(Los Angeles) In search, for the time being unsuccessful, of a broadcaster in the United States, the LIV circuit, financially supported by Saudi Arabia and whose emergence is fracturing the world of golf, is currently negotiating with Fox Sports… that he would pay for airtime, the magazine reported Tuesday night Golfweek.
Posted at 3:00 p.m.
Until now, only retransmissions on the LIV website, and its social networks, Facebook and YouTube, make it possible to follow its tournaments. Because the main channels like NBC, which broadcasts PGA events, or the platforms of streaming such as Disney, Apple and Amazon, have refused any partnership.
To benefit from television exposure commensurate with its ambitions, the dissident circuit is now ready to pay to be broadcast, when most sports leagues, on the contrary, reap a windfall from the broadcasting rights of their competitions.
Thus, Fox Sports 1 would be close to an agreement in this direction with the LIV Golf. Under the terms of the negotiation, the golf circuit must produce the broadcast of its tournaments and take care of the sale of commercial sponsorships, prerogatives which usually fall to the broadcasters.
Moreover, Fox would have rejected the request made by the LIV, to benefit in return from television rights in the event of a partnership for a second year, and refused any guarantee to reserve a window of diffusion to him.
This agreement, if it is concluded, is far from attesting to the “enormous” interest in the broadcasting rights of LIV, thus qualified by its CEO Greg Norman, two weeks ago. It would even be perceived as a failure by its inability to arouse real commercial interest.
It remains to be seen whether this possible partnership will begin in 2023 or at the end of the year, the LIV still having three tournaments on the program, in Thailand, Saudi Arabia or Miami, on a course belonging to Donald Trump.