For years, golf fans' biggest television broadcast complaint has been a perceived a lack of golf shots shown in between commercials. When LIV Golf arrived in 2022, one of its goals was to create a broadcast that was both innovative and fresh while also showing as many golf shots as possible.
Members of the LIV Golf broadcast and production team this week gave Sports Illustrated an inside look at how the operation works.
“First and foremost is we see a lot more golf shots even now that we are on a major network, with commercials which we didn’t have and still don’t have on our oral feed,” says Jerry Foltz, LIV’s color commentator and analyst. “We still are able to show, I think it’s more than 40% more than anybody else."
The number of shots shown seems to be important to viewers. Last April, a Golf Monthly report said that LIV showed 19 minutes of swings per round, which was 30% more than the PGA Tour’s 14.6 minutes.
LIV broadcaster Arlo White, who’s seen the product evolve firsthand, described what he believes hooks viewers while watching golf. “It is fast-paced, it keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat,” he says. “That’s kind of what we want to do is maintain that level of intensity if you like, and that is, it’s 5.5 hours without a break.”
White, who worked for NBC Sports from 2013 to 2022 as the lead voice for its Premier League coverage, is accustomed to fast action in a sports broadcast.
“The golfers themselves are producing some great action and we just pride ourselves on being absolutely everywhere, we don’t miss a thing and the pace is everything,” White says.
Foltz believes that the PGA Tour has also improved its product in response to LIV Golf.
“The viewer experience for all golf is better now than it was three years ago, and I think that’s part of how in many ways, but this specific way how does help the PGA Tour evolve because all the feedback from fans has always been, 'we just want to see more golf shots, we want to see more golf shots,' and LIV is doing that,” he says.
The LIV Golf leaderboard is also unique to golf and similar to the Formula One racing model, which LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neill has compared to LIV. The leaderboard graphic is dynamic and fast-moving, just like the rest of the broadcast.
James Watson, the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Production at LIV Golf Investments, is the architect behind a 240-person team that produces the show. He's focused on telling a story with the broadcast while also incorporating what fans want: an abundance of golf shots.
In the control room, the LIV team is constantly analyzing players' shots to support the story being told on the main broadcast. Because of LIV's shotgun starts, most shots happen simultaneously, creating a fast-paced production room where every move must be quickly considered.
The use of an automated database by Champion Data, combined with the Smart GGI system and virtual graphics, powers the real-time coverage. Watson says that together it adds up to a fresh viewing experience.
"They built the database for us that they pull from and everything they do is automated. So the four machines we've got in here, two running the pylon and the lower frame graphics and pulling from the database and their system called Smart GGI, is narrowing down the options," Watson says. "Then we've got CND, our virtual graphics machines, with a producer trying to get in the cool innovations of the eye candy that makes it tick."
Watson also highlighted the "LIV line" that helps fans see how a putt will move before players make their strokes.
"[It's] a brilliant innovation because I look at that and think most fans at home cannot read putts, and you're not trying to give it away, you're just saying, 'Hey, he needs to hit it on this line,' and at home you can very clearly see big break up and you're able to track along with whatever the player can actually do," Watson says.
When asked if the LIV Golf broadcast would continue to evolve, Watson didn't hesitate.
"Over the past three years, have we ever stopped innovating?"
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Inside the LIV Golf TV Control Room, Which Produces a Fast-Moving Show.