PGA-LIV merger, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup ratings and more

On today's episode, Jon Lewis and Drew Lerner kick off the podcast with the bombshell news that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will merge into one entity, a topic they will return to later in the pod. Viewership news begins with how NBA Finals ratings have been steady year-over-year, despite Heat-Nuggets being a much less attractive matchup on paper than Warriors-Celtics. The crew discusses whether NBA ratings have become inelastic and will always fall within a narrow band, and if the NBA is happy about the stability or would rather see more potential for a ratings "boom." Then Jon and Drew talk about relatively poor Stanley Cup Finals viewership so far, and if the NHL regrets putting their most valuable inventory on cable.

The continuation of the PGA/LIV merger discussion gets at how this will impact professional golf from a media standpoint: how the PGA Tour media partners will react to being kept in the dark, what this means for LIV and The CW, and if ratings will even matter for the PGA Tour's bottom line after significant Saudi investment.

Jon and Drew conclude the podcast talking a bit about Rose Zhang and if she can move the needle for the LPGA, how College Softball can become an even bigger property for ESPN/ABC, and Jon's views on the show "Succession."

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