This Week In Golf Channel Ratings: Friday Shark Shootout...

...outpaces the final round ratings of PGA Tour's wraparound schedule events. I know, it's getting painful to see that just about anything beats the new-look PGA Tour's opening events. But it could be worse, you might be  a sponsor putting up millions for a PGA Tour event and having fewer eyeballs for your weekend coverage than a silly season event. Even events as silly as the seemingly moribund Franklin Templeton Shootout.

Son of the Bronx posts the latest numbers, which showed a slight increase overall for Golf Channel compared to last year at this time, with the top show a .2/256,000 viewers for Friday coverage of the Shark Shootout. (NBC aired the weekend play and those numbers are not posted.)

We discussed the concept that is Tim Finchem's year-round PGA Tour golf on the 19th Hole, though Mr. Sands' comment about "needing to miss" the sport did not make this edit:

Comments

[dbh]

Amen. The (real) Dan Hicks sums it up nicely:
https://www(dot)youtube.com/watch?v=rW9-FOLG-iA

[SGarrett]

I think the real story is bigger than the week to week details.

First, if you compare the total purses for the 6 fall events, they amounted to $38.0 million vs $31.3 million up 21% year over year.

Second, if you compare the average World Rating Points (WRP) per field (used by OWGR to approximate field strength contributed by top 200 ranked players in the fields) the six 2013 fields averaged 223 per event up from 171 a year earlier (up 31%).

Finally, since Son of Bronx detail history does not extend back a full year (starts in Feb), the best possible comparison I can make for Golf Channel viewership data is year over year (since SofB publishes year ago aggregates).

Here are two such comparisons:

For the exact weeks (2013 vs 2012) when the six fall events were contested (they were staggered by a week from year to year) the comparison (24/7 average viewers) is 68,500 vs 48,167 (up 42% from year earlier).

For a broader comparison, the past 10 weeks (second week of Oct to date) shows exactly the same percentage comparison (up 42%) 65,700 vs 46,100. I omitted the first week of October since it compared this year's President's Cup week with an off week in 2012 - total viewership up 151% (two and a half times 2012).

So, the point is: Is anyone unhappy with the fall of 2013? Players played for much larger purses. Fans got to see stronger fields. And, fall viewership on Golf Channel is up way more in the fall months (year to year) than the rest of the year (average Jan-Sep 2013 viewership was up 10% year over year).

Is fall viewership in the US ever likely to match Jan-Sep? NO! That said, Golf Channel viewership this fall will be down about 33% from the annual average. Last fall it was down 52%. I'm sure that Golf Channel is happier with this year's numbers.

And, I'm guessing - given FInchem's comments about growth in foreign broadcast revenues being a BIG PART of overall revenue growth on PGA Tour for the past decade - that he is primarily interested in how the international (not US) fall audiences might grow in the future. It will be interesting to see how the mix of fall events changes over the next decade.

[StephenP]

SGarrett, you are on a tear with all your recent excellent posts.. Observations backup up by NUMEROUS facts that made me look at the carping about the wrap around PGA Tour season in a different light. If it is better for the players ($$) and the ratings (UP) then it has to be a success by any measure, except maybe viewer fatigue by not having an off season......

I at least peeked into all the fall events on TV, so I am guilty as charged.

[OWGR Fan]

At least for Saturday I would imagine some of the bump, as really small as it is, when it comes to golf ratings were due to the lack of college football games on and bad weather in the many parts of the northeast with its condensd population. That said any bump in golf tv ratings is welcome.

[what about]

ranking.com rank

Tigerwoods.com 3592
TGC 8672
Golfwrx 10502
Golf.com 1392
Pgatour.com 820
Golfweek.com 19739
Hockeyfights.com 11823
TWfoundation 85999
Bleacherreport.com 54
Geoffshackelford.com 124446

[Media driven]

It's nice that GC gives its people a lengthy break from being on air this time of year, but they could/should come up with better programming that Big Break re-runs and majors recaps. I miss the old Peter Kessler format where a pro sat for an hour and answered in-depth questions.

[Shady Golf]

Media,
That's Feherty's show, isn't it? I miss Kessler's show as well. Always did his homework and asked meaningful questions. Also has one of the greatest voices ever...

[meefer]

I haven't watched any televised golf since Dubai and can't really think of any tourney which will get the juices flowing until Feb.

[c]

I cant understand the carping and negativity re: the wrap around schedule, the ratings thereof etc. I mean seriously, where's the harm? If you're not interested, don't watch. If it doesn't work from a business point you can be sure that Finchem (love him or hate him, he's pretty dang astute as a business man) and/or the sponsors will go in another direction.

