,” Mackay said. “I’ve always been fascinated by the game at this level. Certainly when I was lucky enough to get to caddie on the PGA Tour you take in everything around you.

“I loved watching what the TV guys do. It’s intriguing. I think it’s yet another fascinating aspect of the golf world.”

Kevin Casey notes at Golfweek.com that Bones is all-in, working the summer and fall's big events before moving to a full time role in 2018.

As Golf Channel announced, Mackay will work several big events right away. In addition to the Open, he’ll also be part of the team for the Presidents Cup and several postseason events culminating with the Tour Championship. The idea will be for him to move to a full schedule starting in 2018.

Ratings: Travelers 2.7 Second Best Sunday Overnight Of '17, Final U.S. Open Numbers Second Lowest On Record

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The PGA Tour got some good news as Jordan Spieth's win at the 2017 Travelers and his overall ability to lure in non-golf fans gave CBS a nice final round rating. This is the second Sunday in a row for CBS to finish up in the numbers (Karp/SBD).

SBD's Austin Karp with the positive overnight news:

 

As for the U.S. Open, I've put off a post on the dreary ratings news (3.6 overnight) in part because I hate the reflection it makes on the players who contended.

Now that they've had their moment and we've had time to ponder the golf at Erin Hills, it's apparent that some combination of the telecast length (9.5 hours!), protagonists, venue, Central Time Zone and seemingly reduced marketing budget effort by Fox contributed to the second lowest rating and smallest audience on record.

The combination of stunning visuals, production values and noticeable difference between Fox and other telecasts can't be blamed. I would, however, strongly agree with Martin Kaufmann's Golfweek assessment that on-course reporters were underutilized.

The overall audience size was also a troublesome number according to Karp:

 

 

U.S. Open Ratings: Third Round 2.55; Undisputed Lightly Watched

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The third round overnight rating for Fox's U.S. Open third round telecast drew a 2.55, tying last year's rating for the lowest third round on record and down 24% from the 3.35 Fox drew it's first year at Chambers Bay. Do remember these numbers do not account for streaming views. These are also the longest viewing windows in the history of the U.S. Open--nine hours Saturday, nine-and-a-half on Sunday.

The third round overnight, if it holds, is actually lower than last year's Open Championship third round (2.75) on NBC, which was played in the morning hours vs the U.S. Open spilling into Saturday night prime time.

Hopefully Saturday's excitement and the various highlights seen by sports fans who did not tune in will get more people to tune in Sunday.

As for Fox's on-site shows of Undisputed featuring Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayliss, Thursday's 9-9:30 am EST show drew a .03, averaging 37,000 viewers. For perspective, Golf Central's Live From drew a .11, averaging 138,000 viewers over the same half hour.

In the 9:30-11 am window that led into FS1's first round U.S. Open telecast, Undisputed drew a 0.9 to 123k average vs. Live From's .18, 237k average audience over the 90 minutes.

On Friday Undisputed's 9-9:30 am drew a .05 to Live From's .14, while the 9:30 am-11 am EST window ended in a .09 vs. .17 for Live From leading into the second round telecast.

But hey, the Undisputed content was spectacular:

 



 

2017 U.S. Open On Pace For "Historically Weak" Performance

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Given no Tiger, no Phil, an unknown venue, falling ratings in almost all sectors and what seemed like a less relentless advertising campaign compared to recent years, the 2017 U.S. Open seemed destined for ratings toruble. Now couple that with the departures of several stars and...

Paulsen at SportsMediaWatch.com says "if round one is any indication, the U.S. Open is on pace for another historically weak performance."

He has a full report on round one ratings, which were way up over last year's rain-out, way down over 2015 at Chambers Bay.

First round coverage of the U.S. Open averaged 1.2 million viewers across FOX and Fox Sports 1 Thursday, up 44% from last year, when play was mostly rained out (805K), but down 41% from 2015, when the tournament took place on the West Coast and stretched further into primetime (2.0M).

Paulsen also is predicting weekend ratings for all sports and says that in spite of no NBA Finals competition, "expect historically low numbers nonetheless. Predictions: 2.1 and 3.1."

The U.S. Open telecast placed fourth in the 8-9 pm ET prime time hour Thursday night behind reruns on the other networks.

