Ratings Up For First Two PGA Tour Hawaii Events

Steve Elling at MorningRead.com follows up on the state of the Golf Channel-IATSE labor dispute with some insightful behind-the-scenes color as Thursday kicks off coverage from La Quinta and Hawaii.

Meanwhile, ratings for the strike-impacted Sony were up despite the limited production values.

VIEWERSHIP: Sunday’s Final Round of @SonyOpenHawaii was Golf Channel’s most-watched live coverage in a decade from this event. 524K average viewers, +86% vs. 2017 and +13% vs. 2016.

— Golf Channel PR (@GolfChannelPR) January 18, 2018

And this from Sports Media Watch on the Sentry TOC the week prior, with an increase despite the runaway win.

Final round coverage of the PGA Tournament of Champions had a 0.42 rating and 624,000 viewers on Golf Channel last Sunday, up 8% in ratings and 3% in viewership from last year (0.39, 608K) but down 19% and 22% respectively from Jordan Spieth‘s win in 2016 (0.52, 797K).

Third round action the previous day had a 0.37 (+48%) and 544,000 (+34%).

"Golf Channel, union still at odds as strike continues"

We'll find out during CareerBuilder Challenge and Mitsubishi Electric (PGA Tour Champions) coverage just how impacted coverage is, but I suspect we won't see anything like Sunday's Sony Open telecast.

Martin Kaufmann writing for Golfweek.com with this update on the strike against Golf Channel by the union representing the production crews.

“Our contingency plans are fully operational …,” Golf Channel spokesman David Schaefer said. “We will continue to deliver coverage with this week’s full slate of tournaments, as well as support the union members who have chosen to come back to work.”

The dispute between Golf Channel and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents about 350 technicians, has been simmering for several years.

Randy Koury, a Golf Channel cameraman and union steward, said that the technicians already were unhappy with two changes Golf Channel made to pay and benefits four years ago, after it was folded into the NBC Sports Group: cutting the work day from 10 hours to 8 hours – effectively a 20 percent pay cut – and eliminating catering of two meals without increasing the per diem.

Koury said those changes “were the tipping point” that led the technicians to unionize.

Golf On TV: Is It Time For More Second Screen Analysis?

Martin Kaufmann at Golfweek poses a fair question following last week's Hero World Challenge, where Morning Drive and Golf Central pre-game coverage followed Tiger Woods from the range through his first few shots.

As Kaufmann notes, the more analytical, observational coverage reminded him that most golf broadcasting is forced to state the obvious--Frank Chirkinian's worst nightmare--depriving viewers of more meaningful insights. On "eavesdropping" on Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo and Trevor Immelman's discussions, Kaufmann writes...

From time to time, I’ve broached the idea of testing anchor-less coverage – just smart golf guys talking golf. There wouldn’t be any play-by-play because we can see what’s happening, but there might be a need for enhanced graphics.

There’s some precedent for this. Three months ago I pointed to an MLB Network experiment called a SABRcast – a play on sabermetrics – in which four analysts “called” a game in San Francisco from a studio in New Jersey. They didn’t do play-by-play; instead, their conversation was topical, based heavily on analytics. The conversation was smart and insightful, just as it was last week as Chamblee, Nobilo and Immelman watched Woods.

Kaufmann goes on to suggest it's time for a second screen alternative that let's golf fans stream or choose the feed analysis they want. Thoughts?

Joe Buck On Calling Golf, Jack Buck As America's Guest

If you're enjoying his always strong play-by-play on the baseball playoffs, you'll enjoy Ryan Asselta's Golf.com interview with Fox Sports' Joe Buck.

Besides noticeably more humility about the difficulty of covering golf, I loved this anecdote about his legendary father's passion for playing from city to city.

You were very close to your dad, legendary broadcaster Jack Buck. How much was golf a part of his life?

My dad was an awful golfer, but he loved it. And I saw from a very young age what a release golf was for him. So once I started covering baseball and was on that tour, well, if you're in Houston for three days, you play River Oaks. If you're in Chicago, you go play Medinah. In San Francisco, you play Olympic. We set up a golf tour that Tim Finchem himself couldn't have set up. It was awesome.

HatCam The Next Golf Television Innovation?

Fun stuff here from Golfweek.com's Martin Kaufmann on the recent PGA Tour trial of HatCam, a technology similar to one Golf Channel tried earlier this year.

While the current version looks way too big for today's players to safely feel comfortable wearing on the brim of their caps, a smaller one is in development and, at the very least, could be pretty cool on a caddie's cap.

