Sports Television Programming
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Sports Television Programming: Content Selection, Strategies and Decision Making. A comparative study of the UK and Greek markets. Sotiria Tsoumita A Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD Degree at the University of Stirling January 2013 Acknowledgements There are many people that I would like to thank for their help, support and contribution to this project starting from my two supervisors: Dr Richard Haynes for all his feedback, suggestions for literature, ideas and specialist knowledge in the UK market and Prof. Wray Vamplew for all the corrections, suggestions, for the enthusiasm he showed for the subject and for allowing me the freedom to follow my interests and make decisions. A special thanks because he was also involved in the project from the very first day that I submitted the idea to the university. I would also like to thank Prof. Raymond Boyle who acted as a second supervisor at the beginning of my PhD studies. This thesis would not have existed if it wasn’t for all the interviewees who kindly accepted to share their knowledge, experiences and opinions and responded to all my questions. Taking the interviews was the most enjoyable and rewarding part of the research. I would particularly like to thank those who helped me arrange new interviews: Henry Birtles for contacting Ben Nicholas, Vasilis Panagiotakis for arranging a number of interviews with colleagues in Greece and Gabrielle Marcotti who introduced me to Nicola Antognetti who helped me contact Andrea Radrizzani and Marc Rautenberg. Many thanks to friends and colleagues for keeping an eye on new developments in the UK and Greek television markets that could be of interest to my project. 1 Last but not least, I would like to say a big thank you to my family, my father Eleftherios, my mother Anneta and my sister Sylvia, for the numerous ways they have supported me throughout this process and for always encouraging me to learn more. Their help was particularly crucial during the last months when I had to work extremely long hours in order to complete my thesis while working at my full-time job. This thesis belongs to them as well. 2 Abstract This thesis looks at the subject of sports television programming in two European markets, the UK, one of the biggest and most developed in the continent, and the Greek, one of the smallest in Europe. With the help of case studies over a period of eight years and qualitative interviews of television executives and professionals who are involved in sports television rights agreements, it analyses and compares the strategies and decision making of television organisations, the factors that affect their decisions and their success within the chosen markets. A distinction will be made between public service, commercial and pay-TV and the reasons why different sports may suit different channels and at different points in their development. The findings should help to appreciate that there is not one strategy that works universally better than another. Its outcome depends on the value of the content, the particular characteristics of the organisation and the external environment where it operates. Most importantly, the thesis highlights the importance and limitations of the TV sports content, its crucial role in the decision making process and the necessity of more academic research into the area of sports television by people in content-driven disciplines, i.e. journalism and the media. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 12 1.2. The idea and the main question of the thesis 16 1.3. Countries and case studies 20 1.4. Outline of the chapters 24 2. Theoretical Background/Literature Review (1) 28 2.1. Sports Content as a Media Product 28 2.1.1. The popularity of the Sports Content 28 2.1.2. News Values, Content Selection and Editorial Policies 30 2.1.3. News Values, Content Selection and the Demand for TV Sport 35 3. Theoretical Background/Literature Review (2) 44 3.1. Global environment and television sport 44 3.1.1 Global Environment 44 3.1.2. The impact of the external environment on television sport 46 3.1.2(a) The economy factor 47 3.1.2(b) The technology factor 50 3.1.2(c) Environment and Demography 54 3.1.2(d) Governance, conflict and cultural identity 55 4 3.1.2(e) The legal environment 58 3.2. Organisational Theory and Decision Making 63 3.2.1. Contingency