### Abstract

The Super Bowl is the largest annual sporting event in America in terms of single-game television viewership (5). In addition to the game, a tremendous amount of entertainment is intertwined into the Super Bowl telecast via commercials that can cost as much as $3 million for 30 seconds of air time (16). The consumption of the game and commercials is well documented. However, there is little evidence as to how the Super Bowl telecast is consumed by various demographic subgroups. College students, an often overlooked demographic for major sport marketing campaigns, are one group that appear to be an ideal target market for Super Bowl advertising due to their ability for discretionary spending (13) and affinity for popular culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the commercial and game consumption patterns for college students during the Super Bowl. A sample of 651 traditional-aged college students at a mid-size Midwestern university was surveyed within 48 hours of Super Bowl XLIV to determine such patterns. Results indicated students watched in large numbers, watched in group settings, identified humor as a primary factor in commercial enjoyment, were interested most in the game itself, identified a different favorite commercial than the USA Today Ad Meter, are strong sport fans, and demonstrated different viewing consumption patterns by gender. It can be concluded from these results that college students resemble the average adult consumer identified in previous research (1,25) in some of their game and commercial consumption patterns (e.g., watching the Super Bowl in large groups and identifying humor as a primary attribute they enjoyed in commercials), but differed in their commercial preferences, their higher level of sport fanship, and their gender differences. Sport marketers can utilize this information to create strategies that appeal to this important demographic.

**Key words:** Super Bowl, commercials, marketing, sport consumption

### Introduction

On February 7th, 2010 the New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. This event, as nearly all Super Bowls before it, came with a tremendous amount of media attention, marketing savvy, and fanfare. In fact, this particular Super Bowl was the second most-watched single-game television program in American history behind Super Bowl XLV (5).

In addition to the football game, the Super Bowl television broadcast offers a definitive glimpse into the competitive and creative world of sport marketing and advertising. Consumers anxiously anticipate new commercials unveiled during the Super Bowl. These commercials, which cost as much as $3 million per 30 seconds for Super Bowl XLIV (16), have become a cultural phenomenon that create nearly as much buzz as the game itself (1,3,5,16). In essence, the commercials are considered part of the overall Super Bowl entertainment package. McAllister (22), as well as Apostolopoulou, Clark, and Gladden (1), illustrated the integration of Super Bowl commercials into popular culture by examining their content and relative importance. McAllister (2) found that the discourse surrounding the pre, during, and post-Super Bowl advertising led to special status for Super Bowl commercials. Specifically, Super Bowl commercials “often have characteristics more in line with entertainment media messages than stereotypical commercial media messages” (p. 421). Additionally, McAllister explained that Super Bowl commercials are more likely to include celebrities, are much more expensive, and are more thoroughly scrutinized by the public when compared to non-Super Bowl commercials. Blackshaw and Beard (4), echoed these sentiments by noting the uniqueness of Super Bowl advertising is partly due to their entertainment value, their ability to create a “free media” dividend, their high anticipation levels, and their growing ability to engage consumers beyond television (e.g., internet, telecommications, etc.).

Given the elevated status associated with Super Bowl entertainment, Apostolopoulou et al. (1) surveyed 1,101 Super Bowl viewers and NFL database subscribers to determine what elements of the Super Bowl contributed most to their enjoyment. Not surprisingly, the primary contributor to viewer’s enjoyment was the competitiveness of the game itself. The second largest contributor was the specific teams competing, indicating more enjoyment is based on the level of fanship towards a specific team. The third largest contributor was the Super Bowl commercials. The commercials were rated higher than the pre-game show, the celebrity coin toss, the national anthem, the team introductions, the halftime entertainment, and the post-game show. Furthermore, Elliot (9) reported that approximately 4% of the Super Bowl viewing audience watches the Super Bowl only for the commercials. Results from Apostolopoulou et al. (1) and Elliot (9) suggest that beyond the game, commercials have a tremendously powerful influence on Super Bowl viewing patterns.

Although the popularity of Super Bowl commercials is well-documented (1, 4, 16, 22), there is limited evidence to suggest whether a return on investment (ROI) is realized by the companies producing such commercials. Because the Super Bowl is an isolated event that has limited advertising time, in addition to the extreme cost, it is logical to question if ROI is attainable. O’Reilly, Lyberger, McCarthy, Séguin, and Nadeau (25) found a tremendous amount of volatility surrounding the influence of Super Bowl sponsorship. This volatility is caused by the many extraneous factors influencing advertising during this unique event (e.g., presponsorship awareness levels, existing brand associations, increased clutter in the marketplace, etc.). Despite this instability in the marketplace, there has been evidence for increased intent to purchase sponsored products, as well as a willingness on the part of consumers to pay higher prices for goods advertised during the Super Bowl (17, 25, 28). Additionally, an increasing trend for sponsors is to evaluate consumers’ intent to purchase, which ultimately impacts ROI. Blackshaw and Beard (4) noted a clear latency effect on advertised brands during the Super Bowl whereby brand opinion increased 16% and purchase consideration increased 13% in the week following the Super Bowl. Furthermore, the timing of Super Bowl commercials influenced intent to purchase and ROI, where commercials shown closer to the beginning of the game scored higher on nearly every positive advertising measure. Dotterweich and Collins (8) concluded that consumers’ intent to purchase was also impacted by the ratio of value and prestige for any given product. Achieving prestige is often accomplished by repeated brand recognition, and nearly impossible for new companies given the limited television time afforded during the Super Bowl. Therefore, ROI is likely to be greater for companies that are established and have identified a specific target audience versus start-up companies searching for their ideal demographic.

