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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.

Over the past few years the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women’s basketball tournament has drawn larger crowds, generated increased television ratings, and attracted higher levels of advertising spending. Division I women’s basketball is now viewed as the women’s “revenue” sport. In light of the limited analysis of the organizational conditions that frame college-sport broadcast production, this case study examines the impact of influential actors on the representation process of big-time college-basketball telecasts. Using a mixed-method approach, this article investigates production conditions and processes involved in producing women’s basketball tournament broadcasts, examines the extent to which these broadcasts are consistent with the NCAA’s educational mission, and considers the dominant institutional logic that underpins their reproduction. In so doing, this case study provides a critical examination of women’s basketball tournament broadcasts and how such broadcasts constitute, and are constituted by, choices in television production structures and practices.

As the United States’ largest intercollegiate athletic event, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s basketball tournament consistently generates high television ratings and attracts higher levels of advertising spending than the Super Bowl or the World Series. Given the limited analysis of the organizational conditions that frame these broadcasts’ production, this study examines the impact of influential actors on the representation process. Using a mixed-method approach, this paper investigates production conditions and processes involved in producing a sample (n = 31) of NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament broadcasts, examines the extent to which these broadcasts are consistent with the NCAA’s educational mission, and considers the dominant institutional logic that underpins their reproduction. In so doing, this analysis provides a critical examination of the 2006 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament broadcasts, and how such broadcasts constitute, and are constituted by, choices in television production structures and practices.

The 2002 season represented the fourth consecutive year in which ABC’s NFL Monday Night Football ratings have declined. The difficulty of predicting which teams will be good has made it challenging to put together a schedule of compelling games that will attract an audience. If team success is not a certain predictor, perhaps the behavior of the sports audience can be used as a more efficient variable in the scheduling of games. This study examined the overall national rating of the teams and the TV ratings in each NFL city for the 17 Monday Night Football games in 2002. The findings, as expected, demonstrated that more people of a particular city watched Monday Night Football when the team from that city was playing as compared with when they were not. It was also found, interestingly, that games in which a rival of the home team was playing also drew an audience from the home city.

Research conducted here aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about gender differences in sport spectatorship. While media coverage of sports represents a “gendered experience”, recent research has questioned the explanatory value of anatomical sex for understanding differences in sport consumption. Analyses of TV ratings for German national team football presented here are set out to test the idea that women are more likely to constitute an “armchair” or “fair weather” audience. Even though watching national team football is clearly a male domain and the men’s team is much more popular, female and male audiences for the men’s team respond to the same set of product characteristics, which supports the idea that women follow men in their TV sport consumption. Moreover, results point to gender differences in demand for women’s team matches supporting the idea that it matters how gendered sport is. Suggestions for future research and policy are made.

This study examines both the general narratives of baseball in Taiwan and particularly New York Yankees-related narratives since Taiwanese player Chien-ming Wang joined the team in 2005. By reviewing newspaper coverage and TV ratings data, I argue that a nationalistic perspective was the undertone in the Taiwanese mass media; indeed, the media could define the Yankees as Taiwan’s vicarious national team or the “Evil Empire”, depending on Wang’s current relationship with the Yankees. However, with Wang’s departure from the Yankees, the Yankees have been removed from Taiwan’s nationalistic narratives and returned to being New York’s team. The idea of athletes connecting their homeland and the nation hosting the professional team seemed common and straightforward. However, as the relationship between athletes and their teams change, team-related national narratives can also change.

The central aim of this study was to evaluate the broadcast strategies of Australia’s 2 leading commercial sports leagues, the Australian Football League and the National Rugby League. Specifically, the research focused on assessing the degree of exclusivity and geographic reach embedded in each broadcast agreement. In doing so, the research considered the impact of strategy in providing value to the broadcasters and teams, as well as utility to fans of each league, within Noll’s framework of broadcasting principles.