HatCam weighs just 65 grams, and Greg Roberts of ActionStreamer said a smaller version “about the size of a money clip” is in the final stages of development. HatCam has a self-contained battery, is controlled remotely and has MEMS gyroscopes that minimize the bouncing effect in point-of-view transmissions.

Golf Channel tested a similar idea in January, attaching a tiny camera to the hat of Mark Zyons, Billy Andrade’s caddie. It was a worthy experiment, but the constant movement was disorienting. The HatCam seems much more promising, based on video it captured at the Web.com Tour Championship. Scott Gutterman, VP of digital operations for the PGA Tour, said HatCam could be used more in the future in pro-ams and practice rounds, though no decisions have been made.

A demo from the Web.com Tour Championship:

JT Wins The First CJ Cup In Playoff Interrupted By Expired Feed

First, the good news. Justin Thomas won the inaugural CJ Cup in a playoff over Marc Leishman to cap off a breakthrough season (Will Gray's report here). Wait, no, to kick off the new season. Either way, he's very pleased to be shutting down for a while to enjoy a well-earned vacation.

Also, wasn't it great to see CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-Hyun on the 18th tee to help with the playoff draw? Still fresh off a pardon and a little time in the slammer, the Chairman seems to have recovered from a kidney transplant.

The highlights:

On the not so positive front, there was the collapse of Golf Channel's feed as players were headed to the second playoff hole and the announce team was reiterating the "big feel" of the event. Unfortunately, someone at the event forgot to extend the satellite window.

A statement from Golf Channel:

The satellite path of the television feed provided by tournament organizers stopped feeding at 2:30 a.m. ET. Golf Channel personnel immediately alerted the tournament production group to the problem. We apologize to our loyal viewers who stayed up late to watch coverage live. The CJ Cup at Nine Bridges playoff will be available shortly in its entirety via Golf Channel Digital and will be replayed on Golf Channel today from 6-10 p.m. ET.

Bones Will Eventually Work A Mickelson Grouping

Golf World's John Strege catches up with Jim "Bones" Mackay about his first summer working for NBC/Golf Channel and gets rave reviews from producer Tommy Roy.

Besides sharing some insights into surprises about the on-course reporting gig, Bones addresses Strege's question that many have asked: will Bones cover his old boss, Phil Mickelson?

Mackay has not yet been assigned a grouping with Mickelson in it, notwithstanding the fact that from a golf fan’s viewpoint, it would qualify as must-see TV, to resurrect an old NBC slogan. Roy has not ruled it out in the future. “I think the day will come when enough time has passed to do it,” Roy said.

His concern in the near term is the potential for a distraction caused by the vocal few in a crowd who consider “mashed potatoes” imperative to a tournament sound track and might be inspired to weigh in on the Mickelson-Mackay parting.

“One thing we want to be cognizant of is that we don’t want to put anybody in a bad spot,” Mackay said.

PGA Tour, Golf Channel With Some Good Ratings News

The Tour Championship final numbers haven't been posted, but the two preceding PGA Tour playoff events demonstrated nice ratings spikes, reports Paulsen at Sports Media Watch. (Love that he still calls is the Western, but this is indeed, the BMW now.)

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Western Open delivered 1.9 million viewers on NBC Sunday afternoon, up 23% from last year (1.5M), up 6% from 2015 (1.7M) and the largest audience for the tournament since 2012, when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson finished in the top three (3.6M).

Ratings increased 25% (from 1.00 to 1.25) and also hit a multi-year high.

The Dell Technologies on Labor Day weekend was the highest rated since 2013 for Justin Thomas' win.

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour at Boston earned a 2.0 rating and 2.9 million viewers on NBC Monday afternoon, up a third in ratings and 27% in viewership from last year (1.5, 2.3M) and flat and down 1% respectively from 2015 (2.0, 3.0M).

Golf Channel posted its second most watched third quarter, exceeded only by last year's Olympic-fueled August.