Findings from Dotterweich and Collins (8), as well as O’Reilly et al. (25), are consistent with the results of the USA Today Ad Meter. The Ad Meter is a real-time evaluation of Super Bowl commercials conducted by USA Today whereby participants’ reactions to Super Bowl commercials are measured using a hand-held device. The 2010 Ad Meter gathered information from 250 adult volunteers from San Diego, California and McLean, Virginia. The winning commercial from the 2010 Ad Meter featured famous actress Betty White in a Snickers advertisement. Consistent with findings from Dotterweich and Collins (8), Snickers is an established brand with a certain amount of prestige. Likewise, Anheuser-Busch and its well-known Budweiser commercials have been the Ad Meter champion a record ten times (16). Besides the prestige and brand recognition associated with these Ad Meter winners, there are some other qualities that impact affect toward the advertisement. Kelly and Turley (18) investigated all of the Super Bowl commercials between 1996 and 2002, and used the Ad Meter scores as a dependent variable. Content analysis revealed advertising for goods (i.e., products) was more effective than services, and the use of humor, animals, sports themes, children, and emotional appeal resulted in high levels of affect.

Although the preceding literature helps to contextualize the Super Bowl as a unique advertising opportunity, there is a gap in the literature pertaining to Super Bowl commercial consumption for specific demographic groups. Ad Meter research, as well as general research investigating viewing and consumption patterns have mostly focused their efforts on the general consumer, or on specific commercial content. For example O’Reilly et al. (25) identified respondents from 10 to 94 years of age when assessing their intent to purchase Super Bowl information, and Apostolopoulou et al. (1) investigated adults aged 25 to 44 when examining many forms of Super Bowl entertainment. However, evidence from Zhang, Lam, and Connaughton (30) suggest a need to differentiate demands of various sociodemographic groups during the marketing process. They found the most active sport consumer profile includes individuals that are relatively young (18-25 years of age), single, have low household income, and have a medium entertainment budget. Traditional college students fit this description well.

Given the similarities between the most active sport consumers and traditional college students, the current study attempted to isolate and examine the viewing patterns and perceptions of college students during the most watched sporting event of all time (5). To date, no research has attempted to ascertain the perceptions and consumption patterns of the Super Bowl for this important demographic audience. However, as consumers college students are a powerful force. Oftentimes this demographic, who are currently referred to as millennials (born between 1979 and 1994), are overlooked in marketing outcome research (2). “Considering that college students wield $200 billion in buying power each year, it may be time to set aside any preconceived notions about these coeds and start thinking of them as serious consumers” (13, p. 18). When evaluated individually, it was estimated that the average college student had $287 in discretionary spending per month, which totals $3,444 per year. Additionally, in 2002 over 99% of college students visited the internet a few times per week. Given the nearly exponential growth of the internet, as well as the increase in social and marketing websites, the number of college students who visit the internet regularly continues to rise. It is these technology-savvy college students (2) who are easily reached by the supplemental advertising offered via the Internet, and are often targeted in Super Bowl advertising (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, smart phone applications, etc.).

Within the college student market, as with most forms of marketing research, it is prudent to examine differences in gender consumption patterns. This was a secondary goal of the current research. Developments such as Title IX, female youth sports, and women’s professional leagues have the current generation of sport marketers realizing females are a viable and relevant group of sport consumers with different wants and needs than their male counterparts (24). Females, in general, have demonstrated an affiliation for the feelings of others while fostering communal relationships (27). Work from Chodorow (7) and Gilligan (14) suggests women are more likely to see “morality as emerging from the experience of social connections and value the ethic of responsibility and care.” (6, p. 609). Additionally, female athletes report they most value feelings of belonging, being part of a university community, exercise benefits, and team affiliation (10). These attributes guiding female consumption patterns lend themselves to various marketing strategies, particularly during the Super Bowl when it is common for group viewing to occur, and especially when one considers that nearly half of the viewers of Super Bowl XLIV were female (20). Furthermore, Beasley, Shank, and Ball (3) found that women’s attention levels were higher for Super Bowl commercials than they were for the game itself. According to Zhang et al. (30), “females represent the greatest market potential for professional sports, and identifying their expectations and interests are vital to the future of professional sport organizations” (p. 50).

In contract, males have generally been found to be motivated by an internal self-guided impulse whereby thoughts and behaviors are created by a particular level of self-efficacy or achievement (23). Furthermore, males have been found to be more physically and verbally aggressive (26), more competitive (12), and value autonomy (6). Similarly, male athletes were found to value competition and winning more than the social aspects offered by competitive sport (10), as well as display higher levels of athletic identity (21). From a purely marketing standpoint, males have been found to consume sport more frequently and value specific sport market demands (e.g., win/loss record, team history, close competition, love of the sport, ticket prices, etc.) more than females (30). These gender differences, combined with the unique and powerful college student demographic, may shed light on consumption patterns during the most watched annual sporting event in modern history (5).

### Methods

The purpose of this study was to determine the commercial and game consumption patterns for college students during the Super Bowl.

#### Sample

A sample of 651 traditional college students (mean age = 20.9 years) from a state-funded mid-sized Midwestern university agreed to participate. The original sample consisted of 656 participants, but five surveys were not used due to incomplete or missing answers. A total of 424 males and 227 females were included in the sample. Based on Frankel and Wallen’s (11) sampling methodology, 651 participants was a large enough sample to be representative of the entire University (approximately 20,000 students) at the 99% confidence level.

