Capítulo V Planteamiento de estrategias
Anexo 2. Formatos de la validación de juicio por expertos, entrevistas y encuestas
Major sporting events represent a significant source of revenue for the television sector. In 1996, Rupert Murdoch observed that sport “absolutely overpowers film and all other forms of entertainment in drawing viewers to television.”181 Premium sport was described as a “battering ram” for the
expansion of his pay-‐TV empire,182 and this is evident from Foxtel’s role in
relation to the Super League saga (discussed in the following chapter). Ofcom reports that sport remains the genre that generates the most television revenue for the UK multi-‐channel sector.183 Fundamental to the economic
value of sport to broadcasters is the mass appeal of live sports events in particular, and the ability of such events to attract large audiences.184 In
addition to the limited impact of technological developments such as time-‐ shifting, the commercial potential of sports events is generally not impeded by cultural or language barriers.185
Television broadcasters are consequently willing to bid aggressively for the live broadcasting rights to major sporting events. This is demonstrated by
180 Revenue will be distributed as follows: (i) 90 per cent to all of the clubs in La Liga, of which half will
be shared equally between the 20 clubs, and the other half will be divided according to criteria such as performance and size; and (ii) the remaining 10 per cent to the second division clubs, of which 70 per cent will be divided equally between such clubs. Royal Decree-‐Law 5/2015 of 30 April on urgent measures in relation to the commercialisation of audiovisual rights of professional football competitions.
181 Rupert Murdoch at the Annual General Meeting of News Corp in 1996, as cited in Ellis Cashmore
and Ernest Cashmore, Making Sense of Sports (Taylor & Francis 2010) 400.
182 Robert Milliken, ‘Sport is Murdoch’s “Battering Ram” for Pay TV’ The Independent (16 October
1996) <http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/sport-‐is-‐murdochs-‐battering-‐ram-‐for-‐pay-‐tv-‐
1358686.html> accessed 13 August 2017.
183 Ofcom (n 152) 170.
184 An early study by Steiner of the programming decisions of broadcasters showed how the demand
for radio broadcast rights depends on the total size of the potential audience. Peter O Steiner, ‘Program Patterns and Preferences and the Workability of Competition in Radio Broadcasting’ (1952) 66(2) Quarterly Journal of Economics 194.
increasing expenditure on such rights. In 2014, expenditure on sports programming across the UK multi-‐channel sector was £2.12billion.186 This represents a 21 per cent increase on 2013.187 Sky fulfils a notable role in this
trend when reference is made to the proportion of Sky’s content expenditure that is dedicated to sport. In 2015, Sky invested £4.89billion in content.188 This is not far off the £5.14billion UK television rights deal which the Premier League secured in 2015, of which Sky will pay £4.18billion over three years.189
The ability to attract large audiences, particularly of the young male demographic (who typically watch the least amount of television), also makes live sporting events especially valuable from an advertising revenue perspective. The US Super Bowl attracts the largest mass audience which an advertiser may reach at any one time on television.190 The 2015 Super Bowl
was the most watched US television programme in history with an average audience of 114.4million viewers (i.e. 40 per cent of the US population).191
Advertisers are willing to pay large sums for such exposure, with 30-‐second advertising slots costing US$5million each.192
186 Ofcom (n 152) 182-‐183.
187 Ofcom suggests this is likely to be due, at least in part, to the fact that 2014 was the first full year
to reflect the higher Premier League rights payments following the 2012 television rights auction. ibid 182.
188 ‘Annual Report 2015’ (Sky plc, 2015) 15 <http://s3-‐eu-‐west-‐1.amazonaws.com/skygroup-‐sky-‐
static/documents/annual-‐report-‐2015/annual-‐report-‐spreads-‐2015.pdf> accessed 13 August 2017.
189 Owen Gibson, ‘Sky and BT retain Premier League TV rights for record £5.14bn’ The Guardian (10
February 2015) <https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/10/premier-‐league-‐tv-‐rights-‐sky-‐ bt> accessed 13 August 2017.
190 Dennis Deninger, Sports on Television: The How and Why Behind What You See (Routledge 2012)
164.
191 Hazel Sheffield, ‘How much do Super Bowl adverts actually cost?’ The Independent (5 February
2016) <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/how-‐much-‐do-‐super-‐bowl-‐adverts-‐
actually-‐cost-‐a6855426.html> accessed 13 August 2017.
192 David Millward, ‘Super Bowl: the biggest advertising show on earth’ The Telegraph (6 February
2016)
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/leisure/12139111/Superbo
By contrast, 30-‐second advertising slots in the AFL and the NRL grand finals each cost around AU$135,000 and AU$100,000, respectively.193 Such figures also appear low by UK standards. For example, a 30-‐second advertising slot during coverage of England matches on Independent Television (“ITV”) during the 2014 World Cup cost between £275,000 and £300,000 (AU$496,000 and AU$541,000).194 However, the figures in Australia compare reasonably well
having regard to the relative size of the UK and Australian markets, populations and audience ratings. For instance, ITV’s coverage of England versus Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup attracted an average of 18.2million (and a peak of more than 20million) viewers.195 This compares to peak
audience ratings of around 2.64million for the 2015 AFL grand final and 4.42million for the first NRL State of Origin match of 2016.196