The 2017 Masters are the latest major sporting event to decrease in television viewers but increase in streaming views.
Another sports event has pointed toward the future of broadcasting live competition being streaming, as the Masters TV ratings showed a drop that coincided with an uptick in streams.
According to Sports Media Watch, the television ratings for the first round tied a 12-year low. The streaming numbers, however, set a record for a Masters opening round and represented a seven percent increase from 2016. The second round continued both of those trends, as the television ratings from both rounds tied a low set in 2014 that was the lowest for the event since 1957. Once again, the streaming increased as the second round set a new record for any Masters round.
Saturday’s third round dropped 19 percent from 2016 as far as television went. The final round on Sunday was the smallest television audience for a final round since 2004.
While an unusually small television audience in general can be partially blamed for the low ratings, another factor was the absence of Tiger Woods. Woods has been TV ratings gold throughout his career.
If these trends continue, the PGA may eventually parcel out television and streaming rights as separate licenses. Currently, whichever broadcaster buys the TV rights gets the streaming license as well. As streaming audiences continue to grow and television ratings decline, the streaming content could become more valuable.
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As the Masters is evolving this way, that should be telling for other PGA events. The Masters is still the most popular golf event by the television ratings numbers by a wide margin. Devoting the limited number of television resources that broadcasters have could make less sense as the audiences continue to dwindle.
The day may come when CBS and ESPN are negotiating with the PGA for the streaming rights to separate rounds of the Masters and get the television rights thrown in.