For Immediate Release:

Golf Channel Digital Records Highest Quarter of Streaming Consumption Ever, Marking 11th Straight Quarter of Year-Over-Year Growth
 
Golf Channel Continues to Rank as No. 1 Most-Affluent Audience in All of Television in Total Day and Primetime
 
The Open, Slate of Women’s Golf Events, FedExCup Playoffs
and World Long Drive Highlight 3rd Quarter Viewership
 
ORLANDO, Fla. (September 28, 2017) – Golf Channel posted its 2nd most-watched third quarter on record after drawing 116,000 average viewers in Total Day, up 2% vs. 2015. Trailing 2016 with golf’s inclusion in the Rio Olympics, 2017’s third quarter was down 3% YOY and up 5% YOY when excluding Olympic content. This record viewership in a non-Olympic year was driven in part by The Open, a slate of premier women’s golf events, and the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs. Golf Channel also continued the network’s run in drawing the most-affluent audience in all of television in both Total Day and Primetime, according to data released by The Nielsen Company.
 
GOLF CHANNEL THIRD QUARTER VIEWERSHIP SINCE JOINING
NBC SPORTS GROUP IN 2011:
2017                116,000
2016                120,000                       -3% (+5% excluding Rio Olympics content)
2015                114,000                       +2%
2014                106,000                       +9%
2013                112,000                       +4%
2012                102,000                       +14%
2011                85,000                         +36%
2010                74,000                         +57%
 
GOLF CHANNEL DIGITAL POSTS RECORD STREAMING CONSUMPTION
Golf Channel Digital already has posted its highest quarter of streaming consumption ever with third quarter through Wed., Sept. 27 drawing a total of 171.2 million minutes (with an additional three days of streaming the 2017 Presidents Cup still to come in Golf Channel Digital’s third quarter). Third quarter is currently up 16% vs. 2016 third quarter in total live minutes streamed, which includes 2016 Rio Olympics content (up 58% vs. 2016 excluding Olympic content).
 
 
ADDITIONAL VIEWERSHIP NOTES FOR THIRD QUARTER, 2017

·       2017 FedExCup Playoffs: Total Audience Delivery (TAD) for Golf Channel on NBC’s coverage of the last three FedExCup Playoff events was 2.137 million viewers, up 13% vs. 2016. And Golf Channel’s TAD for live early-round coverage of all four FedExCup Playoff events delivered 615k average viewers, up 27% vs. 2016.
·       The Open: This is the second year of NBC Sports’ coverage of The Open.

o   The final round’s TAD for Golf Channel on NBC was 4.97 million average viewers, up 1% vs. 2016.

o   Golf Channel on NBC’s linear broadcasts household rating (3.23) was the second highest for golf’s 2017 major championship final rounds: PGA Championship (3.22) and U.S. Open (3.12).

o   NBC Sports’ Digital platforms delivered 100.8 million live minutes streamed (+96% YOY), 917k unique devices (+51% YOY), and 34k average minute audience (+92% YOY). Golf Channel Digital for The Open week totaled 42 million page views (+12% YOY), the most for any week on record, and 8.9 million total visits (+18% YOY)

·       Women’s Golf:

o   KPMG Women’s PGA Championship: Seen by a total audience of 6.58 million viewers across Golf Channel and NBC, it marks the largest total audience for the event on record and second largest for women’s majors in 2017. Final round coverage on NBC posted a .6 US household rating (+18% YOY) and 840k average viewers (+21% YOY), making it the most-watched telecast in the event’s history (2006-2017), both ranking 2nd for women’s majors in 2017.

o   RICOH Women’s British Open: Seen by a total audience of 7.01 million viewers across Golf Channel and NBC, the RICOH Women’s British Open posted its largest total audience since 2005 (7.12 million), and was the largest total audience for the 2017 women’s majors. Final round coverage on NBC posted a .78 U.S. household rating (+22% YOY) and 1.1 million average viewers (+28% YOY), both ranking 1st for women’s majors in 2017, despite its morning/early afternoon timeslot.

o   2017 Women’s Major Championships:

§  RICOH Women’s British Open (NBC): Final Round: .78 rating, 1.1 million avg. viewers; Four-Day Total Viewers: 7.01 million

§  KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (NBC): Final Round .60 rating, 840k avg. viewers; Four-Day Total Viewers: 6.58 million

§  U.S. Women’s Open (FOX): Final Round .56 rating, 790k viewers; Four-Day Total Viewers: 5.98 million

§  ANA Inspiration (Golf Channel): Final Round .35 rating, 551k viewers; Four-Day Total Viewers: 3.62 million

§  The Evian Championship (Golf Channel): Final Round .13 rating, 181k viewers; Four-Day Total Viewers: 3.13 million

o   Solheim Cup: Seen by a total audience of 7.3 million viewers across Golf Channel and NBC, the Solheim Cup posted the largest total audience for women’s golf since the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open on ESPN/NBC. Golf Channel’s live coverage of the final day drew 795k average viewers, becoming the most-watched women’s golf event on cable in the last eight years, since the final day of the 2009 Solheim Cup

