Rough Ratings Run For West Coast, Florida Swings
Other than Tiger's absence and not enough Phil on leaderboards, it's hard to pinpoint the network ratings decline for PGA Tour events of late.
Sports Media Watch's Paulsen notes that six straight PGA Tour Sundays--Waste Management to Valspar--have shown ratings declines, as have nine of the last 11 final rounds.
Certainly the cord cutting eating into all ratings is in play, yet Golf Channel's cable lead-in coverage isn't seeing the level of decline that the network broadcast ratings are experiencing.
There were also commanding third round leads in nearly all of the last six, which never helps attract the general sports fans who might stumble on golf and stick with a close final round.
Either way, this is of note in a year the PGA Tour may opt out of its current network deal to re-shape the schedule and/or bring in additional broadcast partners. From Paulsen:
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour at Tampa Bay had a 1.5 final rating and 2.3 million viewers last Sunday, down 25% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year (2.0, 2.9M), down 29% and 26% respectively from 2015 (2.1, 3.1M) and the least-watched final round of the tournament since 2011 (1.9M).
Not counting lead-in windows on Golf Channel, the past six final round PGA Tour telecasts have declined from last year. Sunday’s telecast was the third of those to hit a multi-year low.
At least Feherty is turning in some nice ratings. Part 2 of his chat with Phil drew a stout .27, 442k viewer average up 26% over last year's Jordan Spieth Part 2 show. This makes it the most watched Feherty ever.
Friday, March 17, 2017 at 09:27 PM
Reader Comments (43)
Golf Central: nine week ave. 2017 - 41,000 viewers any given minute versus 2016 - 95,000 viewers, a 57% decline. This is in contrast to Morning Drive numbers: 2017 - 51,000 v 2016 - 56,000, only an 8% decline.
source: Nielsen, Inc.
In past years, the numbers for Golf Central were always at least double those for Morning Drive and even triple.
Nowadays they are consistently less than Morning Drive.
TOP 5 RATED MORNING DRIVE SHOWS 2016
1. Ryder Cup, Open Ch. week 94,000 (tie)
2. Players Ch. week 84,000
3. Masters week 82,000
4. US Open week 72,000
TOP 5 RATED MORNING DRIVE WEEKS SO FAR THIS YEAR:
1.Riviera 69,000
2.Pebble 65,000
3.Honda 58,000
4. Phoenix 55,000
5. WGC Mexico 53,000
Perhaps a cable news channel with a conservative bent, to rival Fox News, will take Golf Channel's spot on the "dial".
NBC crew is easier on the ears than CBS, but they don't show any more golf. The telecast was a few shots, a putt or two, and a commercial. Rinse, repeat. I did re-grip my putter, so I got something done.
Nevertheless, the duel between Cantlay and Hadwin was compelling golf on a worthy course. That should make for good viewing, but really, the audience is small, in desperate need of ED drugs, and will remain so.
If Cantlay didn't look and act like he was on the way to a root canal without anesthesia, he might have had the wit, even after his layoff, to not flail it away with a weak pass on the 18th right into the sand. From which he is currently hopeless. Lighten up, young man. You are near the top of your profession, with a bright future. Smile. And if you can't do that, at least fake it.
The value proposition from a viewer’s perspective, on the average Tour event, has been watered down. There are a number of aspects that contribute to this, such as the WGC’s gains diluted value (or cannibalized) with other Tour events. The large amount of money on Tour these days likely has a contributing factor once they have their pockets full they aren’t hungry anymore.
Looking at a typical PGA Tour leaderboards today compared to decades ago, I can’t help but see diluted value. That being the combined player value compared to PGA Tour leaderboards from decades ago.
So I picked two similar Tour events from different eras. I decided to look at the first Tour event in the Florida swing this year and the same one 25-years ago, the 1992 Doral Open. There has always been a thought that the first Tour event in Florida is when the PGA Tour really gets going… preparing for Augusta.
So looking into this year’s 2017 Honda Classic, with a deeper look at the top 10 finishers compared to the top 10 finishers in the 1992 Doral Open.
The top 10 players in the 2017 Honda Classic have a combined 14 PGA Tour victories and 1 Major Championship win.
The top 10 players in the 1992 Doral Open have a combined 131 PGA Tour victories and 15 Major Championship wins.
