LIV Golf is holding high-level talks with the television network Fox Sports about the possibility of reaching an agreement for the Saudi league’s tournaments to be broadcast by this network, according to Sports Business Journal, a media outlet specialising in economic and media matters, published this week.
What is still unclear is the nature of the agreement, that is, whether there will be a free rights transfer or if there will be any expenditure by the network aligned with Donald Trump, recently elected for the second time as President of the United States. Similarly, it is unknown whether the tournaments will be broadcast on Fox, FS1, or a mix of both.
Scott O’Neil, the main candidate to become the new CEO of LIV Golf replacing Greg Norman, has been in Las Vegas this week for the Crypto.com The Showdown, resolved with the victory of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
In fact, it is reported from Las Vegas that O’Neil played the Monday pro-am before the tournament with Alan Gold, head of sports media at CAA Evolution, the media arm of CAA Sports. CAA has been advising LIV on several fronts since the beginning of the year. Additionally, in his pro-am group was also Jordan Bazant, executive vice president of business development and media at Fox Sports.
The broadcasting of LIV events by the Fox network would be a step forward for the circuit. Let’s remember that in the last two years, the TV rights holder for LIV was The CW, a network with a potential reach of 120 million households in the United States, although its audience figures over the last two years were minimal. In the LIV tournament at The Greenbrier in August, Jon Rahm and Koepka faced off in the final stretch, but it only had an average of 165,000 viewers. There was the possibility of extending the agreement for a third year with The CW, but this possibility has been declined by both parties.
LIV Golf drew up its schedule for 2025 with a new television agreement in mind. While the 2024 season ended in Dallas in the third week of September, it is expected that in 2025 it will end in August, before a network like Fox launches its college football and NFL programming. The LIV schedule in 2025 is expected to include more international tournaments than American ones.
It wouldn’t be the first time Fox and LIV have considered an agreement. Golfweek reported in September 2022 that LIV was close to a deal with Fox to be broadcast on FS1. This possibility was also speculated in 2023, but ultimately nothing came of it.
Fox has long been seen as a partner in tune with LIV, as NBC, CBS, ABC, and ESPN have ties with the PGA Tour and the PGA of America for their events. Several media outlets reported earlier this year that LIV had also held talks with Warner Bross. We will see if the third time’s the charm, if the agreement is reached, on what terms, and if it helps to raise LIV’s poor audience in the United States.