#### Procedures

Participants located at high-traffic areas on campus (e.g., food courts, busy common areas) completed a nine-item survey designed to determine; 1) The number of Super Bowl commercials watched; 2) Their favorite Super Bowl commercial; 3) The characteristic they enjoyed most about their favorite commercial; 4) Their intent to spend money on any products advertised during the Super Bowl due to the commercial; 5) The number of people they were with when watching the Super Bowl; 6) Their primary interest during the Super Bowl broadcast; 7) Their level of fanship; 8) Gender; and 9) Age. These variables were chosen in an attempt to initiate new lines of inquiry regarding college student consumer behavior s, as well as replicate some of the previous studies on Super Bowl consumption (e.g., 1, 22). Participants were surveyed using a convenience sample of on-campus college students within 48 hours of the completed Super Bowl telecast.

#### Data Analysis

Data analysis was conducted using PASW (version 18). Frequencies and measures of central tendency were used to evaluate all relevant data. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multivariate analysis of variance were utilized to determine significance among appropriate categories.

### Results

Research findings are presented in the following four sections: (a) frequencies (b) descriptive statistics, (c) correlations, and (d) MANOVA results.

#### Frequencies

Table 1 represents the frequencies reported by category for each item investigated, and is divided into commercial information and viewing patterns. For the categories identifying favorite commercial and the characteristics of their favorite commercial, the top three answers are provided. Responses for the amount of Super Bowl commercials watched, number of people students were watching with, and level of sport fanship were coded as a number for purposes of further statistical investigation. For example, the amount of Super Bowl commercials watched were coded into four groups where group 1 = none, 2 = a few, 3 = most, 4 = all. These numbers were then used in the following descriptive, correlational, and MANOVA calculations. Age is the only category listed as a mean score.

#### Descriptive Statistics

Table 2 displays descriptive statistics for the number of commercials watched, the number of people present to watch commercials, and the level of fanship. The highest mean score was found for the number of people students were with when they watched the Super Bowl (M = 3.28, SD = .842), indicating the majority of the respondents watched the 2009-2010 Super Bowl within a group setting. Most of the respondents also indicated they watched the majority of all commercials during the Super Bowl (M = 3.14, SD = .697). A high mean score (M = 3.11, SD = .859) for the level of sport fanship indicated the majority of the respondents identified themselves as a ‘big’ or ‘huge’ sports fans. Skewness and kurtorsis values ranged from |.229| to |.553| and |.625|to |.837|, respectively, which were within the criterion of +2.0 indicating establishment of normality among the variables (15).

#### Correlations

Table 3 displays Pearson correlation coefficients for the number of commercials watched, the number of people students were with during the Super Bowl, the level of fanship, gender, and age. A significant positive correlation (r = .21) was found between the number of Super Bowl commercials watched and the level of sport-fanship, indicating individuals who considered themselves big or huge fans were more likely to watch the Super Bowl commercials. A significant negative correlation (r = -.12) was found between the number of commercials watched and gender, indicating male respondents were more likely to watch the Super Bowl commercials. Gender was also negatively and significantly correlated with the level of sport-fanship (r = -.38), indicating male participants identified themselves as stronger sports fans than female respondents. A significant positive correlation between age and the number of commercials watched indicated older students were more likely to watch Super Bowl commercials. Similarly, older students were more strongly identified as a sport fan than younger students (r = .11). As evidenced by a significant positive correlation of .11, the level of sport-fanship was interrelated with the number of people present to watch commercials. This finding indicates that bigger fans were more likely to watch the Super Bowl commercials with people other than students who identified themselves as having a low level of fanship (r = -.09). The highest correlation among the variables was .38, which is lower than the suggested criterion of .85 to establish discriminant validity (19).

### MANOVA Results

To examine gender differences among the factors (the number of commercials watched, the number of people present to watch commercials and the level of sport-fanship – see descriptive statistics across gender in Table 4), a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted. The results of the MANOVA presented in Table 5 indicate that significant gender differences exist in all factors. The descriptive statistics for the three factors indicated males had higher mean scores in all factors, suggesting males were more likely to be influenced by the three motivational factors listed in the current study. In other words, males were more likely to 1) watch Super Bowl commercials, 2) watch Super Bowl commercials in the presence of others, and 3) display stronger sport fanship. Wilks’ Lambda value of .851 indicated that the three-factor model explained a total variance of approximately 15 percent. However, R squared values at the univariate level indicated that only a small amount of variance (ƞ2 = .014 and .008, respectively) was explained by the number of commercials watched and the number of people present to watch commercials, while a greater amount of variance (ƞ2 = .145) was explained by the level of sport fanship.

### Discussion

The frequency and statistical information presented in Tables 1-5 offers several important insights into the viewing and consumption patterns of college students during Super Bowl XLIV. First, the majority (536 out of 651 participants) indicated they watched most or all of the commercials during the Super Bowl telecast, with males indicating they watched slightly more commercials (M = 3.21) than females (M = 3.04). Given the tremendous popularity of Super Bowl commercials as entertainment (1, 4, 16, 22), it is no surprise college students overwhelmingly engaged in viewing these commercials. However, it is surprising that males watched more commercials than females because males have traditionally been found to be more interested in attributes of the game itself (30), and female attention levels during the Super Bowl were previously found to be higher during commercials (3). Perhaps the Super Bowl is such a mega-special-event (25) that male media desensitization is erased due to the powerful affiliation the commercials seem to have with the game experience. From a practical standpoint, it is important for marketers to acknowledge that male college student demographic is watching the Super Bowl commercials at a greater rate than female college students.

