CBS Golf’s huge ratings increase in 2025

Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money – whether you’re billions of dollars in the NFL or a slightly smaller billions of dollars in golf journey run by Roger Goodell’s right-hand man now, it’s nice to know that your business is heading in the right direction.
When the golf world shifts its attention to the FedEx Cup playoffs, people on the PGA Tour and people on the CBS can have some optimism in both.
With CBS’s responsibilities, when the PGA Tour broadcast partner completed 2025, the network released the most promising overall data of the golf year. In a release earlier this week, CBS reported an average viewership of its PGA Tour TV broadcasts to increase by 17% year-on-year, the best year on the web since 2018. According to the network, CBS Golf’s average audience in 2025 provided an average audience of 2.696 million, a competitor was the best viewer in 2024, a frequent and friendly volume, which is the best choice for CLOFF. 2025 season.
If you pay attention to TV ratings, then CBS’s announcement won’t be surprised. Of the 19 final rounds of PGA Tour TV broadcasts on CBS, 14 of them received year-on-year ratings gains since 2024, with many landing viewers catching double-digit gains in the previous year. If the base stats aren’t striking enough, CBS also welcomes the encouraging trend of winners, with the 2025 season led by victories from two of the Tour’s biggest stars, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, including the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Memorial Tournament, including the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Memorial Tournament.
The news grew as a welcome for the network and tour, as freefall ratings highlight a brutal 2024 season and a widespread concern about Leff’s harmful effects on weekly tournament golf. But, like all TV ratings, numbers aren’t just eye-catching – so let’s dive into the biggest gains below.
1. CBSSports’ golf confidence is rewarded
Last year, as golf TV ratings approached its lowest point, I was surprised by the upcoming vote of confidence in golf, David Berson, CEO of CBS Sports.
“We shouldn’t be ahead of ourselves when it comes to ratings,” he told me at the PGA Championship. “It’s too early to worry.”
At that time, I was surprised that Belson would go any Defend the length of the PGA Tour. So far, in my calculations of the Tour War, CBS has a larger axe to grind: The network shelled hundreds of millions of dollars for the PGA Tour product, which accidentally lost two years of consent, a 10-year agreement that is now struggling with a historically low ratings over a season with little hope for a new domination.
But the rating is damn, Berson’s long-lasting view. He said the tour had poor ratings in mid-2024, but there are still many reasons to be enthusiastic about the downstream benefits of the competition changes this tour has been installed. Plus, golf is in the midst of the tiger flux, with Scottie Scheffler taking over Woods’ dominance, but not yet replacing his star power. Belson suggests that all these changes will disappear over time and the ratings will rebound.
Fifteen months later, Besson’s confidence paid off and his broader view of the PGA Tour situation didn’t look too bad either.
Two weeks ago, we wrote about expected changes in the CBS headquarters as the network prepares for a major merger with Skydance Productions run by the Ellison family. As one of the cash-rich and pre-asset components of CBS business, the Sports Department is still on a stable basis and enters the merger. Still, the positive rating report still has a long way to go in building the strength of the CBS Sports portfolio, including new Skydance CEO David Ellison and his golf-crazy dad Larry.
Two days after the golf rating report, the FTC finalized the Skydance/Paramount merger on Thursday. As we wrote a few weeks ago, we expect CBS Sports will remain a major part of the new look Paramount, but it shows that CBS’ ratings releases include boundaries about streaming growth – a focus under the new regime.
3. Good for geese…
The general sentiment among American TV partners who toured over the years was that you could have more money or better TV products, but not both. This seems to be the case anymore.
CBS’ golf rebounding is well documented under producer sellers, but both NBC changes and PGA Tour research seem to improve the overall golf viewing experience in 2025 in 2025, with little to the cost of advertisers.
There is still room for improvement, but for the first time in a few years, the boiling tension between golf viewers and their broadcasters seems to ease.
communication
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4. Fans…forward?
Fan Fen, who is a highly-profile fan survey of the tour, has provided many viable learnings for golf television broadcasts in 2025, including a deeper focus on tangent stories and shifting the transition from Tap-In Putts. In the big picture, the tour hopes that minor improvements to television broadcasts will help fans connect more with players, which will lead to a larger, more dedicated audience. But in smaller cases, the changes made by the investigation are more about what to do Can To improve tour broadcasts, rather than focusing all your travels on inability (reducing advertising).
Of course, no one believes that the fans are moving forward grateful For 2025 ratings increase, but the basic arguments for searching and implementing improvements for fan recommendations seem to have made some positive changes to golf.
5. Nelson is important
Nielsen’s adjustment to the rating method over the years was to make the many annual tax payments of sports TV ratings. Some Role in the 2025 Tour Rebound.
Nielsen’s goal has been to capture the most accurate sample of American viewing audiences, although changes in viewing habits and attitudes have made this work more difficult over time. Golf’s radio and older viewers have been one of the harder samples Nielsen captured (the thorn next to many TV executives). Nielsen has changed in 2025 to incorporate more outdoor viewing, which could make the overall viewership of golf a bit agnostic, although there is reason to be optimistic that these changes are Impossible Considering the 17% viewership bulge of CBS.
In other words, the news is still beneficial for the golf’s TV partners…maybe a friendly boost from viewership collectors.
;)
James Colgan
Golf.comEdit
James Colgan is Golf news and writes stories for websites and magazines. He manages the media verticals of popular microphones, golf, and leverages his camera experience on the brand platform. Before joining golf, James graduated from Syracuse University, during which time he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and Astute looper) from Long Island, where he came from. He can be contacted at james.colgan@golf.com.