Television Rights Research Articles

Analyzing the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Economies of Major European Sports Clubs in 2020

We aim to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the economies of major European sports clubs, including those in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France.This study identifies the repercussions of the suspension of numerous professional sports leagues worldwide, putting hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk and affecting the revenues of the sports industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.This study utilized data obtained from European football leagues for the year 2020 to examine the impact of the COVID-19 situation on major European clubs. Through analysis, we described the effects of the pandemic on these clubs.Key findings include the suspension of numerous professional sports leagues worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, posing a risk to hundreds of thousands of jobs. Additionally, the pandemic had a significant impact on sports industry revenues globally in 2020. Specifically, it was observed that English Premier League clubs' sports companies were particularly affected, experiencing losses ranging between 1.15 and 1.25 billion euros.The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the economy of major world clubs' sports companies, leading to a decline exacerbated by increased indebtedness. With competitions suspended and revenue sources such as match tickets, advertising, and television rights diminished, clubs faced economic strain, lacking the subsidies necessary to cover their financial burdens.

Market potential of TikTok in the context of the communication range of soccer players on social networks

The study aims to put the social network TikTok into the context of the marketing attractiveness and potential of soccer players in terms of communication range through social networks. Soccer clubs can assess the expenses of gaining additional followers through a purchased player by an evaluation of the market efficiency of individual soccer players’ followers. The study also documents positive effects ensuing from the acquisition of further followers thanks to the purchase of such a player including image, connection with fans, global reach, additional external funds through sponsorship and the sale of television rights, loyal fans and other so-called “extra-football qualities”. The study thus brings new perspectives on TikTok, as a network which has so far not been thoroughly researched, in the field of the most popular sport in the world, soccer.

Armchair fans: Modelling audience size for televised football matches

Modelling audience size for televised football matches has utility for a number of stakeholders. In the short-term it can inform the choice of broadcasters as to which matches to show and decisions of firms regarding how much to bid for advertising slots during the game. For elite clubs and leagues, for which television rights is their principal source of revenue, it offers a means of understanding which match characteristics will draw the largest audience and this should inform long-term decisions on how to structure their competitions. The paper argues that previous modelling in this area has typically depended on an inappropriate measure of audience size and unsatisfactory metrics to capture important match characteristics such as the quality of the talent on show and the significance of the match for the championship or relegation. In contrast to this prior literature, the present paper draws on sport analytics to derive its measures of player talent and match significance. This makes a material difference to findings from modelling audience size for 790 English Premier League matches between 2013 and 2019. For example, it identifies elevated interest for matches potentially significant for end-of-season outcomes. This has implications when organisers consider the optimal structure of the competition and revenue sharing arrangements between member clubs of the league. For the wider television industry, we show that measurement of audience size (and some results from modelling) are sensitive to whether focus is on the whole programme or just its core content (in this case the match itself).

Impact of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League on Financial Sustainability—Case Study of Two Small Football Portuguese Teams

Qualifying for European competitions allows football clubs to have access to the two most important football competitions played in Europe, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Thereby, participation in these important competitions has both direct (participation prizes) and indirect (player transactions, television rights, box office, advertising, sponsorship) impacts on the sustainability of European football clubs’ accounts. The current competition model, which now includes more football teams, has become more attractive for small clubs. In this context, this research aims to analyze the impact of qualification for European competitions on the sustainability of a strong economic and financial structure of small clubs through a case study analysis of two small Portuguese clubs. The quantitative analysis is also supported by a comparative analysis, which was reinforced with nonparametric statistical analysis. The results show that the economic and financial impact on small clubs was not immediate, but was beneficial if it was managed efficiently. This research contributes to increasing knowledge of the decision-making agents of clubs that are participating for the first time in European competitions, or, if recurrent, are seeking answers and guidelines for the effective management of football teams.

The Role of Tournament Relevance for Football Matches on Free-to-Air Television

Abstract: Most papers analyze the broadcast demand for a single league. However, professional football clubs participate in two or more tournaments simultaneously every season. Hence, the perception of fans may differ. This is a relevant topic, since television rights constitute the main source of revenue for professional football. The Brazilian football market is an appropriate laboratory to test it: The first division teams play two national-level tournaments, including a state-level championship, and the top clubs also compete in an international championship. The dataset comprises 458 broadcast matches in Brazil from 2013 to 2015. The singularity of this sample is that all matches are broadcast by the same free-to-air television channel. Three panel data linear regressions with local team fixed effects are carried out. The results indicate differences in the broadcast demand among tournaments. Marginal effects might help television channels, leagues, and clubs find optimal broadcast rights deals.

