LIV Golf has formalized a multi-year agreement with FOX Sports to air live broadcasts of the Saudi circuit in the United States.
The deal, rumored for months and first reported by the Sports Business Journal, will move the fledgling league from the CW Network to a sports-first platform.
Entering its fourth year, LIV Golf has struggled to attract an audience. While forming a partnership with CW in 2023 was initially seen as progress, reruns of syndicated shows routinely outperformed live LIV events. It’s performance on the CW was so poor that LIV began reporting their own metrics, although the self-reporting stopped as those numbers continued to spiral. In the LIV individual championship in Chicago last fall, only 89,000 people tuned through the CW to watch Jon Rahm clinch the title; for context, the Solheim Cup’s audience that weekend was seven times bigger.
The relationship also produced one of the biggest gaffes in LIV history, as more than 80 percent of CW affiliates dropped a 2023 playoff broadcast between Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith and Branden Grace in favor of other previously scheduled programming.
The move to FOX Sports is not necessarily a surprise. The network was in discussions with LIV during its inaugural season in 2022, and the company originally partnered with former LIV CEO Greg Norman to launch a rival league against the PGA Tour in the 1990s that ultimately failed to come to fruition. Why a new deal came to pass now has ties to FOX’s grander plans with the World Cup. FOX has held U.S. broadcasting rights for soccer’s premier event since 2015, although Netflix recently acquired domestic streaming rights for the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups. Of specific pursuit, however, is the 2034 Men’s World Cup, scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia, the financial backer of LIV Golf. Despite controversy surrounding the event—both the bidding process and the country’s track record with human rights abuses—the fight to attain streaming rights is expected to be fierce. Technically FIFA will reward those rights; conversely, it is widely considered in the industry that Saudi Arabia will ultimately decide who gets said rights.
The FOX deal comes a day after LIV officially announced Scott O’Neil as is new CEO, replacing Norman as head of day-to-day LIV operations. O’Neil was CEO with Merlin Entertainments, a London-based company that operates upwards of 150 theme parks and resorts throughout the world. Prior to Merlin, O’Neil had experience in the sports world. He was head of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment in 2017, a company formed to manage the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. He was also CEO of the 76ers and was president of Madison Square Garden from 2008-12.
There remains the potential deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Several outlets have reported a deal is already in place and is waiting for the Trump administration to take office before finalizing, as President-elect Trump’s Department of Justice may be more willing to pass a deal through antitrust regulations. Conversely, President-elect Trump’s golf properties will again be a part of LIV’s schedule, adding to the potential conflicts of the administration greenlighting the deal.
LIV will begin its 14-event season in February in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before visits to Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Trump Doral will be the first United States venue in early April.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com