Sports and TV

Sports provide a scenario for what TV does best -- live, dramatic, suspenseful action

Televised sporting events (Super Bowl, World Series and Olympics) often rank among the highest viewed programs of all time

Broadcast sports touch almost every American household

Sports and Culture

Sports provide entertainment Sports affect civic “pride” Sports impact community development and

economic fortunes – every Notre Dame home game generates over $7 million in the SB community

Sports often provide a backdrop for other forces in society

Sports and TV

200 million Americans call themselves sports fans (seven out of eight adults)

In 2005-06, Americans spent $15 billion on tickets to sporting events ($9 billion on movies)

Companies spent $8.31 billion on sponsorships of sporting events (out of $12 billion overall total)

Sporting events took in $18.6 billion in revenue

Sports Broadcasting History

Major college football games were broadcast on WEAF in 1925.

Every Chicago Cub baseball game was broadcast on radio beginning in the late ‘20s.

NBC, with one camera, produced the first telecast of a sporting event, a Princeton-Columbia baseball game, in 1939.

Sports Broadcasting History

The telegraph provided baseball scores to subscribers around the nation in the early 1900s

The first radio broadcast of the sporting event was a prize fight in Pittsburgh on KDKA, April 11, 1921.

KDKA broadcast a Davis Cup tennis match on August 4, 1921, and a Pittsburgh Pirate baseball game a day later.

Sports Broadcasting History

Invention of videotape (1956) and satellite transmissions (1962) spurred the growth of television sports.

Monday Night Football (ABC) began in 1970. ESPN debuted in 1979. The all-sports network

reaches over 85 million households.

Sports Provide Television:

A programming base for broadcast networks on weekends

A promotional vehicle for other network programming

An image builder for networks and local stations A lure for non-regular viewers A community tie-in for local stations A venue for advertisers

Television Provides Sports:

Exposure Public Relations Money

However. . .

Nearly every entity that televises a sporting event loses money

ESPN is the only network to turn a profit in sports Morgan Stanley estimates total sports programming

losses of $1 billion annually.– $500-$600 million at broadcast networks– $400-$500 million at cable networks

Sports and Television

Television networks spent $6.7 billion in television rights fees in 2005-06. Production costs run into the millions

The ESPN networks telecast 51,000 hours of programming this year – triple the amount in 1994.

ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC spent more than $1 billion on sports in 2005-06, compared with $750 million on series and entertainment programming and $400 million on news.

Sports and Television

Over 94 million watched the 2007 Super Bowl

Sports and Television

Advertisers – from Budweiser to General Motors, from McDonald’s to Cialis – will spent $7.4 billion to purchase commercial time in telecasts of 2006-07 sporting events.– Auto: $1 billion– Beer: $412 million– Financial Institutions: $372 million– Telecommunications: $354 million

Sports and Television

Traditional Commercial Spots Product Placement Promotional Tie-ins-Contests Sponsorships of

– Pregame/Halftime/Postgame shows– Players of the Game– Plays of the Game– Events

Sports and Television

Commercials– $2.6 million in Super Bowl– $200,000 spot in MNF– $350,000-$400,000 on NBC’s Football in America

game

Fundamentals of Sports Television

RIGHTS’ FEES -- Whoever owns, creates or stages the sporting event also makes the decision of who gets to televise (or broadcast via radio, the internet, pay-per-view, etc.) that event.

No one can televise or broadcast an event without securing those rights.

Fundamentals of Sports Television

The owner determines the market value of the television rights and then seeks the highest bidder for those rights. The owner may be an individual team, a league, a conference, etc.

Rights’ Fees have escalated over the last decade. These fees help pay salaries for athletes and provide income for teams, leagues and conferences or the event promoter.

Rights’ Fees

NFL ESPN -- $8.8 billion ($1.1 billion annually) for Monday

Night Football through 2013 Fox -- $4.27 billion ($712.5 million annually) for NFC

Sunday afternoon package. Super Bowl in 2008 and 2011. Pro Bowls in 2008 and 2011

CBS -- $3.73 billion ($622.5 million annually) for AFC Sunday afternoon package. Super Bowl in 2007 and 2010. Pro Bowls in 2007 and 2010

Rights’ Fees

NBC: $3.6 billion ($600 million annually) for Thursday night season opener, Sunday night package, Super Bowls in 2009 and 2012; Pro Bowls in 2009 and 2012

Direct TV: $3.5 billion ($700 million annually) for NFL Sunday Ticket

TOTAL VALUE: $23.9 billion ($3.7 billion a year)

Rights’ Fees

The Olympics $793 million for Athens Games $2.2 billion for 2010 and 2012 games (NBC bid

$1 billion more than the next highest bidder)

Rights’ Fees

NCAA Men’s Basketball: CBS paid $6 billion for the NCAA sports package

over 11 years ($545 million annually) NBC pays about $5 million annually for ND

home football games

Rights’ Fees

NHL: NHL’s deal with NBC was based on profit

sharing plan – split advertising revenue after NBC deducted production costs

Television Sports

Regional/Cable Networks League/Team Owned Networks (YES, Big Ten

Network) Local TV Station Sports

– News– Locally Produced Events

Pay-Per-View

HBO pioneered this concept with boxing matches.

Now, many leagues offer game packages through satellite services.

Sports Production

Televising sports is expensive. Costs often can’t be recouped through

advertising.

Problems of Televised Sports

Pressure to win Creation of inflated sports environment Control over starting times and time outs Advertising sponsorships Sports created for television (XFL, WWF, WCW,

Extreme Games) Cross Promotion Ownership Issues

Why Don’t We See. . .

More women’s sports. . . Horse racing. . . College “Olympic” sports. . . High school sports. . . Little league games. . .