Rich or poor, it’s good to have pre-and and if you are mega-millions of NFL or slightly smaller billions from golf tournament now run by Roger Goodell’s right manIt is good to know that your business is trending in the right direction.
As the golf world attracts its attention to FedEx Cup’s Play off, people in PGA Tour and CBS can claim a dose of optimism on both fronts.
With CBS tasks while PGA Tour Broadcast Partners end for 2025, the network issued a promising group of general data from year to Golf. In a disseminated release earlier this week, CBS reported a 17 percent lump year by year on average audiences for its PGA Tour Teleks, the best year of watching the network since 2018. According to the network, CBS Golf gave 2,696 million 2025 season.
If you pay attention to the issues of evaluations on TV, you are not surprised by the CBS announcement. Fourteen of the 19 finals of the final round PGA at CBS posted profits of evaluations year by year from 2024, with many audience profits on land with double digits a year earlier. If the basic data were not quite convincing, CBS also welcomed an encouraging winners’ tendency, with the 2025 season led by victories by the two biggest stars of the tournament-farroy tournament and Scottie Scheffler-in some of its biggest weeks of the year, including AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-AM and Memorial.
The news reaches both a welcome development for both the network and the tournament, which destroyed a brutal 2024 season underlined by ratings in free rainfall and an air of overall concern about the harmful effect of Livi on the weekly tour of the week. But, as with all things TV ratings, there are much more for the numbers than the eye meets – so let them dive into the biggest intakes below.
1. CBS Sports golf trust rewarded
Last year, with Golf TV estimates near their lower point, CBS Sports Inputs CEO David Berson surprised me with a vote of confidence for golf.
“Let’s not go ahead of us when it comes to things of appreciation,” he told the PGA Championship. “Early is early to worry.”
At that time, I was surprised that Bersson would go any Length to protect the PGA tour. In my tourist wars accounting to that point, CBS had one of the biggest axes to be grinded: the network had thrown hundreds of millions for a PGA Tour product that had suddenly lost a piece of its star power two years in a 10-year deal, and was now struggling during a season with historically low ratings and little hope for reunification.
But the ratings to be cursed, Berson was taking a long look. The tour ratings in mid -2024 were weak, but there were still many reasons for enthusiasm for the benefits of the newly installed competitive changes of the tournament, he said. Plus, Golf was at a point of post-tiger flux in the broadest sense, with Scottie Scheffler replacing Woods predominance, but not yet its star power. Over time, Berson suggested, all those changes would even come out, and the ratings would withdraw.
Fifteen months later, Berson’s faith was rewarded, and his broader points about PGA Tour’s condition do not look very bad.
Two weeks ago, We have written about the expected change at the CBS headquarters While the network prepared for a large union with Skydance Productions, operated by the Ellison family. As one of the money enriched components, positioned in front of the CBS business, the sporting separation remains on a durable sustainable base that goes to the union. However, positive ratings reports move far ahead in establishing CBS sports portfolio force with its new property group, including New Skydance David Ellison CEO and his crazy Golf father, Larry.
On Thursday, two days after the Golf estimates report, the Skydance/Paramount Union was finalized by the Federal Commission of Trade. As we have written a few weeks back, we expect the CBS Sports Division to remain a major part of the new-view paramount, but it was saying that the issuance of CBS ratings included a line in increased transmission-this is a field that should be a focus under the new regime.
3. What is good for the goose
For years, the prevailing feeling from American television partners of the tournament was that you can have more money or a better television product, but not both. That doesn’t seem to be anymore.
The CBS golf is withdrawn under the leadership of the timid manufacturer’s sellers is well documented, but changes in NBC and research done by PGA Tour both seem to have improved the overall golf view experience in 2025 with very few costs for advertisers.
There is still visible room for improvement, but for the first time in a few years, staggering tensions between golf viewers and its broadcasters seem to have been facilitated.
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4. Fan… ahead?
Fan forward, tournament Very famous fan survey; In the big look, the tournament hoped that little improvements in Telekastra would help fans feel more connected to the players, which would result in larger, more dedicated audiences. But in much smaller appearance, the changes executed by the survey were more to do what can Make it to improve tourist broadcasting rather than focus all the tournament energy on what cannot (reduce ads).
Of course, no one believes the fan ahead is thank To increase estimates in 2025, but the basic thesis of research and implementation of the improvements recommended by fans seems to have made some positive changes to golf.
5. Nielsen matters
Nielsen’s clashes over the methodology of its estimates over the years have been responsible for many holidays year by year in sports TV estimates, and it is likely that the ratings giant play at least OTHER USEFUL Role in the return of the tournament in 2025.
Nielsen’s goal has always been to capture the most accurate sample of the American audience of view, though changes in the habits and views of view have made that work more difficult over time. Golf, with his long broadcasts and oldest audiences, has long been one of the most difficult samples for Nielsen to catch (a thorn on the side of many TV executions). Nielsen changes in 2025 to include more views outside the home are likely to help the overall viewing of golf to clash to an unknown scale, though there are reasons for optimism that changes were impossible To calculate all estimates of 17 percent of CBS.
In other words, the news is still good for golf television partners … only probably with a friendly incentive by the ratings collectors.
James Colgan
Golfit.com editor
James Colan is a news editor of news and features in Golf, writing stories on the website and magazine. He manages the hot germ, golf media vertical and uses his experience on camera across brand platforms. Before entering Golf, James graduated from Siracuse University, during which time he was a caddy scholarship receiver (and Astuta Looper) in Long Island, where he is. He can be reached on James.colgan@golf.com.
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