Lack of golf on terrestrial TV - Golf Monthly Feature

[Hobbit]

Be interesting to see a poll amongst those that play golf like everyone on here who actually [enjoy] watching golf on the TV irrelevant of how it’s screened. By this I mean every day of a tournament when time allowed, even everyday of a major?

I struggle to watch it on the TV, period, and I love the game!

I’ll have it on in the background and look up when something great happens, but I can’t watch it blow for blow. I’ve observed this at the club when it’s on the big television and everyone is chatting to each other then looking when the crowd reacts, nobody is glued to the screen.

The only difference is a last day last few holes scenario when it’s close, if it’s a done deal very early I’ll have little interest watching the closing holes, I’ve witnessed this at the club also.

So if televised golf can’t encapsulate [golfers] to watch, how on earth will it catch the casual viewer who comes across it and starts to watch it and makes then think, you know what, I think I’ll look into this a bit more and give it a go?

I watch very little golf. HID often puts it on, and enjoys it immensely, and she doesn't even play the game. I don't think wall to wall coverage would entice newbies. There needs to be more buzz and excitement. Maybe a highlights show would work, and that would also fit in better with channels that have a mix of entertainments, e.g. BBC1/ITV1.

 

[Dan2501]

How do you know “they don’t want it” ? Are you sure it’s not because they can’t match the bids due to budget constraints- BBC bid for the Open but Sky trounced the bid

BBC would love the Open but they are priced out of it

And how many kids are taking it up now because it’s on Sky ? With the sport being on Sky is it attracting people to play ? No because the only people who will pay to watch golf are people who are already into golf

Who gets more viewers when the BBC shows the final two rounds of the Masters- the BBC do , their highlights package gets more than the Sky live coverage does - just because you don’t like Allis and co doesn’t mean everyone does

I think there is a poll on Facebook - 80% say it should be FTA

The Olympic events being FTA encouraged a lot of people to take up a good number of sports - you can’t just dismiss the ability of FTA sport having the potential to attract people to the sport

Right now the level of viewing figures watching golf is poor maybe it’s time to redress that

Well they didn't want it when they gave it up to Sky a year before their contract ran out.

Also, I don't think you read my post. I didn't say it shouldn't be FTA, I said it won't be on terrestrial TV because the people in charge obviously aren't willing to stump up the cash to show it. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be FTA though, I think it'd be great if the Open Sunday broadcast was streamed on YouTube or similar service. That is more likely to attract younger viewers than Alliss droning on on BBC2 for 6 hours.

 

[fundy]

More I think about the more I realise that I went on to play the sports that I was brought up around. Not just in later years but even as a toddler running around in cricket and rugby clubs. How many golf clubs would honestly welcome that. Not junior members but young kids playing around the putting green or toddling around the clubhouse with one parent whilst the other was golfing.

Thats sort of true for me with 2 exceptions, Rugby (it was the schools main sport) and Golf. Also played a lot of Cricket, Football and Table Tennis (Dads 3 sports!)

Cricket clearly took priority as it was Dads main summer sport, we went on cricket tour each year, I basically lived at the cricket club every weekend in summer. Golf was one of those sports i tried with a few mates and funnily enough then got Dad into once his cricket and football days were done! Think I was about 14 and in the morning I took him to the driving range before we headed off to open the batting in the 2nd Xi later in the day

That said golf didnt cost anything like todays costs, membership was less than a pound a week for a junior, some pretty basic clubs did the job, we used whatever balls we found and we drank from the fountains on the course. They missed a trick or two in those days lol. I remember fondly a trip we took to st andrews when i was 18 and we played st andrews, carnoustie, muirfield and several other clubs over the week for the cost of one round at a championship course now, stayed in a B&B for pennies and had the best week ever, sadly for a father to do similar with their son nowadays would cost upwards of 5k for the trip we did and probably a chunk more

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Because as he stated, they, the BBC, handed it over a year early, if it was such an ace in the pack they’d have hung on to it until the last day of their contract and squeezed every bit of benefit out of it, but they didn’t! So let’s be honest here, they have the money as can be seen with what they pay out for other sports and commentators (Lineker) and god knows what else, but golf doesn’t appeal to them. And as for polls and numbers, they’re mainly completed by ‘golfers’ so it’s irrelevant to the case in point.

They had lost the contract , they were under big budget constraints and took a chance to save money

What they spend on “motd” is what it has to cost them for a package that gets millions of viewers per week - Christ every man and his dog complain about the License fee what do you think would happen if they doubled their bid for the Open. The BBC bid £10mil for it - that’s how much they could budget for it - if they didn’t want it they could have just not bothered

 

[fundy]

Thats the thing isnt it, they almost have to keep overpaying for the highlights package for MOTD, because without it they suddenly have a whole load more questionning the license fee, almost as if theyve dug themselves into a corner theres no way out of. doesnt excuse the ridiculous salaries they pay to the ex footballers on the show though, especially the chief crisp eating clown

 

[Jimaroid]

I would like to see some market research and the data on actual routes into golf in the UK. I'm not convinced TV is as significant a gateway as people think because I suspect us golfers add a lot of confirmation bias when thinking back through the rose-tinted spectacles of time.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Well they didn't want it when they gave it up to Sky a year before their contract ran out.

