Tiger Woods’ DUI arrest is not coming at a good time for TGL, as the league is out in the market for its next media pact after the ESPN deal concluded (plus a deal for the soon-to-be-launched women’s league). TGL’s two best audiences have both featured Woods, including the Season 2 finale last week at just south of 1 million viewers. TGL on the whole for Season 2 viewership was down 2%, a drop that would have likely been larger were it not for the new Big Data calculations. But Woods’ mishap makes things complicated for his business partners, Mike McCarley and Rory McIlroy, as they look to keep the media momentum going. Beyond TGL, the Masters’ media partners also have to be bummed that Woods won’t be teeing it up in Augusta next week.
Some bad news for diehard horse racing fans over the weekend, as Paulick Report broke news that the FanDuel TV linear network, which started back in 1999 as TVG and has focused on thoroughbred betting, is “being phased out over the next 20 months.” The channel, not to be confused with the FanDuel-branded RSNs, is in around 30 million U.S. homes. The TVG brand will apparently be brought back. My betting-minded colleague Bill King told me the move by FanDuel makes sense, especially with the proliferation of app-based wagering and the decline of cable TV. And the truth is that while most horse bettors are sports bettors, the inverse is not true.
TNT Sports struck another deal for the Savannah Bananas, with truTV and HBO Max grabbing 15 games this summer (there were 19 last summer). Each game (mostly Friday nights) will feature two teams from the Banana Ball Championship League, including the Bananas, Party Animals, Firefighters, Texas Tailgaters, Loco Beach Coconuts and Indianapolis Clowns. It’s not an exclusive deal, but another smaller one to keep populating truTV with sports content.
