10 February 2025 - SHANK Media, by Matt Hooper: I must admit., on Thursday evening I was quite disappointed after the LIV Golf app had crashed, causing me to miss the final 7 holes of round one of LIV Golf Riyadh. I came in late and rewound the app to watch from the beginning of the round, and then through 11 holes the app crashed and I could not restart the feed because it had disappeared. I was midway through writing an article expressing my dissatisfaction with the app when the news broke that ITV had agreed a deal with LIV Golf, bringing golf back to free-to-air television in the UK.
This was and is tremendously exciting news, and especially important for LIV Golf. Golf has not been on free to air television in the UK since 2019, and this much golf has not been on free to air television in the UK ever before. 14 tournaments, featuring many of the world's most notable golfers, playing around the world, in an exciting, dynamic, new format. LIV Golf has taken a pummelling my the establishment, and their conforming media, and it has taken three years for the League to recruit a TV partner, and seemingly out of nowhere, came ITV.
ITV (Originally Independent Television) launched in 1955, and was the first commercial television station in the UK, launching some 19 years after BBC Television came on air in 1936. The network has taken a huge hit in the last 10 years with the expansion of subscription sports television and streaming services outbidding ITV, and seeing the likes of the UEFA Champions League move to TNT Sports, and Boxing completely disappear from the channel due to the rise of Sky Sports, TNT and latterly DAZN. From 2025-26 TNT will become the primary rights holder for the FA Cup, with BBC sublicensing games, meaning ITV will also lose the FA Cup.
However, ITV is making a comeback of sorts, with deals to show a limited number of EFL and Carabao Cup matches, 10 La Liga matches per season, Ligue 1 highlights, NFL Super Bowl and London games, Six Nations Rugby, Premiership Rugby, Horse Racing, PDC Darts and World Snooker. Now they have LIV Golf. I wrote an article a couple of weeks back about how I thought BBC should explore the possibility of showing LIV Golf, but potentially ITV is a better fit in the short, and long term.
Due to the success of programmes such as X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, Love Island, and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, ITV's audience demographic is far younger than equivalent channels in the UK (45 and under), and it this demographic which LIV Golf is attempting to reach. Long term it is entirely possible ITV's linear channels will be reduced to one, single channel, ITV, with everything else going on ITV X.
ITV X as a streaming platform is decent, but not at the level of usability of a Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Discovery+, where you can pause, rewind and restart Live broadcasts, and jump to a specific point within the broadcast. It will surely get there eventually with future software updates. But it doesn't crash, unlike the LIV Golf app, which has consistently failed me since it launched.
LIV Golf on ITV was advertised throughout their EFL Cup and FA Cup coverage, including Manchester United v Leicester City on Friday evening, which was ITV's biggest FA Cup match since April, based on total coverage. It averaged 3.2 million viewers and peaked with 4.4 million viewers across ITV1 and ITVX. This means promoting LIV Golf during their coverage could be positive for the League and the UK audience. At the time of writing, detailed audience figures for LIV Golf Riyadh on ITV were not available.
LIV GOLF ADELAIDE to be broadcast on ITV X and ITV 4
ITV today confirmed that coverage of LIV Golf Adelaide will be streamed on ITV X and broadcast on ITV 4, making the event the first golf tournament to be shown live on a linear ITV channel for more than 40 years. Coverage will be Live in the middle of the night, getting underway at 2.15am on Friday morning, and 1.15am and 1am on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The broadcast will be available to rewatch on ITV X later in the day, it is unclear whether it will be repeated on ITV 4 later in the day.
ITV should go for the Asian Tour next
As of 8 February 2025 the Asian Tour no longer has a broadcast deal in place for the UK, after Premier Sports failed to extend their contract, leaving a gap in the market. The Asian Tour would provide ITV with a cadence of golf events throughout the year, as the Asian Tour schedule fits in with the LIV Golf League, concluding with LIV Golf Promotions in December.
The International Series attracts a number of the LIV Golf stars, for example the event in India saw Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Anirban Lahiri, and Carlos Ortiz play at DLF Country Club. The New Zealand Open has attracted its strongest, most global field in many years in 2025, and events such as this could see the likes of the New Zealand Tourist board pay for advertising on ITV X if they were broadcasting the Asian Tour.
LIV Golf should look for maximum exposure across as many platforms as possible
The World Surf League showcases the best surfers in the world, male and female, at the greatest waves in the world across every continent in the world and broadcasts free to air across the world with the following channels and partners:
WORLDWIDE
World Surf League app on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Stick, iOS, Android, Samsung TV
YouTube
Facebook
UK
Premier Sports UK
Red Bull TV
USA
ESPN/ESPN 2
ESPN+, ESPN on DISNEY+ and ESPN on HULU
AUSTRALIA
7
7+
FOX Sports
Kayo
The World Surf League has a following across the main social media platforms in excess of 10 million followers, and their YouTube channel has more than 1 million subscribers, generating more than half a billion views and 39 videos with 1 million views or more. The use of multiple channels and platforms to broadcast live coverage of the World Surf League ensures the league and sport reaches as many people as possible on as many different devices as possible. On Finals Day of the 2025 Lexus Pipe Pro YouTube had approximately 24,000 fans watching live action, and at the same time there were 14,600 viewers watching the live action on Facebook. Typical WSL events generate 300-400,000 views, and the World Surf League TikTok has more than 2 million followers, generating nearly 60 million likes.
The World Surf League's broadcasting strategy is reflecting the changing viewing habits of the audience, and is not relying solely upon rights fees and traditional tv ratings to generate revenue. The WSL is said to have annual revenues of nearly $100million, which is remarkable given that the sport cannot realistically generate income from ticket sales due to the nature of the sport. The World Surf League has built a sustainable business, but more importantly, it is undoubtedly helping to grow the sport at every level and across the world.
There are now more than 35 million surfers worldwide, and surf tourism is now valued in the billions globally.
LIV Golf should follow the lead of the World Surf League, and make their broadcast and product as widely available as possible with streams on YouTube, Facebook, X, the app, and website, as well as free to air and subscription partners like FOX, ITV, 7 and DAZN.
Worldwide exposure still not seen as valuable by American-based media welded to the establishment, they are wrong, and LIV Golf will benefit in the long run
Turki Alalshikh shared the Saudi coverage of LIV Golf Riyadh on his X account, and the broadcast on his page alone got 67,000 viewers in Saudi Arabia, and the post reach more than 800,000 worldwide. To think that 67,000 people viewed some or all of LIV Golf Riyadh on Saturday, when there estimated to only be 8,000 golfers in Saudi Arabia (2,680 registered), this shows the immense potential LIV Golf has. Many on social media were critical of Riyadh and the supposed lack of crowds. Arlo White, lead commentator for LIV Golf, said that the crowds were 15,000 per day, but it was clear that many of them were there to see the post round concerts, however we did see many fans following the action throughout the golf course, and there was regular applause. This is something we did not hear or see some 6 years ago when the Saudi International made its debut on the DP World Tour, so it is clear evidence that the game, and this event, is growing in popularity.
The crowds for the Hero Dubai Desert Classic are now regularly between 15 and 20,000 fans per day at the Emirates Golf Club, but when it launched in 1989 that was most definitely not the case. Football is by far the most popular sport in Saudi Arabia, but that is the case in most countries around the world. golf is a new sport in this country, and giving it 5 or 10 years or major events and exposure on TV, we will see attendances grow. We will likely only see a similar atmosphere to Adelaide if Saudi golfers eventually make it on to the LIV Golf League, and that is a long way off.
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