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LIV Golf is back on YouTube.
Less than six months after signing a media rights agreement with The CW, LIV announced Friday that it has created a new pay-per-view streaming option to play on YouTube. In a statement announcing the decision, LIV said the PPV broadcast will cost $3 per tournament day, and will run in addition to the league’s agreement with The CW.
A LIV source indicated that The CW is aware of the decision to introduce the pay-per-view model, and that the decision does not violate any of the league’s pre-existing broadcast agreements. The hope for LIV is to grow from the success first seen on YouTube in 2022, as the league has drawn championship fans with hundreds of thousands of views in the US and abroad. The league already has a direct-to-consumer subscription platform, LIV Golf Plus, which the PPV channel will mirror. LIV will continue to be broadcast for free on the CW app.
The announcement comes on the heels of a rocky few weeks for Saudi-backed starters and their first-time sports broadcasters. At LIV’s latest event in Tulsa, CW affiliates in several major markets dropped the league broadcast minutes before the three-way playoff featuring Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson began; Instead, opt for Sunday evening news programming or sitcom reruns. that The decision came after weeks of radio silence from either The CW or LIV on the league’s broadcast ratings, which dropped about 24 percent from the season-opening broadcast in Mayakoba to the second championship in Tucson before both sides stopped reporting.
In the absence of reliable viewing data, it is difficult to determine how to interpret LIV performance both internally and within the CW. The two parties are believed to be operating under a revenue share in 2023, with potential escalators based on league performance. But ad revenue is tied to viewership, and the late efforts in this regard may have contributed to the odd timing of LIV’s decision, which comes just after the halfway point of the league season.
In any case, the decision to launch a direct-to-consumer platform comes at a time when many sports leagues and networks are trying to do the same. At last week’s prequel festivities — an annual presentation networks give to advertisers to attract spending — ESPN announced that it will be launching its direct-to-consumer network in the coming months. The effort, which would essentially allow viewers to subscribe directly to ESPN rather than pay for it as part of a cable or broadcast package, represents the latest frontier in an effort to regain lost viewership in the broadcast era. On the league front, the NFL’s subscription service, NFL+, is seen as the gold standard for its ability to drive subscriptions from viewers who already pay the league for access to nationally televised games and NFL-licensed services like the Redzone channel.
In short, it’s good for leagues and networks to diversify their revenue streams, especially as viewers continue to flock to alternative viewing options. Which especially Good job for LIV, which has struggled to wrangle in revenue streams of any kind in the year since its launch. So far, the league has struggled to find title sponsors for its leagues, individual player sponsors, or any team sponsorship that was thought to be a key component of the league’s long-term plans.
While questions remain about whether the direct-to-consumer effort will make a final impact, there is little doubt about YouTube’s suitability as a LIV partner. It was the home of LIV’s broadcasts during its first “beta test” season in 2022 and has garnered several million total views for the league in that time.
LIV will now take on a challenge that many Internet content creators face in the 21st century: getting viewers to pay for a product they used to get for free.