Second, college students were asked to list their favorite Super Bowl commercial and describe the characteristic they enjoyed most about that commercial. With over 70 commercials aired during the Super Bowl XLIV telecast, there were a variety of options. Out of 651 responses, 420 students indicated they had the same favorite commercial. The commercial was from Doritos and it depicted a young boy warning a potential suitor for his mother to “keep your hands off my mama, and keep your hands off my Doritos.” This commercial, although not the Ad Meter winner, was reported by TiVo Inc. to be the commercial that was stopped and played back the most on digital video recorders. Approximately 15% of homes replayed this commercial (5). The results for the Ad Meter ranked this Doritos commercial as the 11th most popular, falling behind another Doritos commercial depicting a dog placing a shock collar on a human to gain access to the man’s Doritos. The second and third rated commercials in the current study (Bud Light ‘house of cans’ and Snickers ‘Betty White football game’) were ranked third and first respectively for the Ad Meter. These results are particularly important for marketers because it suggest a rather large gap (11 spots) between the favorite commercial for college students versus adults who participated in the Ad Meter. This difference validates a marketing strategy that would attempt to isolate particular characteristics of various commercials to be most effective on a specific target audience (e.g., college students).

Although there were different favorite commercials reported for this study and the USA Today Ad Meter, the characteristics that make a commercial enjoyable appear similar. The top three characteristics most enjoyed by college students were humor, creativity, and originality. These characteristics could be used to describe many of the Super Bowl commercials, and reinforces the work of Kelly and Turley (18) who found that humor, sports themes, animals, children, and music increase the likelihood of positive affect towards advertisements. Specifically, the top ranked commercial in this study (i.e., Doritos) used humor and children. The second ranked commercial (i.e., Bud Light house) used humor and music. The third ranked commercial in this study, and first for the Ad Meter (i.e., Betty White football game) used humor and a sports theme. The use of humor is the recurring factor that appears in the top three commercials ranked in this study, and the characteristic chosen by 420 of the 651 participants (64.5%) that made their favorite commercial more enjoyable. Although it is not a secret that humor is an effective advertising tool (also see 29), confirming the importance of this factor within the college student population is a key point for marketers, especially given the overwhelming number of students who reported the importance of humor as the reason they enjoyed their favorite commercial.

Third, this study investigated college students’ intent to spend money on any products advertised during the Super Bowl, commonly referred to as intent to purchase (25). Results confirmed only 11.4% of students indicated they were likely to spend money on any of the products advertised during the Super Bowl. These numbers offer a less than optimistic view for marketers given the intent to purchase is a moderate to strong indicator of ROI (17, 25, 28). Perhaps college students believe the products and services advertised are not important to their lifestyles. Or, perhaps the $3,444 of discretionary spending reported by Gardyn (13) are being applied to products or services that are not advertised during the Super Bowl, but that are important to college students (e.g., laundry, other entertainment, etc.). If this is the case, marketing executives would be wise to understand the general acceptance by college students of Super Bowl advertising, and produce advertising that would peak their interest levels to influence their individual spending behavior, or choose advertising that targets a different demographic altogether.

Fourth, 518 of 651 participants (79.6%) watched the Super Bowl with at least four or more other people, and only 11 students reported watching the Super Bowl by themselves. This finding demonstrates that college students, much like society at large, enjoys the Super Bowl in a communal setting. Furthermore, correlational data demonstrates that males and college students who report themselves as big or huge fans are more likely to watch the Super Bowl with others. The finding that college students watch the Super Bowl in groups is consistent with literature that identifies the Super Bowl as a mega-special-event (25) that focuses on game and surrounding advertisement as a large entertainment package (1). However, the finding that male college students watch the Super Bowl with more people than females is counterintuitive to previous gender literature which suggested females are more attracted to communal relationships and social connections (6, 27). It is possible that the social environment afforded by campus living fosters a more communal context for which males can gather. It is also possible that given the importance of the largest annual sporting event in world, the fans that care about sports most (i.e., males) may find it more important than normal to gather in groups.

Fifth, this study supports the findings by Apostolopoulou et al., (1) which demonstrated that the game itself is the primary point of interest during the Super Bowl. Of the 651 participants, 458 (70.3%) reported they were most interested in the game. This finding is important because it reveals traditional college students are the same as other adults in their primary interest of the game. Marketers can use this interest to incorporate various advertising that might involve the flow of the game (e.g., commercials that air depending on the current score, or commercials that utilize the stars of each team, etc.). Furthermore, the current study found that only 66 of the 651 participants (approximately one percent) tuned into the Super Bowl telecast specifically for the commercials. This finding is noticeably lower than the four percent of the entire Super Bowl viewing audience found by Elliot (9), and implies that college students tune in to specifically watch the commercials at a lower rate than society at large. One must be careful to conclude this result implies college students do not watch commercials. In fact, this study found that most college students do watch and evaluate the majority of Super Bowl commercials, but watching those commercials are not as much of a priority as watching the game itself. Additionally, this study included more males than females, and males have been found to focus more on the aspects of the game (30).

Finally, this study attempted to identify the level of general sport-fanship, and its relationship to viewing patterns. Most students in this study (75.4%) identified themselves as big or huge fans. Males identified themselves as significantly bigger fans than females, and correlational results revealed bigger fans watched more commercials, and watched with more people. These findings allow marketers to begin construction of a blueprint for the average college student sport consumer whereby bigger fans will tend to be males, watch more commercials, and watch with more people. It is not a surprise that males considered themselves bigger fans than females given that males have been found to consume sport more frequently (30), be more competitive (12), value winning more (10), and display higher levels of athletic identity (21). It is also expected that bigger fans would watch more commercials and watch with more people given the large scale entertainment value surrounding the Super Bowl (1, 16). Implications for application are apparent. Marketers should attempt to identify the biggest fans and plan their advertising strategies accordingly. However, one must be mindful that the Super Bowl is a unique event with unusually high consumption, and offers a wide variety of consumers that may not routinely watch sporting events (20). Identifying marketing and advertising strategies for new consumers with varying levels of fanship is a challenging task during any sporting event, but particularly so during the Super Bowl.