La médiatisation du football : un jeu sous contrôle

Cet article analyse les transformations de la médiatisation du football professionnel en Europe depuis les années 1980 à travers la « couverture » française des compétitions européennes. S’appuyant essentiellement sur des entretiens, l’enquête en cours montre qu’il s’agit moins d’un processus d’« européanisation » que d’une transnationalisation et une économicisation croissantes du spectacle sportif médiatisé. Le sous-espace du journalisme sportif se structure selon un continuum de positions liées en partie au volume de capital économique des médias, qui conditionne en partie la détention ou non des « droits télévisés », c’est-à-dire l’accès au « spectacle », à ses coproducteurs. En effet, l’espace médiatique est devenu tellement stratégique dans la coproduction des représentations sociales que les agents et les institutions les plus professionnalisées cherchent de plus en plus à mettre à distance les journalistes. Cette intensification des logiques commerciales dans l’espace du football professionnel a des effets sur les pratiques journalistiques et les contenus entre ceux qui sont dans le « jeu » et ceux qui sont en partie exclus du « jeu ».

Fútbol para Todos (Soccer for All): Democratization, Populist Legitimization or Quasi-Authoritarianism?

In 2009 the Argentine government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner created Fútbol para Todos (Soccer for All), a programme that led to a policy of direct state intervention in the acquisition of government television rights for the transmission of soccer matches throughout Argentina. Does Fútbol para Todos serve as a tool for the democratization of Argentinean society, a strategy for populist legitimization, or as an embodiment of quasi-authoritarianism? Successive Argentine governments have politicized soccer. Fútbol para Todos has served as a tool for populist legitimization, but also as a strategy designed to legitimize state interference in a historically private domain, promote government propaganda through a new state monopoly, and strengthen governance processes through popular approval under the ambit of the ‘democratization’ slogan. Fútbol para Todos thus aims to use the state as an agent in the construction of better governance processes for all, but it also reinforces the historical union between soccer and establishment political power in Argentina. Fútbol para Todos is populist in tone and appears democratic, but also masks a darker undercurrent of quasi-authoritarian tendencies in Argentina.

Multiciteria evaluation of football clubs: the Greek Superleague

Football in Greece, as well as in whole world, exceeds the limits of simply the most commercial and widespread sport, becoming additionally a major issue in the political agenda. This can easily become understood, observing the impact of crucial football events (Mundial, Euro Cup, Champion’s League etc.) in world level. Besides the above events, each football league attracts the interest of people, media and politicians. Many studies have been done in this field, focusing mostly on the efficiency of football clubs, especially in countries such as England, Spain and Germany. The aim of this paper is to examine the performance of Greek football clubs competing in the Superleague for the period 2012–2014, regarding three different aspects (financial, commercial and sport). Our study differentiates from similar studies in the following points: (a) three different dimensions are examined in order to obtain a global view of football clubs, (b) the sample regards Greek Superleague teams, a regional and not so wealthy championship compared to other Europeans, and (c) the aim is to rank the teams, accordance to these aspects and not identify the efficient and not efficient teams. A well-known and established multiple-criteria decision making method (PROMETHEE II) is used, which has been found appropriate in several topics regarding ranking problems. In order our results to be meaningful, a decision maker assisted in the selection of the most influential factors in football clubs evaluation. The results partly verify earlier studies, since football clubs, with a few exceptions and surprises, were found financially imbalanced, with strong profitability, solvency and liquidity problems. The dependence of Greek Superleague on television rights and the basic sponsorship of OPAP (state betting company) is highly conspicuous amid the wider and much discussed European economic crisis in the field of football. Development trends via proposals of specific economic and social activities are listed, in response to the state and administrative mismanagement throughout the years.