·       FEHERTY 7th SEASON:

o   Became the most-watched season to date for both Live+Same Day (202k average viewers) and Live+3 Days (298k average viewers) for premiere episodes.

o   Feherty’s 100th Episode (July 24) was the 5th most-watched premiere episode of all time, trailing only both weeks of season premieres with Jordan Spieth (March 2016) and Phil Mickelson (March 2017).

o   The season finale with reigning PGA champion and eventual FedExCup champion Justin Thomas (263k average viewers-Live+3, Sept 4) became the 5th most-watched premiere in season 7, behind both season premieres with Phil Mickelson (640k average viewers-Live+3, 616k average viewers-Live+3), the April premiere with Matthew McConaughey (299k average viewers-Live+3) and the 100th Episode in July (421k average viewers-Live+3).

·       World Long Drive Association: Golf Channel expanded its schedule to feature three televised events in 2017, including the Clash in the Canyon (June 6, Mesquite, Nev.), Mile High Showdown (July 25, Denver, Colo.) and the Volvik World Long Drive Championship (Sept 5-6, Thackerville, Okla.).

o   Clash in the Canyon: 1.05 million unique viewers across all telecasts during premiere week of the newly televised event. (2nd Quarter)

o   Mile High Showdown: 1.34 million unique viewers across all telecasts during premiere week of the newly televised event.

o   Volvik World Long Drive Championship: 2.15 million unique viewers across all telecasts during premiere week, up 32% vs. 2016’s World Championship and the most-viewed World Long Drive Championship week in its five-year history on Golf Channel.

One other TV note: the PGA Tour and Twitter have renewed their streaming agreement after year one of providing pre-PGA Tour live coverage.

PGA Tour Pros Say Golf Is Healthier Than The Ratings Suggest

While Nielsen ratings are by no means a measure of a sports' popularity, I do think it's fascinating to see how much players quoted in this Karen Crouse New York Times piece suggest the game is healthier than flatlining ratings indicate.

“TV ratings are really not a measure of whether golf is popular,” said Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion.

His view is widely held by the pros, who see ratings as a flawed indicator of golf’s reach. Television is the pretty packaging. The substance of golf is the indelible — and wholly organic — image from the end of the P.G.A. Championship, when Jordan Spieth and a handful of other players stuck around long after they were finished so they could be among the first people to congratulate Thomas.

The show of sportsmanship highlighted golf’s capacity for competition and friendship. It made golf look cool and fun, the Tour veteran Charley Hoffman said, adding, “I think it can’t do anything but help the game.”

And...

Topgolf, a booming entertainment franchise with roughly three dozen locations around the country and several more to open soon, is an entryway to golf for adults. It offers a more relaxed approach and easy access to the game.

Do the barefoot man and the woman in stilettos count as golfers? Paul Casey believes so.

“They are still golf fans, they are still absorbing, or taking in — consuming — the game,” he said, adding, “I don’t think the game has any issues whatsoever. I just think it’s changing and it’s organic. I think it’s cool.”

R.I.P. Don Ohlmeyer

What a stellar remembrance from the New York Times' Richard Sandomir covering the life and times of longtime television producer and executive Don Ohlmeyer, who passed away Sunday at 72.

For the golf world, he'll always be remembered for his ambitious, slightly crazy idea to start the Skins Game.

As the executive producer of NBC Sports for five years, he elevated the quality of its broadcasts and gave it some of the swagger of ABC’s sports division. But he was disappointed when the opportunity to oversee NBC’s broadcasts of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow was scuttled when President Jimmy Carter refused to allow the United States to participate because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Two years later, he left NBC to create Ohlmeyer Communications, where he continued to produce sports programs like the Skins Game, a golf exhibition; television movies like the Emmy Award-winning “Special Bulletin,” a story about nuclear terrorism that was presented as if it were happening in real time; and musical events like “Season’s Greetings: An Evening With John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra.”

John Strege at Golf World with more on Ohlmeyer's legacy in golf, which also includes sons Chris (producer) and Todd (college golf coach).

A SHOTLINKcast For Pro Golf?

While golf stats are certainly different than baseball numbers in predicting performance, they are getting more interesting and visually attractive.