SBD On 2017 PGA Tour Sunday Ratings Drop

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Thanks to reader PG for this piece by Sports Business Daily’s Thomas Leary, who considers the PGA Tour joining "a growing list of sports properties to see a decline in audience in ‘17."

Many noteworthy points are raised in exploring the 18-week straight dip in Sunday ratings, including digital viewers not counted by Nielsen ratings and similar ratings drops in most sports. Not mentioned: fatigue from the wraparound season (aka over-saturation), the length of telecasts saturating numbers while also testing a short-attention span society, cord-cutting and a President Trump distraction effect.

Mostly though, the story suggests that no one has come close to replacing Tiger both as a charismatic figure and dominant force who people love watching win.

Colvin Sports Network Founder & President Bill Colvin, a veteran of the golf hospitality space, noted when Woods was winning majors at a consistent clip, it was easy for fans to keep track of the sport’s most popular player. Colvin: “Now there’s all the good young guys, but there’s so many to keep track of and all relatively speaking are inconsistent. There’s no momentum built on one storyline right now in golf.”

More PGA Tour Live numbers!

Total visits to PGATour.com this year are up 10%, while PGATour Live subscribers (+33%) and streams (+42%) are also up. CBS and NBC/Golf Channel’s combined live streams are up 16% this year, and the Tour’s social channels have grown by 36% over last year. "It’s not as if our fans aren’t consuming our content,” Votaw said. However, he conceded social and digital viewing "are our snacks, and the TV product is our meal.”

This is a point worth considering on digital growth, though I would say slightly refuted by the success of specialized feeds for The Masters and US Open.

As for its digital platforms, Pilson said golf “probably isn’t getting a bump” because its core audience is “older than almost any other sport.” Pilson: “I’ve yet to see a 60-year-old checking his mobile phone for the golf telecast. My guess is that the benefits that digital is providing for leagues like the NFL and NBA isn’t accruing for golf.”

Perhaps for mainstream audiences, but I think we all would agree golf has an opportunity with specialized feeds that are more engaging than any other sport can offer: featured groups, featured holes and other niche elements that make for great viewing on the office computer!

TV Golf Viewers Still Skew Old, But At Least We're Not Wrestling!

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In "Going gray: Sports TV viewers skew older" Sports Business Daily's John Lombardo & David Broughton return to their 2006 survey of sports viewers and find that the audience is getting older across the board.

Golf, naturally, tops most of their lists with a median age of 64. Only one sports saw their median age drop, and golf was not greying the fastest (that wrestling!).

The study, conducted exclusively for SportsBusiness Journal by Magna Global, looked at live, regular-season game coverage of major sports across both broadcast and cable television in 2000, 2006 and 2016. It showed that while the median age of viewers of most sports, except the WTA, NBA and MLS, is aging faster than the overall U.S. population, it is doing so at a slower pace than prime-time TV.

Of course, as fascinating as the story is, I can only imagine the meetings this week where this comes up and nervous execs obsess about how we get the kids in our sports. The answers aren't pretty unless you see an opportunity here to tighten broadcast windows up a tad.

The trends show the challenges facing leagues as they try to attract a younger audience and ensure long-term viability, and they reflect the changes in consumption patterns as young people shift their attention to digital platforms.

“There is an increased interest in short-term things, like stats and quick highlights,” said Brian Hughes, senior vice president of audience intelligence and strategy at Magna Global USA. “That availability of information has naturally funneled some younger viewers away from TV.”

We also got some PGA Tour Live numbers out of this effort, so there is that. From the PGA Tour's Ty Votaw:

Votaw also noted that audience trends today can’t be solely focused on the linear TV viewer and pointed to a younger audience on tour-run digital properties.

“When you go to PGATour.com, the median age is 55 and for our PGATour Live (over-the-top network), the median age is 20 years younger than on broadcast,” he said.

That still puts the median at 44, which PGA Tour Live is still largely watched by Non-People-Who-Matter viewers (aka millennials).

There were several charts with the piece, but the one showing golf not graying quite so badly proved eye-opening given the supposed hipster status of pro wrestling and UFC.