Also, I don't think you read my post. I didn't say it shouldn't be FTA, I said it won't be on terrestrial TV because the people in charge obviously aren't willing to stump up the cash to show it. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be FTA though, I think it'd be great if the Open Sunday broadcast was streamed on YouTube or similar service. That is more likely to attract younger viewers than Alliss droning on on BBC2 for 6 hours.

You do realise that the UKs Internet infrastructure is nowhere good enough for consistent streaming for the majority of the country - people will “stream” when they are looking for something in particular - people aren’t going to “stumble” across golf whilst watching you tube . And the broadcast of the CL on you tube drew the biggest amount of our complaints due to the poor service and buffering that happened

 

[williamalex1]

IMHO , the Ryder Cup, the Open, and Wimbledon should be on free TV.
WTF are we paying a licence to watch repeats of Homes under the hammer and the other daytime rubbish. and paying obscene sums to presenters and commentators.
It would surely encourage some new blood if some big sporting events were shown.

 

[Reemul]

I barely watch TV anyway and already have Netflix, Apple TV and Freeview catchup (iPlayer etc).

I can see those 3 options not offering much to watch at all........

 

[Dan2501]

You do realise that the UKs Internet infrastructure is nowhere good enough for consistent streaming for the majority of the country - people will “stream” when they are looking for something in particular - people aren’t going to “stumble” across golf whilst watching you tube . And the broadcast of the CL on you tube drew the biggest amount of our complaints due to the poor service and buffering that happened

Sky run a consistently brilliant Sky Go streaming service, they have a more than adequate infrastructure to stream an Open Sunday. How many people do you realistically think are going to tune in to watch? It will not be as many as were logging on to try and access the BT Sport CL Final stream. Also, we're at a point in the UK where internet speeds across the country are more than good enough to be able to watch a live stream without buffering. The average internet speed in the UK is 50.16 mbps (the county with the worst speeds on average - Cornwall still average 17.57mbps), that is comfortably enough to stream a video without issue, and if it was encoded properly and the player scaled for bandwidth properly it would work flawlessly. Just because BT messed it up, doesn't mean it would be like that for everyone.

If it was advertised well enough, if the R&A could get it Trending on Youtube and across Social Media then it has the potential for a hell of a lot more young people to "stumble" across it than tune into BBC1 or 2 on a Sunday afternoon.

 

[Fish]

IMHO , the Ryder Cup, the Open, and Wimbledon should be on free TV.
WTF are we paying a licence to watch repeats of Homes under the hammer and the other daytime rubbish. and paying obscene sums to presenters and commentators.
It would surely encourage some new blood if some big sporting events were shown.

But the problem with that argument is, if you remove the Crown Jewels the subscription channels don’t want the tat that surrounds them, as a result less is bid, less is invested, and less minority sports that can be watched now won’t be seen or viewed as the trickle effect can’t be supported.

It’s all or nothing, it’s business not a service, this is why the BBC is now a draconian outfit and needs to be commercialised and the licence fee removed, then it could compete on a level playing field.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

But the problem with that argument is, if you remove the Crown Jewels the subscription channels don’t want the tat that surrounds them, as a result less is bid, less is invested, and less minority sports that can be watched now won’t be seen or viewed as the trickle effect can’t be supported.

It’s all or nothing, it’s business not a service, this is why the BBC is now a draconian outfit and needs to be commercialised and the licence fee removed, then it could compete on a level playing field.

The golf is two bids - one for the ET and one for The Open - do you think Sky would not bid for the ET because they don’t have the Open ? It’s dealing with two seperate governing bodies and with the ET comes the Ryder Cup which is prob the main reason they have the ET - for decades Sky just had the ET

And how much money do you think has filtered down by the R&A ?

 

[Jimaroid]

people aren’t going to “stumble” across golf whilst watching you tube .

Hang on, have you used YouTube lately? I stumble into all sorts of new and weird things thanks to that mysterious algorithm. Do you know there's a growing international sport of Tig/Tag/Tick; World Chase Tag it is, grown men chasing each other around like they're in a school playground. Popped up in my YouTube one day. Wouldn't have believed it existed until then.

Anyway, it's a good point that our infrastructure is still in the dark ages but I'd also say the people least likely to sort that out are the BBC as they have zero influence over it (I say this with some sadness but that's a different topic).

