CBS prepares for its 70th straight Masters: ‘It’s immortality in golf’

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 Masters Tournament. 

Golf is a sport rich with iconic numbers — 82 wins for Sam Snead and Tiger Woods; 18 majors for Jack Nicklaus; 15 sub-60 rounds shot in PGA Tour history. So here’s a golf broadcasting number that is really impressive:

This will be the 70th consecutive year CBS broadcasts the Masters, the longest-running sports event on any one network.

“This relationship is super deep,” CBS Sports president David Berson said of the partnership with Augusta National Golf Club. “While we broadcast this event over the course of a four-day stretch, we are constantly in touch with the folks at Augusta National, our partners, our friends, around the entire year to plan for this. None of us take for granted one bit of this relationship. We’re lucky to be the stewards during this moment in time. This is not something you just kind of roll out each and every year, but every year we’re looking at every little angle, seeing how we can do it better.”

With all of its properties — the NFL, March Madness, Big Ten football, Champions League soccer, etc. — the Masters might be the one event viewers most associate with CBS, given the length of the partnership. It is also one of the wildest sports media deals that exists today. As Sportico points out, the Masters collects $0 from its domestic media deals.

Viewership has fallen in recent years. Last year’s final round of the Masters averaged 9.59 million viewers on CBS, down 20 percent from 2023 (a big caveat is that the 2023 final round aired on Easter Sunday and benefited from large out-of-home viewership). But it was also down from the 10.17 million viewers for the final round on Sunday in 2022. These numbers are also significantly down from 10 years ago, when 14 million viewers watched Jordan Spieth capture the title. There has been a lot of pre-tournament content on stars Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler being the favorites for the event, so we’ll see if that helps draw more eyeballs.

Below, we offer a Masters FAQ for viewers.

Can you give me the basics for how to watch the tournament?

Good news for fans: CBS is debuting five additional hours of live third- and final-round coverage across CBS and Paramount+. The CBS Television Network and Paramount+ will air the Masters live from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday, along with an additional two hours of live coverage Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. ET on Paramount+.

Masters Live coverage features full-day streaming with live action available on Paramount+, CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports mobile app.

ESPN has held rights to televise the first and second rounds of the Masters since 2008. Its live linear coverage commences Thursday and Friday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Through ESPN+, viewers can watch four featured groups per day and featured-holes coverage of Holes 4, 5 and 6, Amen Corner and Holes 15 and 16. ESPN will air prime-time replays of the first and second rounds Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

Who are the CBS announcers?

Jim Nantz will host the Masters for the 37th time. The 2008 Masters champion, Trevor Immelman, is the lead analyst for CBS for the third consecutive year. The most notable change is Frank Nobilo replacing Verne Lundquist on No. 16. Here’s the rest of the group: