Even the first – and arguably the most prestigious – Major of the men’s professional golf season could not prevent a significant slide in the Year-on-Year TV viewing figures, according to data relating to CBS Sports’ coverage of The Masters.
Despite all of the best players from each of the top tours being in attendance, a thrilling week of action heading towards a tense conclusion, and the World’s No.1 holding off a Ryder-Cup-style leaderboard, still Sunday was unable to compete with its predecessor in 2023.
Scottie Scheffler’s four-stroke victory to claim his second Green Jacket, managed courtesy of almost video-game golf, was not enough to draw the size of audience previously seen by American broadcasters.
According to Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter, “golf viewership continues to drop.” In a post on social media, he revealed that “CBS [Sports] drew 9.589M viewers for the final round of the Masters on Sunday” – a figure that was down 20% from last year.
Adding further context, Carpenter said that Scheffler’s victory was “the second-largest deficit of the season” for CBS and the “lowest final round since 2021” when “9.450M tuned in for Hideki Matsuyama’s win.”
Golf viewership continues to drop: CBS drew 9.589M viewers for the final round of the Masters on Sunday, down 20% from last year. Scottie Scheffler’s four-shot win was the second-largest deficit of the season.Lowest final round since 2021 (9.450M for Hideki Matsuyama’s win) pic.twitter.com/gZsrJ1ZUamApril 16, 2024
Further data from Carpenter showed that “coverage peaked at 12.562M viewers from 7:00-7:15 as Scheffler wrapped up his round.” while the American broadcaster averaged just 8.210M across Saturday and Sunday.
Taking into account those who were watching on phones and tablets outside of homes, the SBJ reporter shared that “CBS earned a 21% out-of-home bump last year due to it being Easter Sunday. That number was only 8% this year.”
On a brighter note, ESPN reported that its first two days of Masters coverage attracted the best average viewership for its 3pm ET telecasts in six years.
According to the broadcaster, there was an average audience of 3.4 million over Thursday and Friday, with 3.2 million tuning into coverage of Thursday’s first round and that figure swelling to 3.6 million on…
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