[SGarrett]

Excellent point c. What most commenters seem to miss is FInchem's slow but steady progression toward transforming PGA Tour into a World Tour.

Not long after taking office in 1994 he was instrumental in the formation of what is now the Federation of PGA Tours - which soon endorsed OWGR. As part of that agreement, hr allowed the OWGR formulation to be tweaked in favor of all the other tours by adding the Home Tour Points specification. Then - in 1999 - he unveiled the WGC's (which invited players off OWGR) and the majors also started to use OWGR as part of their invitations. While I was - for many years - appalled by the clear bias within OWGR, I eventually understood why Finchem had allowed it. He wanted to promote PGA Tour and the WGC's INTERNATIONALLY and - in order to gain greater foreign viewership - he needed a more international membership ON PGA TOUR.

That is why he so often touts broadening the international membership on PGATOur as one of his proudest achievements. Slowly, beginning right after the introduction of HTP, the composition of the top ranked players has changed - from highs of around 57 US players in the top 100 in the mid to late 1990's to recent lows of about 32 players in the top 100 around 2009 or so. Since then, the long downtrend seems to have bottomed - likely due to the incredible drawing power of the FedEx playoffs that has top ranked players from other tours literally flocking to PT membership and increasing OWGR payouts on tour DESPITE the negative impacts of HTP. Despite HTP, the tour has not been weakened by the influx of top ranked international players because most of them – like the top US players – are becoming members of PGA Tour.

So, what is he up to now? He launched PGA Tour latinoamerica in 2012, created PGA Tour Canada in 2013 (both wholly owned by PGA Tour) and has now announced a more complicated arrangement that will launch PGA Tour China in 2014. He has also launched the wrap around schedule and - in the process - CREATED a new class of official events. CIMB is the first FULLY SANCTIONED regular PGA Tour event to be contested outside the Americas - and the only event - besides the FE playoffs - that invites totally off of season ending FE point rankings (a new criteria that could become more important in the future). Also, HSBC is the only current international WGC – and now that it awards FE Points, it is suddenly far more attractive to PGA Tour members.

What else has he changed? Almost without any press coverage, PGA Tour has quietly made it EASY for top 100 ranked players who ARE NOT PGA Tour members to try for membership. In addition to the Web.com Tour finals inviting numbers 126-200 on the member FE points list plus 1-75 on the Web.com money list, invitations are also extended to non-member professionals who have earned as many FE Points as number 200 on the member listing. It is not a small group. Last year 22 non-members qualified via that group with the vast majority being ranked inside the OWGR top 100. However, only 5 chose to participate in the first year - and only one of them was inside the top 100 (Marcel Siem). Once this group begins to figure out that all they need is one high finish in a WC TF event in order to gain a PT card, I suspect more to opt for this route - and so does PGA Tour who originally projected WC TF fields of "about 144" but only realized fields of about 130 because this new group of possible entrants took a wait and see attitude. BTW, in just the first six events, four non-members have likely earned a 2014 WC TF invitation - Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Robert Karlsson, Brooks Koepka and Max Homa. Getting access to the WC Tour finals and the opportunity to earn one of the 25 PT cards awarded at that series is actually PRETTY DARNED EASY for most top 100 ranked non–members.

Tim Finchem and PGA Tour understand that growing international membership on PT is a strategy that will ensure that worldwide viewership of PGA Tour events will continue to grow in the future. In the first WC tour finals - a total of about 45 of the potential WC QS Finals participants (5 with high status already assured, passed on QS) were listed on either the PTLA or PT Canada money lists in 2013 (or both). All 45 secured some kind of status on WC, so these new feeder tours are already providing a stronger flow of Latin and Canadian members onto WC even though half 23 of the 45 were American. The same will undoubtedly happen via PT China. In a few years, more untested Asians will find their way to PT via that new route - in addition to the successful Asians that are invited to the WC Tour Finals because they matched number 200 on the member money list.

Finally, there is NO OFF SEASON in professional golf - regardless whether PT has a wrap around season or not - especially for highly ranked players. By ending in September, PGA Tour has now positioned its new "early season" in the midst of the season finales of the other tours. As Asian golf develops further, he can now selectively add more FULLY OFFICIAL ASIAN EVENTS to the fall as needed (probably a VERY FEW EVENTS with very high purses and invitations based on FE point standings) while perhaps supplementing them with local "opposite event" playing opportunities for the rest of the rank and file. International broadcast fees have apparently been THE BIGGEST FACTOR in revenue growth on tour for more than a decade. IMO – Finchem has now positioned the tour perfectly to CONTINUE THAT PURSUIT well into the future.