Tony Romo Making CBS Debut At Colonial

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Kevin Patra of NFL Network reports that former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo will don the CBS blue blazer this weekend at Colonial to kick off his post-playing career with an 18th tower cameo. Romo is set to join Jim Nantz this fall as part of the lead CBS NFL broadcast team.

From Patra's story:

"I will give you a little note," Barrow told the audience while glowing about Romo. "This weekend for the first time ever he will be in the announce booth at 18 for a few moments. And it will be the first time that he will have the CBS Sports blazer on and he will be introduced as our newest addition to CBS Sports, right here at Colonial."

Barrow then asked the crowd to keep the news under wraps.

"Please don't tweet that or any of that, it's supposed to be a surprise," he said.

Ratings: Players Down, Second Best Overnight Of 2017

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The leaderboard's lack of star power was expected to hurt ratings and it delivered!

Paulsen at SportsMediaWatch.com points out the good news first: Si Woo Kim's 2017 Players win was the second best PGA Tour overnight rating of the year. Unfortunately it's a year that has seen a ratings decline, with this year's Players the lowest (2.6) since a rain delayed 2005.

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Players Championship earned a 2.6 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, down 16% from last year (3.1), down a third from 2015 (3.9), and tied as the tournament’s lowest Sunday overnight since at least 1998.

And if you're hunting for the positive...

It ranked second for the weekend among sporting events behind Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals on ABC (5.6).

 

 

Shark On Golf Commentators: "They’re as boring to listen to as it is to watch boring golfers play."

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Writing for the world-renowned WorldwideGolf.com, Greg Norman shares a litany of opinions on everything wrong with golf and its future.

The former Fox Sports analyst, who lasted just one year in the job and appears to be nursing yet another injury, took aim at CBS's broadcast of The Masters.

When I watched the Masters I turned the sound off the TV!

One thing I find far from appealing is the quality of some of the commentating on TV. They’re as boring to listen to as it is to watch boring golfers play. You get that constant monotone voice: everyone hits a great shot, nobody has an opinion, nobody wants to upset the applecart, and everyone’s got the greatest short game in the world.

When I was in the gym watching The Masters on TV last month I turned the sound off and listened to my favourite music and simply cranked up the volume.

Of course you were in the gym.

Nick Faldo retweeted the article and clearly felt bruised but not beaten by the jab. Helps to have three Green Jackets and the lead announce job!

 

Golf Channel Wins Sports Emmy For Korengel Story

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Golf Channel claimed it's first Sports Emmy for Outstanding Short Feature with producer Todd Kapostasy's artfully-produced look at the inspirational Ryan Korengel story:

NBC Sports Group tonight won nine Sports Emmy Awards for excellence in sports television production, highlighted by four awards for its coverage of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sunday Night Football’s eighth award for outstanding live sports series in nine years; and individual honors for Bob Costas, Mike “Doc” Emrick, and Andres Cantor. The awards were presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

•    Outstanding Short Feature: Golf Central (Golf Channel) - “Don’t Cry for Me – The Ryan Korengel Story”

If you didn't watch the last time it was posted here, this is the piece.

ShackHouse 35: Tommy Roy And The Players

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Live on tape from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida arrives our pre-Players Championship preview.

Plus, special guest Tommy Roy of NBC Sports discusses his incredible career, golf on television and golf in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Then Travis Fulton of Golf Channel Academy joins us to talk junior golf, PVB and the Players.

As always, you can subscribe on iTunes and or just refresh your device subscription page.

Here is The Ringer's show page.

Same deal with Soundcloud for the show, and Episode 35 is here to listen to right now!

As always, ShackHouse is brought to you by Callaway, makers of the Epic Driver that is now part of Callaway's very groovy Customs program along with Mac Daddy's and Chrome Softs. Check it out.

PGA Tour Ratings Streak Hits 12 Straight Final Rounds

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Take that, Byron Nelson!

No, this is no joking matter now as PGA Tour final round ratings dropped for the 12th straight week this year on CBS and NBC, with the Valero Texas Open joining the list.

According to Paulsen at SportsMediaWatch.com, the 1.3 final round rating was down 10% in viewership from last year and the lowest since 2013.

Ratings and viewership have now declined for twelve straight final round PGA windows on broadcast TV, a streak that dates back to Super Bowl Sunday. Nine of those 12 telecasts have hit a multi-year low in one or both measures.

