Most weeks, Dan Hicks has one of the best jobs in the world. This week, though? It probably feels a little bit more like a job.
As NBC Golf heads to the U.S. Open to call the first major championship since the PGA Tour’s stunning deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the broadcaster finds itself in the unenviable position of trying to cover a golf tournament in the middle of a hurricane. And as the network’s lead voice, Hicks finds himself in the most uncomfortable position of being the public face behind it all.
“We’ve all been immersed in this story,” Hicks said in a dull tone on a conference call previewing the U.S. Open late last week. “And frankly, it’s been pretty exhausting.”
Exhausting yes, but for Hicks and co., the Saudi story is a stick of dynamite it very much does not want. Now the network faces the quandary between covering the story in golf and covering the story they’re paying the USGA the bulk of $100 million to tell: the U.S. Open.
How will NBC approach the endeavor? And what does it all mean for you, the fan watching at home? In the next 1,000 words of the Hot Mic’s U.S. Open Mega-Mic, we dig through it all, starting with the talk on everyone’s mind: The Merger.
The Big Story
NBC broadcast schedule (All times eastern)
Thursday, 6/15: 9:40 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Peacock), 1-8 p.m. (USA Network), 8-11 p.m. (NBC)
Friday, 6/16: 9:40 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Peacock), 1-8 p.m. (USA Network), 8-11 p.m. (NBC)
Saturday, 6/17: 1-11 p.m. (NBC/Peacock)
Sunday, 6/18: 12-1 p.m. (Peacock), 1-10 p.m. (NBC/Peacock)
Programming notes: Peacock will handle exclusive early-morning coverage on Thursday, Friday and Sunday from Los Angeles Country Club.
The first question facing NBC at Los Angeles Country Club this week also seems like the simplest: Is it worth talking about the PGA Tour/Saudi merger?
“My guess, if it was an NBC telecast, we would not be talking about anything PGA Tour-PIF,” said Golf Channel and NBC Golf analyst Justin Leonard, who will not be working the event this week. “We wouldn’t be going there at all.”
That might sound like a rhetorical question given the shape of the golf world heading into the U.S. Open, but consider some of the issues at play. The first: this week’s golf tournament — the second-biggest of the year, by many accounts — has almost nothing to do with the merger. The second: NBC’s business partner, the USGA, might not want the network to spend much time discussing the agreement on-air. And the third: NBC’s incentive is to cover the tournament as well as possible, to deliver as many viewers as possible, and make as much money as possible; it’s not clear if merger talk is going to help with that.
Of course, it’s fair to expect that NBC will address the elephant in the room at some point (a failure to do so would be journalistic malpractice — and that’s not the sorta thing lead producer Tommy Roy tracks in). But will NBC devote serious airtime addressing the Saudi situation and all that comes with it? Don’t get your hopes up.
“I really believe that this golf course and this U.S. Open come at the right time for us to be distracted by everything that’s going on and just really enjoy the game,” Hicks said, deflecting the Saudi question. “Whoever wins the U.S. Open, it’s going to take some focus.”
At the network level, coverage of Saudi involvement in pro golf has been largely inconsistent. To date, conversations about LIV during PGA Tour broadcasts have come only at an “as-needed” basis, an understandable concession considering the networks’ business relationship with the Tour. But without serious (or regular) time devoted to those issues, weekend golf viewers have failed to receive much information about the ethical morass that joins Saudi money in golf.
There have been a few notable exceptions. Golf Channel, which is run by NBC, has spent considerable airtime and resources discussing Saudi money in golf over the last 18 months. At last year’s Canadian Open, the first PGA Tour event since LIV’s formation, CBS aired a prominent interview with Tour commissioner Jay Monahan addressing some of the ethical questions faced by the new league.
“Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?” Monahan said at the time. “I’ve talked to a number of players individually for a long period of time, and I think you have to be living under a rock to not know that there are significant implications [to working with the Saudis].”
Still, as a few industry folks have explained it to the Hot Mic, networks feel obligated during live tournament coverage to “call balls and strikes” — addressing the tournament at hand and any necessary storylines without delving too deep into the complicated moral and ethical questions. It’s simpler this way and helps to keep the on-air teams, who are not as well-versed in Saudi Arabia’s geopolitical and socioeconomic nuances, from getting in over their skis.
