Sport Content in Spanish Television Programming (1993-2010): an analysis from the audience ratings perspective

Abstract

The importance of televised sports content in Spain, chiefly football, has led to a growth in research in recent last years. Many studies have addressed this phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, including television-programming strategy, the business management relationship between television and sports, the battle for broadcasting rights or the elaboration of a television message through different broadcasting techniques. This paper seeks to add to the debate on this topic through a detailed analysis of the audience ratings of sports content aired on Spanish television channels with a nationwide coverage. To this end, we analyse the complete audience measurement data from the first period of private commercial television in Spain (1993-2010) in order to determine the most important characteristics of sports content and their true impact on audience ratings. To achieve this aim, we analysed 4,000 statistical entries from Sofres/Kantar Media’s “Anuario de audiencias de television” [Audience Yearbook] and cross referenced and studied information from more than 2,300 sport broadcasts. The results of this research underpin the role of live football broadcasts, which accounted for more than 50% of the most successful television content during that period