Cable TV channels that televise games of local professional sports teams are highly popular among sports fans, a Nielsen report commissioned by Fox Sports has found.
According to The LA Times, The study, released Wednesday, revealed that in certain markets, including Detroit and St. Louis, fans ranked the local regional sports channel as more essential than ESPN, Discovery, History or HBO. The findings were derived from a survey of 1,500 pay-TV subscribers who identified themselves as sports fans, which means the study was not necessarily representative of the broader base of pay-TV subscribers.
The “passion index” study comes as Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox and owners of other regional sports channels brace for pitched battles with pay-TV operators over the high cost of these channels.
“We think these channels are very valuable for what they deliver,” said Jeff Krolik, president of Fox Sports Regional Networks. “The message to us was that many viewers regard these regional sports networks as the ‘fifth network’” in terms of popularity.
The issue is a sensitive one in the TV industry. Pay-TV operators have complained that the accelerating cost of sports channels is a prime contributor to higher bills for consumers, and network owners are worried about losing a public relations war.
Nielsen often finds that, in certain cities, a regional sports channel can draw larger audiences in prime time than traditional broadcast networks NBC, ABC, CBS and the national Fox network. During the most recent Major League Baseball season, for example, 23 of the 29 teams based in the U.S. ranked in the top five of all networks in their market when the teams played in prime time, according to the Nielsen findings.
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