Theory 63 3.2.2. Organisational Strategy 70 3.2.3. Strategic Sports Management Process 74 3.2.4. Decision Making 76 3.2.5. Sport management and sports bidding 81 3.2.6. The Unique Nature of the Sport Product 84 4. Methodology 89 4.1. Types of Research 89 4.2. Research Design – Case Studies 91 4.3. Qualitative Research – Characteristics and Methods 92 4.4. From Theory to Practice 96 4.4.1. Selecting the countries and the case studies 96 4.4.2. Selecting the literature, searching for information and the problems of the selection process 98 4.4.3. The interview process: finding interviewees 102 4.4.4. The interview process: selecting interview questions and conducting the interviews 105 5 4.4.5. Analysis of the data and the writing up process 107 5. The UK Market (Part I) 108 5.1. The history of sports television in the UK 108 5.2. Public service broadcasters 113 5.2.1 The BBC strategies in sports content selection 115 5.2.2 The BBC and the Bidding for Sports Content 120 5.2.2.1 Listed Events 124 5.2.3. Future Threats for the BBC 129 5.2.4. The EBU and Sports Rights 132 5.3. Commercial broadcasters 141 5.3.1. Sports content and the strategy of commercial broadcasters 144 5.3.2. Commercial broadcasters, bidding for sports content and the change of strategies 150 5.3.3. Future threats for commercial broadcasters 158 5.4. Pay Television 161 5.4.1. The early years. Sky V BSB 161 5.4.2. BSkyB and the first football deal 164 5.4.3. The BSkyB strategies in sport 167 5.4.4. Other pay-TV initiatives. BSkyB V ITV Digital 171 5.4.5. BSkyB V Setanta Sports 180 5.4.6. The future of pay-TV and new threats for BSkyB 188 6 6. The UK Market (Part II): New technologies and other factors that affect sport on television 194 6.1. New Technologies 194 6.1.1. Cable and IPTV 194 6.1.2. The future of IPTV in the country 198 6.1.3. WebTV and Sports Rights 201 6.1.4 Mobiles and Sports Rights 202 6.2. Sport and Viewing Rates 203 6.2.1. What do UK viewers prefer to watch on TV? The top properties, minor sports and the strategies of the Premier League 203 6.2.2. Research and Decision Making 214 6.3. Production Issues 217 6.3.1. The quality of the production 217 6.3.2. Production, relationships and the co-operation between sports federations and television stations 219 6.4. Sport Television and the external climate 222 6.4.1. Sport Television and the Economy 224 6.5. The future of sport television in the UK 226 7. The Greek Market (Part I) 229 7 7.1. The history of Sports Television in Greece 229 7.2. Public service broadcasters 235 7.2.1. The ERT Strategies in Sport 237 7.2.2. ERT and the bidding for Sports Content 239 7.2.3. ERT Digital and sports content 244 7.2.4. The Greek economic crisis and how it affects the ERT strategies 245 7.2.5. Future threats for ERT 247 7.3. Commercial Broadcasters 251 7.3.1. Sport and the strategy of commercial broadcasters 252 7.3.2. Sports bidding, financial pressures and the change of strategies before the economic crisis 256 7.3.3. The economic crisis and the impact on commercial broadcasters 259 7.3.4. Future threats for commercial broadcasters 263 7.4. Pay Television in Greece 266 7.4.1. Sport and the Nova strategies: The early years. 267 7.4.2. Nova V Alpha Digital 270 7.4.3. Nova and the collective selling of football rights 273 7.4.4. Nova during the economic crisis 279 7.4.5. Future threats for pay-TV 280 8 8. The Greek Market (Part II): New Technologies and other factors that affect sport on television 282 8.1. New Technologies 282 8.1.1. IPTV in Greece 282 8.1.2. The future of IPTV 285 8.1.3. WebTV and sports rights 287 8.1.4. Mobiles and sports rights 288 8.2. Sport and viewing rates 289 8.2.1. What do Greek viewers prefer to watch on TV? 289 8.2.2. Research and Decision Making 296 8.3. Production issues 298 8.3.1. The quality of the production 298 8.3.2. Production and the co-operation between sports federations and television stations 299 8.4. Sport Television and the external climate 301 8.4.1. Sport Television and the economy 304 8.5. The future of sport television in Greece 305 9. Conclusions 308 9 9.1. Introduction 308 9.2. What makes a sporting event a good television product? 309 9.3. What strategies do television executives follow and how do they choose sporting content for their channel? 313 9.4. Which factors – external and internal – affect the decisions of television executives and their success within a given organisation and market? 322 9.5.