Determinants of Regional Sport Network Television Ratings in MLB, NBA, and NHL
in Journal of Sport ManagementClick name to view affiliation
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This paper examines the determinants of live game Regional Sport Network (RSN) average annual ratings in three major North American professional sport leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). A conceptual model of the determinants of club RSN ratings is constructed based on a marketing management framework. Five categories of determinants are identified: Product-Club, Product-Player, Brand-Club, Brand-Player, and Place. Data were collected over a 12-year period (1999–2011) for a total of 46 independent variables. The list of independent variables was reduced to 16 factors and a proxy variable for each of the factors identified. Univariate and multivariate analyses were undertaken. Strong support for the each of the five categories in the conceptual model was found for the pooled sample of all three leagues. Results at the individual league level revealed league differences in the relative importance of individual variables. Implications for future research and practice are presented.
George Foster is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Management at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Norm O’Reilly is the Richard P. and Joan S. Fox Professor of Management in the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University. Carlos Shimizu and Neal Khosla are with the Graduate School of Management at Stanford University. Ryan Murray is with the School of Human Kinetics (Sport Management) at the University of Ottawa. Address author correspondence to Norman O’Reilly at oreillyn@ohio.edu.
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