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In the end, the US Open proved to be a proper Hollywood story.
The City of Stars saw relative success win their biggest event in decades, and a victory came between two of the sport’s most famous (and beloved) stars. On a weekend full of drama (and turmoil), a nation of golf enthusiasts welcomed Windham Clark as its newest national champion.
Even if the LACC didn’t crown the iconic champion it was seeking from its biggest event neverThe club has welcomed one of the largest spectators for the US Open in some time. But the audience wasn’t without controversy — and that’s where we kick off this week’s Hot Mic.
business puzzle
It was here just a week ago when Hot Mic first reported that the USGA and NBC had worked together to reduce commercial interruptions during the US Open broadcasts by nearly 30 percent. It was, at the time, a huge development for a major championship broadcast that has been riddled with interruptions since NBC repurchased the rights from FOX in 2020. But once Thursday play began, it was clear the commercials would continue to be one of the central talking points of the week. tournament.
Sadly, NBC and the USGA agreed to limit promotions and interruptions only to the last two days of play, meaning the first two days of tournament coverage were brought to viewers with a complete commercial interruption. Fans at home quickly took notice and, as it had become a US Open tradition, took to social media to vent their displeasure.
like I tried to explain At that time, the situation was not conducive to success. NBC’s agreement with the USGA — a renegotiation of FOX’s albatross contract with the governing body — still leaves the network with too many ads to sell to turn a profit on the agreement. Until those numbers are recast, the only things that can save viewers are voluntary telecast rights from the USGA (unlikely), losing NBC accounting in pursuit of fewer commercials (it won’t happen), or an advertiser agreement from One side is to pay more for each ad (no!).
It is the bottleneck that leaves everyone upset. But there appears to be at least one avenue to success: continuing promotional cuts that have reduced weekend outages throughout the entire course of play.
Big US Open numbers for NBC
Before winning the US Open, Windham Clarke’s biggest moment of the week seemed to be his criticism of USAF’s decision to push back the Saturday afternoon tee times in order to accommodate NBC’s true primetime broadcast window.
“It’s TV,” he said as darkness fell over LACC in the minutes after his run. “But what is midnight on the East Coast? Ricky and I had some disadvantage playing the last few holes in the dark.”
Almost immediately, his words were viral fodder for further criticism of the governing body, and in this case, it may have been justified. The USGA’s decision to roll back the tee times to approx 7 p.m. ET It was a shock to most golf fans, and the delay in Saturday’s coverage certainly didn’t help matters.
Well, the proof appears to be, in fact, in the dessert. On Monday, NBC dropped an earnings report that showed the highest viewership for the national championship since the network captured the championship back in 2020. NBC’s average viewership for Sunday’s final round was 8.8 million viewers, the highest figure for the event. since 2019 and a growth of more than 25 percent from Matthew Fitzpatrick’s victory last year, peaking at about 10.2 million viewers.
Those are big numbers for the network, who capitalized on a West Coast pioneer in the wake of the biggest news tournament in professional golf in decades.
Yes, commercials can be a common talking point, but only the numbers released Monday are of interest to the top folks at NBC.
(Last) Trade-free hour
The climax of the undisputed US Open broadcast came in the final hour of play on Sunday, when, as is customary, Rolex curated a full hour of ad-free play to finish.
The commercial-free hour has become a major talking point in golf this season, especially after Callaway partnered with NBC to show the commercial-free hour of the closing Sentry Tournament of Champions. At the time, golf fans praised the commercial-free watch with near unanimity, and it’s hard to argue with that praise—it’s one of the few ideas for golf TV commercials that actually generates consumer goodwill.
At this weekend’s KPMG Women’s Championship, Callaway will once again sponsor the commercial-free final hour of coverage of the second Women’s Major Championship of the year at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, NJ.
The decision follows the stunning victory of Callaway Ambassador Rose Zhang to launch her career at the Mizuho Americas Open earlier this month, and marks the latest in a series of moves by the club manufacturer to become a player of note in the golf-TV space.
Of course, this week is just one of many on the PGA Tour, but you can bet that people tuning in on a Sunday afternoon will take notice.