Television viewership and rivalry in the National Football League

Rivalry is competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field. Sport is replete of rivalries between teams within region or division, offering a desirable living laboratory. Moreover, rivalry influences demand for sport, infusing significance to each match. Especially in the National Football League, the most watched league in the United States, divisional teams are considered to be in rivalrous relationships. However, relatively little attention have been paid to the rivalry effect in the television viewership, especially examining the within-game changes. Moreover, most of the studies in sport context have heavily focused on home market games. This thesis therefore investigates the effect of rivalry on sports viewership of out-of-market games to shed light on how sports fans may act when rival teams are involved.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Sung, Ho Jun

Contributors dc:contributor

• Tainsky, Scott

• sport economics
• National Football League (NFL)
• rivalry
• out-of-market games
• intra-game ratings
• schadenfreude

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2014 Hojun Sung

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50414

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50414