With the PGA Tour and Microsoft chipping away at some of the hurdles, we are not far from having more presentable stats that have meaning and add to our enjoyment of a telecast. (Golf course scatter charts and numbers are already there and have begun to be incorporated at times.)

With this and a recent MLB "SABRcast" in mind, Martin Kaufmann of Golfweek makes some strong points on the need for golf to give such a broadcast a go.

The announcers didn’t dwell on balls and strikes, or even talk much about balls in play. The running discussion was more topical. They delved into the reasons behind Giants catcher Buster Posey’s declining pitch-framing skills and his offensive performance when catching vs. playing first base; factors in the Cubs’ lackluster play compared to last season; the difference of pinch-hitting against starters vs. relievers; and the Giants lack of power and the types of free-agent sluggers who might excel in their spacious park

PGA Tour Makes The Right Call To Stick With The Current Network TV Deal Through 2021

We all want to see golf on television adapt to the times and improve. While Friday’s network opt-out deadline came and went as an opportunity for the PGA Tour to shake things up, they chose not to do so.

Very shrewd move, Commissioner Jay Monahan.

For fans, the only intrigue in a possible opt-out would have centered around Monahan’s desire to move the look and feel of golf into the future. But the cost of risking partnerships and jumping in with new partners was too great, with no clear sign of a positive outcome for such a move at a time ratings are down.

Besides, significant progress has come with various tracer technologies, HD, employing Trackman, super slow motion replays, Playing Through, live look-ins on breaking events and alternate viewing options like Amen Corner Live.

Despite the views of some at PGA Tour headquarters reportedly pushing for change, Monahan made the right call to put off any shake-up for a few years while the PGA Tour revamps its schedule. (Golf Channel’s current deal to televise also expires in 2021, with no opt-out). This also allows them to get a better sense of how the cable vs. streaming wars play out and strike a better deal going forward.

Consider just some of the reasons Monahan made the right call (The PGA Tour confirmed the contract is going forward and may be addressed at the Tour Championship):

—Schedule madness. The upcoming schedule revamp has way too many open-ended questions and uncertainties to have renegotiated deal terms or welcomed-in other networks. It’s going to be tricky enough to work out the changes with current network partners, sponsors and players, why add more headache?

—Our Future Is Not Quite Here Yet. Many believe streaming is the future and cord cutting will collapse the cable model, but has any major sports property said goodbye to guaranteed network or cable money to take their chances with disruptive mediums? Golf should be about the last sport to do so because…

—The Audience Is Not Ready. While many younger fans are prepared to watch golf via streaming, a majority of golf’s demographic still watches via cable. That demographic hurdle is not changing fast enough to justify taking a tour event away from a network and putting it on Amazon or YouTube or Twitter.  Unless the tour is in the business of setting precedent over making money for its players.

—Sponsors Are Not Ready. You might get a more engaged audience of 180,000 watching the final round of the Dell Technologies on Apple and Amazon TV’s. You might even get one that directly taps that sponsor’s audience, but nearly all tournaments would still rather take their chances reaching a larger number of eyeballs. The blue-chip brands the PGA Tour loves (and who like golf) want to see their logos on big screens in bars and golf courses. They still want to invest in something reaching more than a very targeted audience. The current deal accomplishes this for the people who fund the product.

—Opportunity To Change The Tone. I’ve heard no shortage of players and PGA Tour brass suggest angrily they could be doing way better. Now, this ignores that things are pretty incredible right now, and definitely ignores the post-Tiger ratings decline. But this attitude also mystifies countless network types and marketing world figures who cannot fathom how the PGA Tour believes they hold the stronger hand in the post-sports rights fee bubble. With a good deal for all sides in place through 2021, Monahan can use his personality to repair relationships and create a dialogue amongst his media partners that satisfies their needs and the desires of the Tour’s fanbase.

—Alignment Possibilities. There is a lingering bitterness over the sense that the PGA Tour left money on the table by locking into Golf Channel through 2021—a deal many saw as just as big of a risk for Golf Channel at the time. This rage clouds the thinking of many who disregard how simple it is for fans, bartenders and anyone with a cable package to find PGA Tour golf on a Thursday, Friday or weekend morning. But as the media world changes, not opting out allows the PGA Tour to gain a few more years of perspective and data. In two years they can better align possible weekday partners with weekend partners in a new deal or spend hundreds of millions starting their own channel. Or, pursue different terms with Golf Channel that can serve as an anger-management soother for Ponte Vedra’s disillusioned Vice Presidential core. Win-win!