BROADCASTING AND SPORT: VALUE DRIVERS OF TV RIGHT DEALS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL Thomas Hoehn and Zafeira Kastrinaki

This paper investigates the ever closer symbiotic relationship of media and sport in an
analysis of broadcasting right deals in sport. We focus mainly on deals related to national
and international football competitions which make up nearly half of the value of all TV
rights deals which we estimate to be worth ca €10 billion per annum across Europe. We
construct an empirical model of TV rights and find that the key driver of deal values
remains the number of eyeballs in each country but increasingly, in the multi-platform
environment competing for audience with a willingness to pay for attractive content, it is
quality factors such as talent, top clubs and competitive leagues that influence TV sport
right deal values and the allocation of revenues among the major stakeholders.
Furthermore, the drivers of choice of broadcaster (public or private) and broadcasting
format (licence fee, advertising revenues or pay TV subscriptions) and the regulatory
constraints sport governing bodies face play an important role.