### Conclusions

This study evaluated the viewing patterns and perceptions of commercials during Super Bowl XLIV for college students. The results suggest that although college students resemble the average Super Bowl viewer in many ways, they have specific differences that make them an important demographic for marketers to consider. The similarities between college students and the general population include watching the Super Bowl in large numbers, watching the Super Bowl with groups of other people, identifying humor as an enjoyable attribute in advertising, and being interested in the game over other factors (e.g., entertainment). These patterns of behavior lend themselves to specific market segmentation strategies, including advertising that appeals to groups and that contain humor. The differences found between college students and society at large highlight the gap in previous literature that has neglected to isolate this important demographic segment. Specifically, college students displaying a different preference for their favorite commercial (i.e., Doritos house rules vs. Betty White football game) appear to be extremely strong sport fans, and differ greatly by gender. The gender differences are of particular importance because previous literature would lead one to believe that females would be more interested than males in the entertainment portion of the Super Bowl, as well as gathering with large groups of people. This was not the case. The fact that males watched more commercials, and watched in larger groups, implies that male college students are a group of particular importance to marketers. These findings necessitate the need for further research into Super Bowl consumption patterns. Furthermore, given the Super Bowl is the most viewed annual sporting event in the world (5), identifying other sociodemographic consumption patterns is a key for effective marketing strategies.

### Applications in Sports

The results of this study make a strong case for differential game and commercial consumption patterns of college students during the Super Bowl telecast. If sport marketers choose to target the college student demographic in their design of commercials, they would be wise to focus their efforts on strategies which emphasize the importance of the game, using humor as a theme, products that college students would be most likely to use, and concepts that appeal to males. The fact that males are bigger fans, watch both the game and commercials more than females, and gather in groups more so than females, makes the male college student an ideal target market during the Super Bowl. Furthermore, if marketers understand that a majority of college students do not plan to spend money on products or services advertised during the Super Bowl, they may choose to ignore this demographic altogether.

### Tables

Table 1: Total Responses by Category

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics

Table 3: Correlations

* p < .05
** p < .01

Table 4: Descriptive Statistics across Gender Groups

Table 5: Multivariate Analysis of Variance

Note: Wilks’ Lambda Value = .851; F(3, 647) = 37.635; p < .01
(a) R² = .014 (Adjusted R² = .012)
(b) R² = .008 (Adjusted R² = .006)
(c) R² = .145 (Adjusted R² = .144)

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### Corresponding Author

James E. Johnson, Ed.D.
HP 223A, Ball State University
2000 W. University Ave.
Muncie, IN, 47306
[email protected]
765-285-0044

### Author Bio

James Johnson and Donghun Lee are Assistant Professors in the School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science at Ball State University.

### Abstract

Television rights in professional soccer was, and perhaps still is, the most important and vital source of revenue for professional soccer clubs in most European countries. Much conversation and legislation was made to discuss, agree upon, and regulate the way the right to broadcast a game is sold to the TV stations and how this income is distributed to the clubs. This study examines the way this selling mechanism works in Greece. The study is carried out with questionnaires, given to at least one member of the higher management of the 34 professional soccer clubs (1st and 2nd division) whose games are on TV. According to the results, club managers think that collective selling is the optimal theoretical model to sell their TV rights, but the way it is implemented is not the optimal one, leading to lower results in income and stadium attendance than the ones anticipated by the managers. Also the Greek Soccer Federation must exploit the TV rights of the games. Moreover the participants believe TV viewers think of the soccer championship as an entity and not as a sum of certain games. Finally they believe TV viewers must pay a subscription to watch the games and that it must not be a free of charge service.

**Key words:** Television rights, Soccer Club Manager, Collecting selling, Individual Selling

### Introduction

While in Greece, studies in the area of professional soccer clubs’ TV rights are very rare, possibly even do not exist, in Europe and especially in the soccer-wise developed countries such as England, Germany, France and Italy. Various studies examined the professional soccer TV rights selling mechanism. Many studies use the USA sports TV market as an example and comparison (since modern sports marketing as we know it was born and developed in the US, and still influences the rest of the world.)

Since soccer became professional and commercialized, the selling of the TV rights was put on the table for discussion. The TV scene in all European countries became free starting from the 1980s until today, and that had much to do with the sharp increase in the professional soccer TV rights value in almost every European country and especially the most developed soccer-wise, such as England, Italy, France and Germany.

Tonazzi (4) points out the differentiality of the soccer market, arguing that while in other business areas a cooperation of the clubs would be characterized as an anticompetitive cartel, in soccer the product can be sold only if the clubs cooperate and offer a joint product. Otherwise, if clubs sell their rights separately, then it is certain that the most popular clubs will gain more income, which would be translated to higher quality players and an unbalanced championship.

Authors argue that if the TV income is lower, then the big clubs most probably will try to separate themselves from the clubs’ league in order to make more money in the free market, selling their TV rights by themselves (13). One probable way to achieve this is the use of digital TV, where they could create tailor-made programs for their fans.

In Europe, England is a leading soccer country and the developments in its televised soccer scene are a case to study, when one wants to define the optimal rights selling mechanism. Poli (14) studies the Italian professional soccer TV rights status in depth.