The Rise of the Local: The Power of Regional Sports Networks in the Television Marketplace

The skyrocketing rights fees for national, regional, and local sports-television packages in the United States have made headlines over the last few years. While the multibillion-dollar national rights for the National Football League drew the most attention, similar deals at the regional and local levels are just as important for other professional sports leagues and teams as well as collegiate conferences. This study focuses on the transformation of regional sports networks and professional sports between 2000 and 2015. This analysis found clear trends, including the migration of local television rights from fee-to-air to pay platforms; the dramatic increases in both the rights paid for in such packages and the cost for local television households; and the concentration of ownership of these regional networks in three major conglomerates: Twenty-First Century Fox (Fox Sports Networks), Comcast (NBC Sports Regional Networks), and AT&T (AT&T/DirecTV Sports Networks)

The Premier League-European Commission Broadcasting Negotiations

This intervention analyses the new arrangements for the sale of live television rights to FA Premier League (FAPL) games. The new procedures have been produced as a result of ongoing discussions between the FAPL and the European Commission. To ensure compliance with European Union competition legislation, the Premier League has accepted the Commission’s calls for an end to its exclusive distribution of live broadcast rights, bringing to an end BSkyB’s 15-year monopoly of its main subscription driver (Buck and Terazono, 2005). Here, we examine the aims of the European Commission in pursuing the FAPL’s exclusive deal with BSkyB (Sky) and consider whether the deal that has been brokered provides any tangible benefits to the consumer.

YOU ARE CLOSE TO YOUR RIVAL AND EVERYBODY HATES A WINNER: A STUDY OF RIVALRY IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

We use a recent survey of college (American) football fans to study rivalry, where we find most intense rivalries occur between in-state teams. Relatedly, within a conference fans are more likely to target rivalrous feelings toward winningest teams and, in Bowl Championship Series conferences, teams who have been conference members for a longer proportion of time. While stakes are different from other settings, such as warring nations, college football teams compete for resources and often have loyal followings with strong emotional ties. Thus, examining rivalrous feeling in this setting provides insights into rivalry more generally besides being of interest in its own right as college football is a multi-billion dollar industry. (JEL L22, L83) I. INTRODUCTION For millions of Americans, Saturdays in fall are synonymous with college (American) football. College football has a pageantry all its own as people gather in groups, sometimes in excess of 100,000, to cheer for their team and socialize even though many fans have no real connection to university. On field teams compete to win games and over course of a season teams compete to win their conference title. However, many fans do not view all opponents in conference in same way--games against some opponents are considered more important irrespective from their impact on conference standings. For example, University of Arizona and Arizona State University have played for Territorial Cup for over 100 years. (1) Similarly, University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota compete for Paul Bunyan's Axe while University of Alabama and University of Tennessee play on the third Saturday in October. (2) Sanford and Scott (2014) find that fans are willing to pay higher ticket prices for rivalry games and these games generate significant television revenue. Despite amateur status of players, college football is an $8 billion industry. (3) Several high profile teams are valued at over $100 million dollars each (Brewer et al. 2011). Team revenue comes from a variety of sources (television rights, merchandising, fan support, etc.) and on field success and profit are connected through these channels. In addition, teams find themselves repeatedly battling over resources needed to compete on field, namely players and coaches. In this sense, football rivalries are similar to rivalries between siblings, firms, or nations. Sibling rivalries form when children compete for scarce resources (financial, attention, etc.) from their parents (Garg and Morduch 1998; Morduch 2000). The cola wars between Coke and Pepsi and diaper wars between Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble arise because these comparable companies offer slightly differentiated products in same markets. Rivalries between warring nations also often involve prolonged competition over scarce resources (Goertz and Diehl 1993; Klein, Goertz, and Diehl 2006). Rivalry is a subjective phenomenon (Kilduff, Elfenbein, and Staw 2010), but it has an identifiable set of antecedents. Geographical proximity is typically an important determinant of conflict, even in context of firm-level rivalries as argued for instance in Yu and Canella (2007). Identity also plays an important role in creation of a rivalry (Menon, Thompson, and Choi 2006). Finally, history and outcomes of previous interactions are another key determinant of rivalries (Kahneman and Miller 1986; Miller and Chen 1996). All three of these factors are at play in college football. Conferences are typically comprised of comparable schools in a particular region. Fans identify with their team by wearing certain clothes and in more extreme cases with body paint and other adornments. Despite periodic conference realignment, many teams play each other year after year. Thus, we believe that in addition to being interesting in its own right, examining what drives rivalrous feelings in college football can provide insight into rivalry more generally. …

Copyright and Sport Broadcasting in Australia and England

Television rights are an essential component of the revenue generated by professional sporting leagues, and protecting the copyright in the broadcasting of matches is therefore of significant importance to these leagues. A Federal Court decision has held that there had been in breach of copyright when Optus allowed its mobile phone users to access matches on a two minute delay. However, European and English Courts have held that the plaintiff’s copyright only existed in the anthem, graphics and recorded highlights, not in the actual matches.

