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A Telecast Unlike Any Other: Inside the Masters’ $0 TV Deals

Eben Novy-Williams
·2 min read

The Masters bills itself as “a tradition unlike any other,” and while the moniker may be debatable, there is at least one way the event sets itself apart from every other major sporting event on the U.S. calendar.

The golf major collects $0 from its media deals. That’s right, neither ESPN nor CBS pays a cent for the rights to televise the Masters, which last year drew an average of 12 million viewers in its final round.

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In a recent explainer video, Sportico broke down the unique media setup, and the different ways that each party benefits.

Media rights are one of the principal revenue drivers for most major U.S. sports properties. The NBA collects $5 billion per year in media payments, about 44% of its income. The NFL collects more than $10 billion, just over half of the revenue earned by the league and its 32 teams. The NFL recently sold a single playoff game for $110 million. The Masters, by some estimates, could command in the neighborhood of $125 million annually for its rights.

Not only are ESPN and CBS not paying for the rights to the tournament, they’re also barely monetizing them. CBS has agreed to air just four minutes of ads per hour, about a quarter of what’s typically seen in other major sports telecasts. Those ads are covered by just three Masters sponsors—IBM, Mercedes-Benz and AT&T—which paid about $24 million last year for the right, a price designed specifically to cover the network’s production costs.

The $0 media deals do come with other caveats, specifically restrictions on what the on-air broadcasters can (and cannot) say during the event. The Masters has its own jargon—the fans are “patrons,” the rough is the “second cut”—which the networks agree to maintain. They’ve also agreed not to mention the tournament’s $18 million prize purse, or the companies that advertise on players shirts.

With assistance from Anthony Crupi.

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