 

[williamalex1]

But the problem with that argument is, if you remove the Crown Jewels the subscription channels don’t want the tat that surrounds them, as a result less is bid, less is invested, and less minority sports that can be watched now won’t be seen or viewed as the trickle effect can’t be supported.

It’s all or nothing, it’s business not a service, this is why the BBC is now a draconian outfit and needs to be commercialised and the licence fee removed, then it could compete on a level playing field.

Not an argument, only my opinion, not whether it's practical or profitable, the BBC managed to televise Wimbledon, Cricket and a few big football games. The Ryder cup is only for 3/4 days every 2 years.

 

[Pin-seeker]

Lots of golf highlights available on YouTube.
That’s how I tend to watch it now.

None golfers aren’t going to sit & watch 5hrs of every day events & then rush off to buy some clubs.
More often than not golf is pretty dull to watch.

Just look at the Major threads on here,people do nothing but whinge about it 🤷‍♂️

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Sky run a consistently brilliant Sky Go streaming service, they have a more than adequate infrastructure to stream an Open Sunday. How many people do you realistically think are going to tune in to watch? It will not be as many as were logging on to try and access the BT Sport CL Final stream. Also, we're at a point in the UK where internet speeds across the country are more than good enough to be able to watch a live stream without buffering. The average internet speed in the UK is 50.16 mbps (the county with the worst speeds on average - Cornwall still average 17.57mbps), that is comfortably enough to stream a video without issue, and if it was encoded properly and the player scaled for bandwidth properly it would work flawlessly. Just because BT messed it up, doesn't mean it would be like that for everyone.

If it was advertised well enough, if the R&A could get it Trending on Youtube and across Social Media then it has the potential for a hell of a lot more young people to "stumble" across it than tune into BBC1 or 2 on a Sunday afternoon.

Average DL speed gives a very false impression- there are millions of households that don’t get anywhere near the “advertised “.

And Sky go is shocking especially since they removed the URL and forced everyone to use the desktop APP - we have currently thousands of open cases in regards the APP - it’s has thousands of issues.

But ultimately a demographic that golf should be looking at 30’s to 40’s won’t be all over you tube etc

 

[Fish]

The golf is two bids - one for the ET and one for The Open - do you think Sky would not bid for the ET because they don’t have the Open ? It’s dealing with two seperate governing bodies and with the ET comes the Ryder Cup which is prob the main reason they have the ET - for decades Sky just had the ET

And how much money do you think has filtered down by the R&A ?

I didn’t mention any filtering by the R&A in that quote, I was referring to them (Sky) obtaining huge sums from advertising and extra subscriptions from showing those Crown Jewels which then go some way to supporting and screening the likes of hockey (ice & grass), speedway etc plus many other much less attractive sports that would disappear completely from view if they didn’t have the headliners which are attractive to advertisers.

It’s a business and until the BBC are commercialised then it won’t change as they can’t compete, although I personally believe the BBC waste vast amount of money that could be filtered into stronger bids, but whilst they use the ‘Arsenal’ method of bidding, they’ll continue to show highlights at best, which I think there comfortable with.

 

[GB72]

I see 2 conflicting arguments about the BBC. That match of the day is worth it due to the millions that watch and that the BBC warrants the licence fee so as it can produce programs without pandering to viewer numbers. Cannot have it both ways.

Football is covered everywhere and I am sure other channels would snap up the free to air highlights package so it really should not feature on the BBC radar at all. It is a stronger argument that the BBC should have golf on as a minority interest sport instead of football.

What about ditching the licence fee leaving the BBC to fend for itself as a commercial entity then people have £200 to spend on whatever subscription service suits their interests.

 

[GB72]

I

Average DL speed gives a very false impression- there are millions of households that don’t get anywhere near the “advertised “.

And Sky go is shocking especially since they removed the URL and forced everyone to use the desktop APP - we have currently thousands of open cases in regards the APP - it’s has thousands of issues.

But ultimately a demographic that golf should be looking at 30’s to 40’s won’t be all over you tube etc

I live in a rural community with poor broadband but can still stream anything I want and watch sky go in the pub. If the argument is that the open should be free, why should it matter where it is on

 

[Wolf]

I see 2 conflicting arguments about the BBC. That match of the day is worth it due to the millions that watch and that the BBC warrants the licence fee so as it can produce programs without pandering to viewer numbers. Cannot have it both ways.

Football is covered everywhere and I am sure other channels would snap up the free to air highlights package so it really should not feature on the BBC radar at all. It is a stronger argument that the BBC should have golf on as a minority interest sport instead of football.

What about ditching the licence fee leaving the BBC to fend for itself as a commercial entity then people have £200 to spend on whatever subscription service suits their interests.

I firmly believe that is what should happen, allows more freedom of choice to the people paying money out then and means the BBC has to become more like everyone else.

However queue many of here as there are everywhere stating the licence fee is well worth it, that it's a national institution and its effectively blasphemy to suggest otherwise. If