Spectator analysis in Norway: The impact of live football broadcasting on stadium attendance

Abstract

This research paper was conducted to find out more about the determinants of professional sports attendance in Norway, especially whether the increase in live television coverage have had a significant impact on match-day stadium attendance. Prior research has yielded contrasting findings on this matter, but the general notion is that games which are broadcasted live on television have been subject to a decrease in match-day attendance. Most prior research on this matter have been concerned about the most popular sports in large countries such as Great Britain and the United States, while smaller countries like Norway have been largely neglected. One important aspect of this paper is to examine the impact of live broadcasting on attendance in the context of a smaller European country. As to the best of our knowledge this paper is the first of its kind in Norway and only the second in Europe (after a Swiss study) to look at professional sports attendance in relation live broadcasting. To find out more about this topic a multiple regression analysis was conducted using match data from the Norwegian premier division (Tippeligaen) looking at games broadcasted from seasons 2008 to 2010. Several aspects of live broadcasting were tested in different model and all these reached significant estimation results. The results show that live television broadcasting of Norwegian league games have led to a decline in match-day attendance, mainly due to the impact of pay-to-view channels. Games televised live on public channels did, quite surprisingly have a positive impact on attendance. In addition to live broadcasting the general determinants of Norwegian football attendance was tested. The estimation results tell us that team form, squad quality, recently promoted teams, rivalry and social economics among other factors did have a significant impact on stadium attendance.