“When we get there on Monday or Tuesday, the second all of us see [NBC Golf lead producer] Tommy Roy’s face, we’re going to know what our priority is, and it’s live golf,” analyst Paul Azinger said. “Not opinions and not innuendo. We don’t know what’s coming. But we know one thing: we’ve got the two best producers in the world getting ready to try to produce a U.S. Open to the best of their ability, and we’re going to try to call it.”
Still, it’s fair to wonder if viewers might be better served learning a thing or two about the nature of this agreement — and why Saudi money presents a legitimate moral concern to golf — from a source they can trust.
Of course, that would be an unprecedented move for a network at a major championship … but these aren’t exactly precedented times.
Right after the break…
This is a big U.S. Open for both the USGA and NBC, which came under heavy fire last year for the number of commercials aired during the weekend’s primetime coverage in Boston. Savvy TV watchers will remember USGA commissioner Mike Whan taking to Twitter on Sunday morning to assuage the concerns of golf viewers, vowing that the two sides were working on a solution.
“I’m on it!” Whan said. “We have the best sports production team in the world here with our partner NBC Sports (Olympics, Super Bowl, etc.) and if the amount of interruptions are problematic, we will work with our partner to do better!”
On Sunday, after the outrage, NBC and the USGA worked to lower the overall number of commercials shown during coverage (an effort that included the network’s traditional final commercial-free hour courtesy of Rolex).
As we first explained last year, it’s not exactly a cut-and-dry situation considering the financial constraints placed upon NBC given the USGA rights deal they inherited from FOX. NBC has to sell a certain number of advertisements just to break even on the USGA deal, and the USGA isn’t necessarily in the business of taking less money for the sake of goodwill. But with two willing partners on board (and no shortage of advertisers), there is some daylight to make things happen.
‘I’m on it!’: USGA CEO responds to NBC, U.S. Open commercial outrage
Now, in 2023, the two sides have had the benefit of a full year to help improve the championship viewing experience — and a primetime broadcast window to showcase it all. It’ll be interesting to see how it all looks.
(And an aside: If you’re looking for something to listen to during the commercials, SiriusXM Pearl Jam Radio will feature a golf-themed guest host: John Wood, who will join the station’s episode of Wishlist to pick his favorite songs and share a few golf stories along the way.)
Peacock shows its feathers
Peacock Broadcast schedule (All times eastern)
Thursday, 6/15: 9:40 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Friday, 6/16: 9:40 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Sunday, 6/18: 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
While it might take some time before the U.S. Open commercial load earns the ire of golf fans, one broadcast change is sure to quickly ignite some Twitter criticism: NBC is bringing back Peacock-exclusive coverage for the opening two rounds of play (and the first hour of Sunday’s final-round coverage).
Now, NBC is quick to point out Peacock U.S. Open coverage represents bonus airtime, or time when the network otherwise wouldn’t be on the air. Viewers aren’t “losing” anything by not tuning in, NBC argues, just gaining something by buying the subscription to watch for a few extra hours.
The truth of the matter is slightly more complicated than that. NBC badly wants Peacock to become a thoroughbred for its overall TV business, boosting its revenues and supporting its bottom line. Right now, it is not that. But live sports coverage represents one of the surest avenues to growing a subscriber base that will one day help the streaming service pay its bills.
The U.S. Open is one big way to boost subscriptions, just like the NFL Wild Card game Peacock will host for the first time in 2024, or the NBA TV rights it is rumored to be in negotiations for.
We might not like paying for golf on top of the television we … already pay for, but this is the way of the world in 2023, particularly as the biggest streamers enter a transition period toward sustainable growth. If you’ve got a problem with it, the good news is that even without Peacock, the national championship has more televised hours than any other golf tournament this year by a mile.
Netflix’s golf gig
As per usual, Netflix cameras will be on-site this weekend filming the action from Los Angeles Country Club, but we can also expect to see them further down the line in this golf season. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the streaming giant is preparing to host its first-ever live sports event this fall: a charity golf tournament.
Per the report, the event will feature stars from Netflix’s Drive to Survive and Full Swing docuseries’. It will be hosted and filmed in Las Vegas.
The news marks a notable shift for the streaming giant, which has wrangled with entering the live sports market over a rocky last 12 months. Of course, the Netflix deal wouldn’t be a live sports product so much as it would be a made-for-TV promotional vehicle (not unlike The Match), but the news still presents as notable to Netflix consumers. Sports rights, while expensive, are one surefire way to boost subscriptions and “buy eyeballs.”