In Greece, until the early 1990s, EPAE (the governing body of the Greek soccer championship) used to sell the TV rights of the Greek soccer championship collectively to ERT, the public broadcaster. In the early 1990s, private TV stations started bidding to acquire the TV rights of the Greek soccer championship, but it was again the public broadcaster ERT that gained the collective TV rights of the Greek championship. From 1995 to the present, Supersport, a sports channel with subscription fee, has had the TV rights to the majority of the clubs (in 2001 Alpha Digital – a digital platform – acquired the rights for the majority of the clubs, and in the last 3 years ERT has obtained the rights to Olympiakos FC and Xanthi FC). The redistribution system of TV income to the participating clubs is based upon factors like the position of the club in the standings, its market value, its stadium attendance and fans in general, etc.

The purpose of this study is to show that the current TV rights selling model mechanism, used by the Greek professional soccer clubs, is not the optimal one, and revenues and stadium attendance of the clubs could be higher if the way the clubs sell their TV rights were changed. The authors’ hypothesis is that collective selling of TV rights of the Greek professional soccer clubs, based on performance and other criteria (fan base, stadium attendance, etc.), doesn’t maximize the clubs’ revenues or their stadium attendance. The need has been observed for a scientific approach and examination of the TV rights selling mechanism, so that the selling does not only lead to short-term monetary profit, but also to larger, long-term, welfare-wise profits for the parties involved.

### Methods

#### Description of questionnaire – data

For the data collection a questionnaire was used. The questionnaire used in the present research mainly included closed-type questions. The questionnaire was divided in fourteen parts. The first part posed general questions to the participants about the club in which they worked, and the general conditions of Greek professional soccer. Also in this first part, questions about Greek professional soccer’s problems were asked of the club managers. The second part consisted of questions about the ownership of the clubs’ home game TV rights. In the third part the participants were asked about the “product” and the way TV viewers and fans in general view championship and individual games. The fourth part dealt with the supply and demand of the “product”, and the number of games with TV coverage. In the fifth part, the club managers were asked about the cost and profit of the selling mechanism, while in the sixth part the issue was the competitive balance of the championship. The seventh part was a clubs’ talent investment topic and the eighth part questioned the number of club – members in the professional soccer league. In the ninth part, the club managers were asked about the factors influencing the clubs’ decision on choice of selling mechanism (such as stadium attendance, TV households accessibility etc.) The tenth part consisted of questions about the clubs’ TV revenues and their distribution to the clubs, while the eleventh part dealt with regulations and competition policies. Finally in the last part the club managers’ answered social-demographic data questions.

The sample for this study was 65 club managers of the 34 Greek professional soccer clubs who were associated with the clubs during the 2009–2010 season, in the first two divisions (Superleague and Second Division), that are covered by the Greek TV station. The number of clubs of interest was limited, while accordingly limited was the number of the club managers who could answer the questions in this study. Specifically, one to two, or at most three, managers in each club could help in achieving the goal of this study. The number of managers who participated can be easily characterized as quite a large number for this type of study.

#### Statistical Analysis Conducted

Besides the descriptive analysis of single items from the questionnaire, the qualitative variables of the questionnaire were additionally analyzed by utilizing suitable statistical methodology – such as principal components analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis – in order to identify relevant sets of variables and establish a series of factorial (latent) variables that summarize and explain a large proportion of the variability of the observed variables, and logistic regression analysis for attempting to identify the most significant factors for affecting managers’ preferences toward one of the two selling mechanisms.

The data analysis was carried out with the help of the statistical package SPSS v 15.0.

Moreover, in order to see if natural and useful clusters of data existed, the technique of hierarchical cluster analysis was used alternatively. Essentially, starting with each observation being a group by itself, in every step, the observations that have the smaller distance were united, so that the data of a formulated cluster would be part of the elements of the hierarchically next cluster(7,8). This can work not only toward the clustering of observations, but toward the clustering of variables too (7). Since the analysis unit is variable, the distance or similarity measures for all variables’ pairs were calculated. As a distance unit, the Euclidean distance was used and as a method of combination of the observations in clusters the method of “furthest neighbor” was used. According to this method, as a distance between two clusters the one between furthest points was taken (2).

To identify those factors that influence statistically significantly the opinion of Greek managers on the most suitable – according to their own perspective – Greek professional soccer TV rights selling mechanism, a logistic regression model was chosen to fit the data collected (1).

### Results

Analytically, the club managers evaluated the TV rights collective exploitation model to be “very good” (1.5%), “good” (33.8%), “medium” (60%), and “bad” (4.6%). The club members’ answers to the question, “if the TV rights individual exploitation increase the home game stadium attendance” were, “yes” (73.8%), and “no” (26.2%). The club members’ answers to the question, “if the TV rights individual exploitation increase clubs’ income from the TV rights selling” were, “yes” (58.5%) and “no” (41.5%). The club members’ answers to the question, “to whom belong the home games TV rights” were, “to the home team” (3.1%), “to both teams” (6.2%), “to the clubs’ league” (47.7%), and, “to the country’s soccer federation” (43.1%). To the question, “if the TV viewers see the championship as a single product or a sum of independent games” the club managers answered, “as a single product” (80%) and “as a sum of independent games” (20%). To the question, “if the sport product must be treated like a public product and offered free of charge or the viewer to be charged with a subscription fee or other kind of payment” the club managers answered, “like a public product and offered free of charge” (41.5%) and “to be charged with a subscription fee or other kind of payment” (58.5%). To the question, “if the maximization of the clubs’ total profits leads to the maximization of each individual club’s profits” the club managers answered, “a little” (32.3%), “medium” (58.5%), “enough” (4.6%), “much” (1.5%) “very much” (3.1%). To the question, “if the current TV rights selling model has increased, decreased or has not changed the stadium attendance” the club managers answered, “has increased” (36.9%), and “has not changed” (63.1%). Finally, in the instance of the question, “if with the current TV rights selling model of your home games, your revenues, comparing to their real values are higher, equal or lower” the club managers answered, “higher” (24.6%), “equal” (67.7%), and “lower” (7.7%).

