LIV Golf ‘will buy airtime on Fox Sports after networks balked at Saudi-backed tour’s first TV deal’
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Rather than sell media rights, it looks like the fledgling LIV Golf tour will buy airtime on Fox Sports 1 instead.
The Saudi-backed golf series is about to pay Rupert Murdoch’s sports network for airtime after NBC, CBS, ESPN, Apple and Amazon all hesitated to buy LIV Golf’s first media contract, multiple sources said. Golf week. A source added that Fox Sports only got involved at the behest of Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son and the CEO of Fox Corp.
“There were people at Fox who didn’t want anything to do with this,” the source told Golfweek. “They were forced to do it.”
Punch GC team captain Cameron Smith poses with Greg Norman, CEO and Commissioner of LIV Golf, after winning the individual title during day three of the LIV Golf Invitational – Chicago at Rich Harvest Farms on September 18
This latest development comes after Greg Norman, the legendary PGA player turned LIV Golf CEO, gave ESPN a very different view of the negotiations.
“We’re talking to four different networks and live conversations putting offers on the table,” he told ESPN two weeks ago. “They can see what we deliver.”
LIV Golf has been at the center of controversy in the golf world not only because it pays PGA players to switch, but also because the new tour is being funded by the controversial Saudi regime’s Public Investment Fund.
That’s the same fund that provided $2 billion in 2021 to a private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Since then, Kushner has tried to negotiate a media rights deal on behalf of LIV Golf, but never finalized everything, according to an August article from Sports Business Journal.
“One call,” a source familiar with the call told SBJ. ‘Completely informal. It took a very short time to make an introduction.”
A Kushner spokesperson told DailyMail.com that he would verify that report with his client before commenting.
LIV Golf is also connected to Trump through its courses. He has already hosted one tour event at his New Jersey club and will host the season finale at his Miami course next month.
Former US President Donald J. Trump (L), Saudi businessman Yasir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan (C) and Jared Kushner (R) watch the first round of the LIV Golf Bedminster Invitational, part of the new LIV Golf Invitational Series , at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey
LIV Golf has been at the center of controversy in the golf world not only because it pays PGA players to switch, but also because the new tour is being funded by the controversial Saudi regime’s Public Investment Fund. That’s the same fund that provided $2 billion in 2021 to a private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Since then, Kushner has tried to negotiate a media rights deal on behalf of LIV Golf, but never finalized everything, according to an August article by Sports Business Journal.
The first season of LIV Golf was played without a media contract. Instead, LIV shows its team-based tournaments on its own website and YouTube. Circuit managers previously told the Wall Street Journal that events were made free to the public so that the tour could prove its legitimacy with fans and networks alike.
That plan didn’t pan out because major US networks and streaming services all withdrew LIV Golf, not just according to Golfweek and the Journal.
On the one hand, Fox Sports seems like a natural fit for LIV Golf, given Norman’s reported relationship with compatriot Rupert Murdoch, who owns the network. Front Office Sports reports that Murdoch is in a relationship with LIV adviser David Hill, a highly regarded sports television producer and another Australian.
In fact, the three teamed up on the failed World Golf Tour in the mid-1990s — a circuit that bears striking resemblance to the PGA’s current rival, LIV Golf.
Joe Buck, Brad Faxon and Greg Norman, Fox Sports TV Analysts, are seen on set during rehearsal ahead of the start of the 115th US Open Championship at Chambers Bay on June 17, 2015 in University Place, Washington. Norman was later fired by Fox Sports
Conversely, Norman had a bad breakup with Fox Sports in 2015 when he felt he was blamed for the disappointing coverage of that year’s US Open.
“It felt like I was being rolled under the bus,” he told FOS in 2021 about his resignation from the network.
The PGA Tour’s bitter rivalry with LIV is golf’s biggest rivalry since the upstart tour was launched with funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which also owns Newcastle United in the English Premier League. Saudi Arabia is reported to have appropriated at least $2.4 billion for LIV Golf.
Controversy erupted immediately when the PGA Tour ousted defectors such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Australian sensation Cameron Smith, all of whom were criticized for taking millions from a country widely criticized for human rights abuses.
Proceedings are underway regarding both the PGA and European tours regarding the banning of LIV golfers from those established circuits. On Tuesday, Mickelson and Ian Poulter were among four LIV players to file a motion to have their names removed from the lawsuit, which is still being pursued by LIV Golf and three others: Bryson DeChambeau, Peter Uihlein and Matt Jones.
Signs will be posted at the LIV Golf Tournament on Thursday, September 15 in Sugar Grove, Illinois