Viewers in some parts of the world who choose YouTube channels will have to pay $3 per day to watch live tournaments at the Saudi-funded arena, starting from LIV Golf DC this week.
LIV Golf DC takes place at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC from May 26 to 28. On the opening day, LIV Golf Investments announced that it will charge YouTube viewers in the US, Canada, Mexico, and South Korea, while remaining free for the UK, Italy, Japan, at least five Nordic countries, and several other regions, including Vietnam.
This move shows that the parent company is starting to try to find revenue on the world's leading video platform when LIV Golf League has not really stabilized its media partner network for commercial exploitation.
Superstar Brooks Koepka high-fives the crowd at the opening round of LIV Golf DC. Despite having many stars, LIV Golf League has yet to stabilize the commercial exploitation of its affiliated tournaments. Photo: LIV Golf
As of noon on May 28, LIV Golf League has 273,000 followers on YouTube.
The tournament system was launched in June 2022, developed mainly with money from the Saudi Public Investment Fund with an estimated budget of two billion USD until the end of 2023.
The entire inaugural season had no revenue as all eight shows were broadcast for free on the main website, Facebook and YouTube.
By 2023, with 14 tournaments, LIV Golf League has attracted partner CW Networks, announced in January, launched its own application LIV Golf Plus and mainly targeted the North American market. At that time, CW was expected to play the main role in making money, while YouTube was the supporting channel.
But according to Golf Digest , the CW partner did not pay LIV Golf for the rights, as is customary for sports television. Instead, the American network only broadcasts the main rounds live, and shares in advertising revenue from the broadcast, while LIV Golf bears all the costs of producing the content. The CW currently has more than 200 member or affiliate channels across the United States.
The loss, but LIV Golf still accepted, until now five months. Including the tournament in Washington, LIV Golf League deployed half of the tournament schedule. However, right before reaching this milestone, they encountered a serious problem on May 14. At that time, the CW system in key regions suddenly cut off the tournament's finale in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just minutes before the three-way extra hole, in which two big stars - Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith, with Johnson winning. Immediately after cutting off LIV Golf, the CW system broadcast entertainment programs outside of sports. At that time, LIV Golf's audience on CW dropped significantly, to the point that both sides stopped publishing media indexes.
When LIV Golf announced that it would start charging for YouTube views starting this week, CW was already aware of the situation. On Golf.com , the network confirmed that LIV Golf's change did not violate the contract, that the two sides were still cooperating well, and that it was committed to not repeating the sudden cutoff.
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