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Sources: LIV in talks with Fox about broadcast deal

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Sources: LIV in talks with Fox about broadcast deal

LIV tournaments have aired on The CW for the past two yearsgetty images

LIV Golf has had high level discussions with Fox Sports over a potential agreement that would move the tour’s tournaments to the company’s airwaves starting next year, according to sources. The structure of a potential agreement, including whether a rights fee would be included, wasn’t immediately clear. Also unclear is whether the tournaments would air on Fox, FS1 or a mix of both.

LIV tournaments have aired on The CW for the past two years. That deal had an option for a third year that was not picked up.

Scott O’Neil, who SBJ reported is expected to be named the new CEO and commissioner of LIV, has been on site in Las Vegas this week for “The Showdown,” the Tuesday match pitting LIV players Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau against PGA Tour stars Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.

In fact, sources said O’Neil was playing in the pro-am on Monday with Alan Gold, the head of sports media at CAA Evolution, the media arm of CAA Sports. CAA has been quietly advising LIV on a number of fronts since the early part of the year. Also in their pro-am group Monday was Jordan Bazant, the EVP of business development and media for Fox Sports.

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A Fox network airing LIV events would be a major win for the tour. While LIV’s deal with The CW put the fledgling tour on a network with 120 million homes in the U.S., its viewership figures over two years were paltry. At LIV’s tournament at The Greenbrier in August, Jon Rahm and Koepka went head-to-head down the stretch, but the final round averaged only 165,000 viewers.

LIV built its 2025 schedule with a new media deal in mind. While the 2024 season ended in Dallas in the third week of September, LIV’s 2025 campaign is expected to wrap up in August, before a network like Fox would ramp up its college football and NFL programming. LIV’s schedule in 2025 is expected to include more international tournaments than domestic.

This wouldn’t be the first time Fox and LIV got close on an agreement. Golfweek reported in September of 2022 that LIV was close to a deal with Fox that would have seen the league buy time on FS1.

Fox has long been seen as the well-suited network partner for LIV, with NBC, CBS, ABC and ESPN all having ties to the PGA Tour and PGA of America for their events. Multiple outlets reported earlier this year that LIV had talks with WBD.

Fox declined comment. LIV did not respond when reached for comment.

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