At least lead-in coverage Sunday was unchanged!

Lead-in coverage on Golf Channel had a 0.3 (-17%) and 385,000 (-23%) on Saturday and a 0.4 (flat) and 560,000 on Sunday (+4%).

This week there was good news on the round one/new format Zurich Classic front:

'17 Masters TV: 1.41 Strokes Per Minute, Ratings Analyzed

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There is still much to consider from this year's Masters broadcasts, but before we consider what it all means for the future of golf on TV, a few stories related to the always-scrutinized telecast.

The annual Classic Sports TV compilation of shots shows that since tracking has taken place (2014), the 2017 Masters featured the most shots shown per minute (1.41). Kevin Chappell, 7th, was the highest finishing golfer not to be seen.

As for the ratings decreases, Joel Beall at GolfDigest.com talked to former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson who thinks the lovely weather in much of the northeast cut into the number of folks watching.

"Good weather is a killer in swing months. In the fall, people are sneaking in one last trip to the park, and in the spring, it's more pronounced, going outside for the first time," Pilson says. "It was a gorgeous day in the Northeast, where 20 percent of America's households are located. I had to struggle to stay inside myself."

Interestingly, Pilson did not think the number of people streaming cut into the main number. I think that may be a tough sell for those of us who all know people who...streamed instead of watching on a conventional television.

2017 Masters Ratings Wrap: Final Round Down 11%, ESPN Streaming Way Up

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As with ESPN's ratings drop, I suspect some context is needed to fully understand the drop in CBS ratings thar surprises a bit given the quality of the leaderboard. However, with the exceptional coverage online that can stream in places never before imagined, it would seem inevitable that ratings should decline.

On the other hand, perhaps this is an opening for a serious dialogue about how golf is presented on television.

Either way, let's start with Austin Karp's Tweets for SBJ:

 

ESPN's ratings were down but they did reveal streaming numbers that would suggest audience went to other means of watching. For immediate release:

Masters Tournament Coverage Earns ESPN’s Highest Streaming Numbers Ever

ESPN wrapped up its live coverage of the first and second rounds of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Friday, April 7, with its highest streaming numbers ever for the two days.

Golf fans streamed a record 25.8 million total minutes, a five percent increase from 2016, and the two-day average minute audience of 46,812 was up three percent from the 2016 record of 45,313. Friday’s second round stream from 3-7:30 p.m. ET earned a record average minute audience of 49,038 viewers.

The success story for the Masters on ESPN digital platforms also included a record two-day average of 961,000 unique visitors to golf content on the ESPN App, an increase of 34 percent over 2016. Also, a two-day average of 1.3 million daily unique visitors went to golf content on ESPN.com. Across all ESPN digital platforms, the two-day average minute audience of 23,000 people on golf content was a 14 percent increase from 2016.

ESPN’s live telecast of the second round of the Masters on Friday earned a 1.8 rating, averaging 2.603 million viewers. The telecast peaked at a 2.0 rating between 6-6:30 p.m. Last year’s telecast of the second round earned a 2.2 rating and an average viewership of 3.060 million viewers. 

Orlando, Fla., was the nation’s highest-rated metered market with a 4.0 rating for Friday’s telecast, followed by Greenville, S.C., at 3.9; San Diego at 3.2; and Greensboro, N.C., and Norfolk, Va., tied at 3.0.s

Completing the top 10 metered markets were Louisville, Ky., at 2.9; Cleveland and Memphis, tied at 2.8; and Tampa-St. Petersburg and Oklahoma City, tied at 2.7.

The Friday telecast completed ESPN’s two days of live Masters coverage, but SportsCenter and ESPN.comwill continue to report from the event throughout the weekend.

 Golf Channel's debut of Jack following Live From The Masters went well:

Last night’s 1st episode of Jack (.24 overnight rating) matched 2 of 3 episodes of Arnie, which premiered following the 2014 Masters. This makes Jack the highest-rated Golf Films project in three years, exceeding 4 other projects in that span (Payne, Arnie & Me, Crenshaw: A Walk Through Augusta, ‘86). Live+3 final data will be available later this week. Episode 2 of Jack premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET.