New agreement between PGA Tour and X

The news of the new agreement between the PGA Tour and X has bounced around social media first, and then on institutional media.

Linda Iaccarino, CEO of X, posted on the social network she leads on Wednesday confirming the new partnership with the PGA Tour.

“Golf fans – you are about to have more than just the Tour – on the best sports platform!”

“@X will team up with @PGATOUR to provide real-time highlights and more videos from each TOUR tournament.”

“Let’s do it!”.

Iaccarino’s statement is essentially a declaration of intent, as she does not go into detail about the content that will be available to fans on X thanks to the new partnership.

One certain fact is the number of followers.

Pga and X

X’s official page on the platform has over 67 million users, while the PGA Tour’s page approaches 3 million.

The interaction between the two pages aims to expand the user base that will be able to access the new content.

The Tour is focusing heavily on the development of digital platforms, with very encouraging results.

According to the latest surveys, weekly accesses to videos on the YouTube channel have grown by 25%, while the average contacts on the institutional website have grown by 18%.

On social platforms, instead, there has been an average growth of 16%, the same increase that has been observed in the universe of betting, where the Tour has more active partnerships.

But there is the other side of the coin.

The success in the digital world actually compensates for the TV ratings crisis that the Tour is experiencing this season.

In the tournaments played so far (including the Masters Tournament), all TV channels, indiscriminately, have recorded double-digit decreases in share compared to last season, a fact that represents a big problem from the sponsorship perspective.

The crucial point is, in my opinion, the fact that digital platforms have the enormous advantage of immediate accessibility, wherever the user is.

To compensate for this great advantage of digital, linear television must update its content offering.

Just like X is doing.