Peter Ueberroth's Legacy: How the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Changed the Trajectory of the Olympic Movement

Interest in staging the Olympic Games waned in cities across the world in the 1970s, given the intrusion of world geo-politics on recent festivals and the exploding costs of staging them. In running the show in Los Angeles, Peter Ueberroth prioritised pre-existing facilities, a new and more profitable means of affiliating corporate sponsors with an organising committee, and maximising revenue from television rights negotiations. His success encouraged cities to re-enter the bidding for Olympic festivals, and when combined with initiatives launched by the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, brighter days for the IOC lay ahead in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, Ueberroth's legacy was not well managed ultimately by Samaranch, who permitted the enhanced competition among bid cities, and the behaviour of bid officials and some of his own members to endanger the IOC's reputation and autonomy, highlighted notably by the Salt Lake City scandal. Last, in light of the cost of the Olympic festivals in Beijing and Sochi, and its dampening effect on the current host city bidding environment, it seems wise for the IOC and future bid cities to re-visit the Ueberroth model for lessons in cost containment, and like Ueberroth, exhibit a willingness to explore novel, more cost-effective means for cities to host the Olympic Games.

Break Point: A Case Study of How Globalization and Technology Led to New Tennis Media Gatekeepers in the United States

This article presents a case study of the developments in media gatekeeping in the last 10 years, focusing on the launch of the Tennis Channel and the ascendance of ESPN as the major network for professional tennis in the United States. The U.S. broadcast networks NBC and CBS have ceded the exclusive television rights for 2 of the Grand Slam tournaments (Wimbledon, U.S. Open) to ESPN for the first time in over 40 years. Meanwhile, the Tennis Channel, despite its independence from the media conglomerates, has carved out a niche for fans with its extensive global coverage of tournaments and for advertisers with its lucrative audience demographics. This change in dominance after the broadcast networks reigned for over 4 decades underscores the globalization of the sport and the abundance of early-round tournament matches available to fans. Organizational theories are used to analyze what has occurred and to predict what will happen next for tennis media gatekeeping in the United States.

Choice of law in the court of arbitration for sport: overview, critical analysis and potential improvements

At the time of writing this article, the All Blacks had won the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Andre Agassi had released his controversial autobiography, FC Bayern Munchen had just lost to Chelsea FC in the UEFA Champions League Final, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were due to head off in the final of the Italian Open, and athletes and fans all over the world were eagerly awaiting the London 2012 Olympics. Whether one realises it or not, sport permeates our lives on a daily basis. We are surrounded by it in the media, on the streets, in stores and the now international sport is causing the legal world to take notice. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is an international arbitral tribunal that settles international sports-related disputes such as breaches of employment contracts; eligibility, suspension, qualification and transfer of players; sponsorship and television rights disputes; disciplinary action and athlete doping, etc. These types of disputes will all be submitted to CAS if the contract between the parties contains an arbitration clause in favour of CAS, or if the statutes, rules or regulations of a sports-related body designate CAS as the appeal body of their decisions. The dispute is then designated to either the Ordinary Arbitration Division or the Appeal Arbitration Division for determination. Given CAS’s international dimension, it is necessary for CAS to first determine the governing law of the contract or dispute, before applying this law to the merits of the dispute. The Code of Sports Related Arbitration provides two “choice of law” rules for this purpose (the CAS Approach). I seek to comprehensively outline the CAS Approach for determining the governing law in both the Ordinary and Appeal Arbitration Divisions. I then seek to critically and comparatively analyse the CAS approach against the choice of law rules contained in EC Regulation No 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations 2008, and use this analysis as the basis for my suggestions for improvement to the CAS Approach.

