LIV announces TV deal with Fox: 7 things to know
LIV Golf and Fox Sports announced an agreement for a TV deal on Thursday.
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It is officially official: LIV Golf will air on Fox Sports in the new year.
On Thursday morning, LIV announced a “multi-year” television deal that will see the Fox family of networks take over broadcasting duties for golf’s Saudi-backed league in 2025 and beyond. The news was first reported weeks ago by the Sports Business Journal and ends a multi-year flirtation between the league led by CEO Greg Norman and the broadcast network operated by his longtime friends, the Murdoch family.
It is hard to overstate the significance of the television deal, which brings LIV to a national TV network far larger than its original partners at the CW, and which brings Fox back into the fold broadcasting golf after a popular but financially mired stint with the USGA. Thursday’s announcement officially ends LIV’s agreement with the CW after two years of lackluster TV ratings and squabbles over television windows.
There is still a lot to make sense of regarding the LIV/Fox agreement, including some of the very important financial specifics, but in the meantime let’s break down what we know below.
1. Money matters
The biggest question of the agreement comes down to money, specifically, how much of it is going from Fox to LIV for the right to carry its events. Reports have LIV receiving a rights fee in the Fox agreement, though specifics about the size and shape of that fee are still a mystery.
LIV initially operated under a revenue share with the CW in the early stages of that agreement, though the contract included escalators based on LIV’s audience performance.
2. Where to watch
A press release announcing the agreement stipulates that “more than half” the league’s 2025 schedule will air live on Fox or FS1, while “select” additional rounds will air on FS2, Fox Business and the Fox Sports app.
This is a big detail for LIV, which is hoping to maximize the number of hours it can be carried on Fox’s over-the-air broadcast network and to the national audiences it reaches. Of course, the devil here is in the details: “big” Fox generates audience sizes multiples larger than FS1, which generates multiples more than FS2 or Fox Business. The percentage breakdown of broadcasts on the national network versus the cable channels will go a long way in determining the size of the audiences who tune in for LIV.
3. No more tape delays
According to the release, “nearly all” of the 2025 season’s 210 hours of competition will air “live” on the Fox family of networks, ending a practice of tape-delayed telecasts that drew the ire of golf fans under the CW agreement. Given the international nature of the LIV schedule, several LIV events will air first in the United States in the dead of night, including the season-opening event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Still, it’s likely the Fox agreement will give the league another broadcast window in a more traditional golf time slot to reach American golf audiences.
4. Production duties
One big reason for Fox’s interest in LIV? The network doesn’t need to pay for production costs, as it did in the early 2010s during its USGA agreement. LIV has handled all production costs and staffing since its founding, a practice that will continue under the new Fox agreement. The broadcast team led by Arlo White and David Feherty will remain intact in ’25.
5. Fox’s role
Keen golf fans will remember that Fox was recently a thriving part of the golf TV ecosystem, having promised more than $1 billion to the USGA in a decade-long TV deal in 2013. The network backed out of that deal in 2020 after five years of production in part due to the financial and logistical strain of the agreement.
Now, the network adds another property to its spring-and-summer broadcast schedule — a light stretch for the network after the end of the NFL and college football seasons. LIV will primarily have to compete with Fox’s burgeoning UEFA Champions League and MLB coverage.
6. Schedule smarts
Speaking of football, LIV adjusted its competitive schedule in 2025 to make the agreement work with Fox. Now the league will complete its team and individual championships shortly before the start of college football and the NFL season, giving Fox the flexibility to broadcast all three properties without stepping on toes.
This had previously been a friction point between the league and the network, which has a loaded fall broadcast schedule.
7. Importance
We’ve written this column since LIV’s formation, and for just as long, we’ve spoken about the importance of LIV’s TV contract to the league’s long-term success. Even if Fox always seemed to be the most likely partner for the league, LIV took a considerable step forward with Thursday’s announcement.
In many ways, the CW agreement failed to give LIV an adequate platform to test its product. Now LIV will get a proper stress test. Is the competitive product interesting enough to generate considerable TV audiences on a national network? How does it match up when given something close to a one-to-one comparison with the PGA Tour? We’ll have better answers — and much better quality audience data — to draw those comparisons in the months and years to come.
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