This is just one look at one comparable but I think there’s a pattern here… it affects my desire to watch golf on Sunday. I’d say the PGA Tour’s next package deal with network TV is in for a haircut.
Great post. Part of why I watch the women. Best players in the world every week.
Point taken. But...
The '92 Doral guys didn't have 15 majors at that time--they had 10, seven of them from two guys--Floyd and Nelson. You extrapolated out the entire careers of the top-10 guys instead of value as perceived in March '92. You then took leaderboard from present and froze the players at current stages of their careers. Present-day guys are horses in mid-stream, sort of how Couples was, value-wise, in 1992.
1992 Bay Hill, number of majors won, at that time, from top 10: Two--Jeff Sluman and Mark Brooks.
2016 Bay Hill, number of majors won, at that time, from top 10: Four--every trophy covered. Jason Day, Zach Johnson and Justin Rose.
Using your method, which has more value?
Having nitpicked your methodology, I agree with you in general--it's a diluted product.
Because the women's tour has several gaps in the schedule through the year, a lot of the top players show up together most weeks.
It's a question of spotting which top player is having a week off rather than which have shown up.
Five (at least) from the womens top ten ranked players are in the top top ten of the current tournament, the Bank of Hope Founders Cup, after 3 rounds today. Plus Stacy Lewis and Anna Nordquist.
So Sunday is interesting- almost every week.
Bill- climb down off of your "golf hating ledge". The game is hardly "irrelevant, it just finds itself competing with more and more things for attention.
As for Morning Drive.. When I want to watch it, I Tivo it, then skip thru most of the shows except for Shack's and Rosie's segments 0n Mondays and Tuesdays, and a few other special commentators or interviews during the week. The endless personal assessment commentary of the co-hosts turns me off. A little bit is ok, but it's over done. Have more pro guests or other people besides the hosts to provide content.
As for the show hosts, Cara is good, Gary has improved over the years, Ginella is good, DeMarco is worth listening to, Blackmar was interesting. The rest of the crew... I Fast Forward over.
One other thing... I know GC was created by Arnold, and when he died I could accept that GC would go over board on the tributes and melancholy. But this week... WOW!
What's the status on having Arnold declared Saint Arnold by the Pope?
I loved Arnold and wrote to him myself last year to ask him to send my Dad a Happy Birthday greeting for his 88th birthday, which he did and for which I will always be grateful and love him for. But really guys, enough is enough!
Isn't that the definition of irrelevant?
1/27 of 1% is considered a stout television rating? C'mon now. If that makes Part 2 of Phil the highest rated Feherty ever then that rating shows how few people actually watch the show.
Regards,
PunkFig
@Zokol - I agree completely with your analysis despite the nitpicking over who had what majors when. The reasons are many but I am surprised nobody has mentioned the entire WGC debacle, which nobody except the player agents and their financial advisors care about, and which has resulted in regular Tour events losing much of their star power as players need to balance their schedules. This week's API is a good example of that.
You are absolutely right, there’s no doubt a better snapshot of the 1992 Honda Classic would be to see how many PGA Tour wins and Major Championship victories the top 10 players had at that moment. As you pointed out there were 10 Major victories from that group at that time. That number is still staggering difference.
This is just one dart throw too… it would be an interesting to look at this type of metric to make a better comparable and prove out this theory.
irrelevant
[ih-rel-uh-vuh nt]
adjective
not relevant; not applicable or pertinent:
His lectures often stray to interesting but irrelevant subjects.
This snapshot of the number of PGA Tour victories, by the top 10 of both subject events at the end of the 1992 season is 101 PGA Tour Victories and 11 Majors. Keeping in mind post 1992 Doral Open, Couples went on to win the Masters and Kite won the US Open that year.
So the 2017 Honda Classic group can add to the list of PGA Tour and Major wins before the end of this year in order to get a better comparison.
But the point of diluted value in TV viewing is obvious… The networks need a ROI and the PGA Tour’s negotiating position relating to future network TV packages is weakening. The rating numbers are clear. The “Tiger Bubble” is over… if the PGA Tour were publicly traded, perhaps investors would start going short. Money in today’s PGA Tour purses is based, to some degree, on that Tiger Bubble. I would have to think a possible correction in PGA Tour prize money particularly in the lesser Tour events might follow.