What Motivates Donors to Athletic Programs

In the highly competitive college sport environment, many varsity sport programs have financial systems independent from the academic side of the university. These programs function on multimillion dollar budgets partially funded through ticket sales, licensed merchandise, and television rights. However, donations from alumni and boosters account for the most substantial portion of many athletic budgets. Fund-raising efforts in this environment have not had available models of donor behavior from which to streamline solicitation efforts. Using the Existence Relatedness Growth (ERG) Theory as a guide, this article fills this gap by reporting on the development and testing of an integrated model of college donor motives: A Model of Athletic Donor Motivation (MADOM). Using a sample of college sport donors ( N = 532), the results yield a psychometrically sound eight-factor measurement scale: A Scale of Athletic Donor Motivation (SADOM). Study implications and practical applications of the scale are discussed.

English

The growth of civil societies depends on many factors; a key component is the development of a robust variety of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide programs and services that a government cannot, will not or should not provide. NGOs also hold government and corporations accountable through efforts to increase transparency. But, NGOs can only sustain their efforts and succeed with public support. This descriptive research project gauges levels of public support for NGOs in different sectors of Georgian society. In 2012, using the chain-referral (or snowball) methodology, 961 respondents completed an online questionnaire to assess these attitudes. Key results indicate strong support (69%) for NGOs that are “helping people in Georgia live in a free country” by focusing on such issues as “voting, freedom for the press, television and individual rights.” This contrasts with the generally negative opinion (55%) that shows respondents perceive NGOs as “not effective” or ‘somewhat effective” in the broad mission of “meeting people’s needs.” In addition, 56% of the respondents reflected these negative views when asked about “NGOs helping people in Georgia with basic needs (food, housing, health services, clothing).” Noting the research limitations, the article concludes with suggestions for NGOs, the government and corporations, the three key components in developing civil societies. Key words: Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Georgia, Republic of Georgia, civil society, public attitudes.

Assessment of private sector funding for professional football clubs playing in premier league in Northern Nigeria

This study assessed private sector funding for professional football clubs playing in premier league in Northern Nigeria. To achieve this, questionnaire on private sector funding for professional football clubs was developed, validated and utilized for this study. Kitting of players, building of stadium, travelling, insurance and television rights constituted items in the questionnaire. A major hypothesis sought to find out if there were significant differences in private sector funding among the professional football clubs in Northern Nigeria as viewed by respondents. The questionnaire was administered on 90 respondents from the 6 clubs randomly picked from the 3 geo-political zones in Northern Nigeria (2 clubs from each zone). This gave us 30 respondents from each of the geo-political zones. Mean and Analysis of Variance were applied to describe and test the hypothesis. The result showed that private sector does not give meaningful funding to professional football clubs in Northern Nigeria. It was also found that there was significant difference in private sector funding for professional football clubs in Northern Nigeria playing in the Premier League. It is therefore recommended that professional football clubs in Northern Nigeria should seek for private sector funding for the activities of their clubs

Football's Coming Home?: Digital reterritorialization, contradictions in the transnational coverage of sport and the sociology of alternative football broadcasts

This article critically utilizes the work of Manuel Castells to discuss the issue of parallel imported broadcasts (specifically including live-streams) in football. This is of crucial importance to sport because the English Premier League is premised upon the sale of television rights broadcasts to domestic and overseas markets, and yet cheaper alternative broadcasts endanger the price of such rights. Evidence is drawn from qualitative fieldwork and library/Internet sources to explore the practices of supporters and the politics involved in the generation of alternative broadcasts. This enables us to clarify the core sociological themes of 'milieu of innovation' and 'locale' within today's digitally networked global society.

What’s a Movie Worth? Determining the Monetary Value of Motion Pictures’ TV Rights

Motion pictures remain among the most valuable products for broadcast by television (TV) stations around the globe. As a result, TV broadcast rights generate more revenues than the theater box office for the movie studios that own these assets and are often a crucial element in a film’s financing. A key managerial challenge for studios and for TV broadcasters is to determine the monetary value of the TV rights for a movie. This research develops a multi-equation model of a movie’s monetary TV rights value that accounts both for the differences in value-related information over time and for the differences in project-related risk associated with the varying information availability. Drawing on a large data set of U.S.-produced movies that aired on German TV, the authors estimate the model parameters simultaneously through partial least squares modeling as a prediction tool. This approach allows them to separate direct and indirect effects among value drivers and to estimate the monetary value of the German TV rights for individual movies for different points in time. Sellers and buyers can use the model to increase the efficiency and reduce the riskiness of price negotiations for the right to broadcast a particular film on TV.