LIV Golf Scores TV Deal With Fox Sports—As Trump-Linked, Saudi-Backed League Goes Mainstream

Posted by Admin January 16, 2025 Golf

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Topline

LIV Golf and Fox Sports announced an agreement Thursday to air the golf league across Fox properties next month, bringing the Saudi-funded, President-elect Donald Trump-backed league its most prominent stage yet.

Bryson DeChambeau tees off at a LIV Golf event in front of President-elect Donald Trump in 2022.

via Getty Images

Key Facts

The media rights deal, described as multiyear in the joint press release, will air almost all LIV tournament play across Fox channels and streaming services beginning with LIV’s 2025 season kickoff event in Saudi Arabia beginning Feb. 6.

About half of LIV competition will air on Fox’s flagship television network and its primary cable sports channel FS1, with the remainder of play broadcast on Fox Business, FS1 and the Fox Sports app.

LIV will handle the production of the broadcasts, a crucial differentiator between Fox’s multibillion-dollar rights agreements with more established leagues like Major League Baseball and the National Football League or the deals held by the LIV rival PGA Tour with CBS, ESPN and NBC Sports.

What We Don’t Know

The financial terms of the deal. Fox will pay LIV a “modest” fee, according to Puck News, which Sportico noted likely is a fraction of the $700 million annual rights payouts received by the PGA Tour. Fox and LIV representatives did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment. LIV aired its first two seasons on the CW in a revenue sharing model without a rights fee.

Key Background

LIV shook up the sports world upon its 2023 debut. Its nine-figure guaranteed contracts lured American stars like Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka away from the long-established PGA Tour, while sources of its funding from the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, led to significant backlash amid allegations it was a way for the Saudi government to “sportswash” human rights violations. Among Forbes’ list of the world’s 10 highest-paid golfers last year, six were LIV Golf members, including list leader Jon Rahm, who earned an estimated $218 million in his first year after leaving the PGA Tour for LIV.

Tangent

Trump and LIV Golf’s history dates back to the league’s inception. In 2022, Trump encouraged all golfers to “take the money” and join LIV. Trump’s golf courses hosted six LIV events from 2022 to 2024, and his Trump National Doral club in Miami will be home to a LIV tournament in April. Trump’s New Jersey golf club reported $796,744 in revenue from hosting its first LIV event in 2022. Trump has also grown close to LIV star Bryson DeChambeau, who Trump named during his victory speech following the November presidential election.

What’s The Latest On Liv Golf And Pga Tour Merger?

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced in June 2023 they would combine into a single commercial entity, a shocking move for the rivals that were previously embroiled in a legal battle, but little progress has been made on negotiations to complete the deal. Trump, who said in November it would take him only the “better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done,” may help accelerate merger talks, at least according to Rory McIlroy, the PGA Tour’s highest-paid golfer. Trump “might be able to” finalize the deal especially “if we can get Musk involved,” McIlroy said in November, referring to Trump’s close ally and the world’s richest man Elon Musk. Trump appeared publicly with both PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Public Investment Fund governor Yasir al-Rumayyan in November.