In regard to the major problems from which Greek soccer is currently suffering (the means of the sample’s responses on the ten questions range between 2.66 and 3.03), the managers ranked as the most significant problem the lack of suitable training grounds. (see Table 1) The next highest mean value, 3, occured in the response to the question that mentioned the indifference of the State. Lower values showed that the managers considered to be problems the lack of quality of the foreign soccer players and the involvement in the club management of people with no experience in this professional area (2.98), the bad soccer stadiums condition (2.97), the lack of qualitative academies soccer players and the fans’ violence (2.94), with 2.8 the unreliability of the games’ (referees) outcomes (2.8), and the clubs’ bad finances (2.75). The least important problem was regarded by the managers to be the problem of competition with other sports, with a mean value of 2.66, indicating thus the domination of soccer in the Greek sports scene.

#### PCA Analysis

The data that resulted from the items on the questionnaires related to the most significant problems in Greek soccer were given to the club managers of the professional clubs of the Superleague and Second Division in Greece, and then was processed with the main principal components method. The proportion of the variance of each initial variable that the constructed PCA is explained in Table 2. The four principal components comprise 64.3% of the total variability of the ten input variables. For the interpretation of factors, the rotation of factors was conducted. More specifically, the orthogonal transformation process called varimax was used. The objective was to simplify the factor structure and to make the results more meaningful.

The first component showed “the negative attitude of the State and the bodies of professional soccer (Greek Soccer Federation – Referees) toward the ongoing problems of professional soccer (reliability – financial problems)”. The second component showed “the negative correlation that develops between the basic facilities infrastructure of professional soccer and the violence in the Greek stadiums with the foreign players’ quality that professional soccer attracts”. The third component showed “the negative correlation that develops between the professional soccer stadiums’ conditions and the quality of the players coming from the academies into professional soccer”. The fourth component showed “the negative correlation between the competition with other sports and involvement of people with no professional experience in this area in clubs’ management”. (see Figure 1)

#### Cluster Analysis

With the hierarchical analysis in clusters for the problems of Greek soccer, two clusters with the following identities “business type soccer problems” and “soccer problems – involvement of people with no professional experience in this area in clubs’ management” were created. The first cluster mostly dealt with the problems most fans think professional soccer has, and are the main reason of low stadium attendance, low TV viewership, low spending in clubs’ merchandising, etc. Also included was “the competition of the sports”, showing that unhappy fans (mostly those who were not dedicated to the sport) may turn to other sports viewing and attending. The second cluster had more to do with the “structural” problems of professional soccer; that is, the lack of programming and infrastructure in the academies and the training grounds, which leads to the lack of well-trained young and professional players, leading to a low level spectacle on the field. This is a major reason for the fans to turn their backs on their clubs, and on professional soccer in general.

#### Logistic Regression Model

To identify those factors that offer a statistically significantly influence on the opinion of Greek managers on the most suitable – according to their own perspective – Greek professional soccer TV rights selling mechanism, we have chosen to fit a logistic regression model to the data collected. A full description of the predictor variables can be found in Table 4.

A positive evaluation on behalf of the managers of the collective selling mechanism (i.e., “good-very good” category) was designated as predicted group for the dependent variable, while as a reference category the negative category of answers “very bad-medium” was chosen. The maximum likelihood method was used for the adaptation of the final model and the calculation of beta coefficients. In Table 3, the values of the coefficients of independent variables in the logistic model are shown, accompanied by the statistical significance of coefficients, derived by the Wald type test. In the last column, the odds ratios of the model are presented for each of the predictor variables separately.

It follows from an inspection of Table 3that the accessibility of the TV households to the broadcast of the games is a significant factor for the preference of collective selling mechanism, at a 10% level of significance, since those who reported an increase in the accessibility of the households seemed to have lower probability to choose the collective selling mechanism than those reporting the broadcast of games to be left unchanged (beta=-1.623, p-value=0.053<0.1). Indeed, as suggested by the model, the probabilities (odds) of a manager being in a club that had increased the broadcast of its games to TV households to be in favor of the collective selling was decreased by a factor of 0.197, when compared with managers who reported that accessibility was left unchanged. Accordingly, managers whose teams had increased stadium attendance with the utilization of collective selling were less in favor of the current mechanism, when compared with managers whose teams had left its stadium attendance unchanged (beta=-1.537, p-value=0.054<0.1). The most significant factor, however, in predicting the dependent variable in the final model is the club’s revenues. As indicated by the model, the probabilities (odds) of a manager to be in favor of the collective selling model, being in a club that had decreased or left unchanged its revenues with the utilization of the collective selling mechanism was decreased by a factor of 58.997 and 123.304, respectively, when compared with managers who reported that the club’s revenues had increased. (beta=4.077, p-value=0.02

### Discussion

In the study only 34.3% of the club managers considered the current collective selling model to be good or very good. The same clubs’ managers, in the question “whether TV rights individual exploitation increases the home game stadium attendance” answered yes with a rate of 73.8%; and in the question “whether TV rights individual exploitation increased clubs’ income from the TV rights selling” answered yes with 58.5%. This clearly shows a preference of the managers for their clubs to individually exploit their TV rights. As the study showed, managers who were mostly in favor of the individual selling mechanism were those whose teams has been underestimated in revenues compared to their real values. Unexpectedly, these managers believed that the utilization of the current selling mechanism, i.e. collective selling TV rights mechanism, had increased their stadium attendance, and had increased the accessibility of TV households to their games.

