The numbers are great, the numbers are not so great. Depending on your source, you can get a very different set of figures so far as LIV Golf TV ratings are concerned. Now, it seems, whatever they really are, LIV has stopped publicly reporting them - and it could be a sign that the upstart league is struggling to generate significant viewer interest.
According to GOLF.com, LIV sources have confirmed to the Hot Mic that the league would not be reporting viewership data from its U.S. broadcasters moving forward but declined to explain why.
In late March, LIV's most recent ratings report, the league showed audience numbers slumping by 24 percent week-over-week, from 537,000 average viewers in its season-opening broadcast in Mexico to 409,000 in its second event in Tucson, Arizona.
There have been four LIV events since Tucson, including one in Australia and one in Singapore that were shown on tape delay in the United States. LIV has not released data on any of these four tournaments.
It represents a clear shifts away from the original strategy when the league's chief media officer, Will Staeger, told GOLF.com days after LIV signed its agreement with the CW that they would "certainly" provide publicly available viewership information, adding public data was "critical to all of our plans."
He added: "I think being a new league is a process that requires commitment, but it also requires patience. [2023] is about growing the knowledge of where you can watch us, and then growing the ratings. It’s about growing the viewership."
Just four months on and it raises questions about the viability of the league's broadcasts in the first year of a two-year media rights agreement with the CW.
On Sunday, the network turned away an unknown number of potential viewers when affiliates in several major markets abruptly dropped LIV’s Tulsa coverage minutes before a three-way playoff featuring two of the tour’s stars, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith. Later this year, the CW will air LIV’s team championship in Saudi Arabia on tape delay.
Prior to this week's PGA Championship, world number one Jon Rahm was asked how he saw the future of golf with LIV Golf's one-year anniversary approaching.
"It all depends who you talk to," said the Masters champion. "If you talk to a LIV player, this is going to be great, it's only going to get better. You talk to people on the other side, in two years they're going to be done.
"I really couldn't tell you. I have no clue. I really have no clue. I really don't know what to say. Obviously they're trying their hardest to be a little bit different, and it could pay off or not. I really don't know."
