2016 PGA Ratings Down, Still Second Largest Golf Audience
In the good news/bad news files, the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol was the lowest non-Olympic influenced rating in at least 35 years, but the 3.4/5.3 million viewer total made it the second largest golf audience of the year, edging the U.S. Open on Fox.
From Paulsen's Sports Media Watch report:
The 3.4 rating is tied as the lowest for final round coverage of the event in at least 35 years, matching 2012 and ahead of only 2008 (2.8). Unlike 2012 and 2008, the previous two Olympic years, this year’s coverage did not face head-to-head competition from the Games.
Despite the lower numbers, Sunday’s telecast delivered the largest golf audience of the year outside of The Masters — edging the final round of the U.S. Open on FOX in June (5.1M). I
TNT's numbers were down across the board:
Shifting to cable, TNT scored 1.4 million for its expanded third and final round coverage on Sunday, down 24% from last year (1.8M) but up 16% from 2014 (1.2M). The network also pulled 1.4 million the previous day (-10%) and 1.3 million on Friday (-35%), completing a clean sweep of declines that began with a 30% drop last Thursday.
The Ricoh British Women's Open did better than expected considering it was up against PGA re-start play, reports Paulsen.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 08:13 PM
Reader Comments (19)
Moving to May would shorten the span of the majors by a month, and introduce a large gap between the final major and the playoffs. It wouldn't guarantee fewer rain delays, as May is just as stormy as August. A May event could be a problem for some of the northern courses which don't really green up until April. An abnormally cool spring would make course preparation much more stressful. A move to May would mess up the order of the majors, which golf fans (avid and casual alike) relate to. That would be a huge turnoff. The move would necessitate returning the Players to March, where it would compete with the NCAA Tournament. So it wouldn't benefit either the PGA Tour or the PGA of America.
The PGA's spot is fine, and it can flex every four years to avoid the Olympics by moving up or back in the schedule a week or two. Not a big deal. As far as the event itself goes, the history is rich, the players love it, and golf fans love it. Only the media wants to s*** on it. Typical.
Everyone should take time to read your special take on PGA timing. Because it's better and smarter than what John Feinstein has to say about it.
And Webster, validity of RealTalker's points notwithstanding, that's a pretty low bar, isn't it?
Is the anything worse than a British Open played on a parkland course? Maybe a PGA Championship or a US Open played on a parkland course?
I get your point, but the course in England was really interesting, and the proximity to London made for very large crowds, in spite of iffy weather. I really enjoyed the WBO, and the last 9 was a real ''back 9 on Sunday'', offering any number of possible outcomes.
Plus I read somewhere that the 2020 Olympics start on something like July 21 so depending on when they schedule the men and the women' competitions they might be able to slide right in between the Open and the PGA or at least only have one or the other adjust by a weel or so.