Statistical analysis has also shown that the managers who were held a positive stance toward a collective selling model accordingly stated that:

* their TV income with the current collective selling model was the same compared to their real TV rights’ value (73.8%);
* the maximization of total profits of the clubs did not maximize the profits of each club separately (92.9%);
* the less-popular/strong clubs would not get less money with individual selling of their rights (64.3%);
* the financial strengthening of the less-wealthy and -popular clubs, through an even distribution system of TV income, was not among the primary reasons to follow a collective selling model (66.7%);
* the current selling model did not change their team’s stadium attendance (69%);
* the current selling model did not change their club’s financial strength or its ability to acquire talented players (95.2%);
* income distribution based on the clubs’ performances did not change the investment level of the “weak” clubs in talent (66.7%);
* they had considered the possibility of increasing TV ratings of their games in the rights selling procedure (78.6%); and that they
* thought that the accessibility of TV households in games coverage was an important factor in their decision making (85.7%).

Greek soccer experts validated the authors’ hypothesis that the current collective selling model using the performance-based income redistribution system didn’t maximize the clubs’ revenues or stadium attendance.

In past literature, the collective selling mechanism was thought to be the optimal way of exploiting TV rights of the professional soccer championship games in almost all the famous and strong European championships, such as the Premier League in England, Budesliga in Germany, and Division 1 in France. Only in the Italian championship, Lega Calcio, were the TV rights exploited individually, due to the large discrepancies in the predicted and actual revenues of the big and traditional soccer clubs, compared to the small professional clubs (4,9,14,16).

This study shows that the optimal way to exploit Greek professional soccer clubs’ TV rights is via collective selling. That is the model chosen in most of the strongest and most popular professional soccer championships in Europe.

### Conclusions

Based on the findings of the current study, relative studies that were carried out in other European countries, and of course the particularities of the Greek professional soccer market, the authors suggest that the optimal clubs TV rights’ selling mechanism is collective selling through the governing bodies of Greek professional soccer (either the Greek Soccer Federation or the Superleague/EPAE).

The findings of this study clearly showed that the clubs’ managers recognized the need for all the clubs to collectively exploit their TV rights by stating that the games of a championship gain value as part of it, and that TV viewers see the championship as a unity, a product by itself. Mostly it could be concluded by their statement that the Greek soccer federation or the soccer leagues own the clubs’ TV rights and must exploit them. On the other hand, they saw individual selling as a more appropriate model to sell their rights, since in that way they increased their TV income and their stadium attendance. The combination of the two aforementioned contradictory findings, could lead to the conclusion that the club managers think that collective selling is the optimal theoretical model for selling their TV rights, but the way it is currently implemented is not the optimal one, leading to lower results in both income and stadium attendance than those anticipated by the managers. Nevertheless, the need for collective selling was recognized by the managers and by the Greek soccer reality itself, since this model is the model that Greek soccer has chosen to apply for many years, and still does, even now that Greek professional soccer clubs have gained much professional experience by participating in European tournaments and interacting with renowned foreign soccer clubs. The small size of the Greek soccer market and its “hostile” environment to the average fan “client” make this necessity more apparent than ever before.

The current system’s partial failure can be fixed through designing and implementing a “fairer” TV income redistribution model, which will enhance the weaker teams. (As a side note, it is difficult to implement a US-like model that equally distributes the TV income to all the clubs of the league. This is because the whole sport’s theory and concept in USA is totally different than the European one). If weaker teams take more income, then they can afford to acquire better players and create a more competitive squad, leading to a more balanced championship, with more uncertain results. And this uncertainty is the key to league success, through an increase in fans’ interest that is interpreted in higher TV ratings, stadium standings, and spending in soccer products.

### Applications in Sport

This study can be a valuable tool for owners (primarily) and for marketing managers – commercial directors of the Greek professional soccer clubs to compare the Greek TV rights’ selling model efficiency with those used in developed, soccer-wise countries such as England, Germany, France, and Italy. The clubs’ higher management could use this study to evaluate their current selling mechanism, and design and implement a new one that would best fit the Greek soccer market characteristics and have the best possible financial and overall results for all the clubs and the championship.

Specifically, the clubs’ higher management, based on the study, could agree to reform the income redistribution system, so that is not based only on performance related criteria (such as the club’s standing, stadium attendance, fan-base, etc.) and for a more equal distribution of the TV revenues to be applied.

In order to verify the findings, an additional study could be carried out measuring the effect of the current selling model to the TV ratings of the clubs’ televised home games, the TV households’ accessibility in the clubs’ games coverage, etc.

### Figures

#### Figure 1: Dendrogram of the variables of the Greek soccer problems


### Tables

#### Table 1: Ranking of the most significant problems in the Greek soccer by the professional soccer clubs management

#### Table 2: Results of the PCA model conducted on the items of the questionnaires related to the most significant problems of Greek soccer

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

#### Table 3: Parameter Significance Tests for the logistic regression model for the evaluation of the TV rights income redistribution model (Reference Group: “very bad – medium”)

Dependent Variable: Evaluation of the TV rights income redistribution model of the current collective selling.

* Coefficient is significant at a 10% significance level
** Coefficient is significant at a 5% significance level
*** Coefficient is significant at a 1% significance level
**** Coefficient is significant at a 20% significance level
n.s. Non-significant

#### Table 4: Operationalization of the independent variables used for the logistic regression analysis model

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### Corresponding Author

Christos Koutroumanides
Democritus University of Thrace, Greece,
5 Str Dagli, 65403, Kavala, Greece, T 0030-2510-232075
<[email protected]>

### Authors

**Christos Koutroumanides**,
Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

**Athanasios Laios**,
Democritus University of Thrace, Greece