One of the biggest ways of generating revenue in any sport is television coverage. The profit it further creates from advertisements and sponsorships is the oldest and most reliable way of bringing in the bucks.

But the Open Championship fell flat this year when it comes to television viewership. According to reports, this is the first time the British Open has seen such a steep fall in the last seven years despite Brian Harman’s big win.

The Open Championship creates its lowest record for viewership

The Open Championship was the last betting horse of this year in the race of gathering a huge mass of TV viewers and thus generating profit through advertisement. But compared to other years of broadcast, this year proved to be the lowest in viewership. As Brian Harman charged to victory at Hoylake on Sunday, the amount of viewers it drew was 3.352 million. NUCLR GOLF shared this update on its Twitter account. 

According to them, “NBC drew 3.352M viewers on Sunday for Brian Harman’s runaway victory. It’s the lowest watched final round at the Open since 2015 at St. Andrews when there was a Monday finish.”

In 2015 the final round was held on Monday because heavy rain and very strong winds suspended the event for two days. Having a final on a weekday, that too on a Monday showed drastic results.

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This is a huge setback for the sponsors and the committee who rely heavily on television numbers. The three rounds on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are average players. But it the always the final round on Sunday that attracts the biggest audience.  The arrival of the internet and streaming services has indeed had a major negative impact on television viewership.

NBC measures for the Open Championship broadcasting

The Open has been broadcasted on TV since 1955, with BBC being the first channel to broadcast the event.

Now the broadcasting rights are held by NBC for the British Open which earlier used to broadcast the US Open. They purchased the rights for a span of 11 years with $50 million rights fee per year. The tournament was broadcasted on Saturday from 7 Am to 3 PM and the final on Sunday from 7 AM to 2 PM. Besides that, other arrangements were also done for the event. An exclusive ‘Open Championship All Access’ program was shown on Peacock on Thursday and Friday.

The last time Open Championship enjoyed a big viewership was in 2018, when it earned a 4.3 rating and 6.48 million viewers with Francisco Molinari winning the championship.

Why do you think has the viewership dropped down? Let us know in the comments below.

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