An interesting piece by the Sports Business Daily takes a look at the amount of media coverage sports received in the month of May. The study, which examines the sports sections of USA Today, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, the 11:00 PM SportsCenter, and the midnight edition of the FSN Final Score, reveals among other things, that Major League Baseball drew more coverage in major outlets than the NBA Playoffs, and the NHL had more airtime on ESPN that month than NASCAR.
NHL still has ESPN’s attention.
One common misconception debunked by the study is that ESPN, and SportsCenter in particular, devotes more coverage to ‘pet projects’ like the Arena Football League, NASCAR, and MLS, than to sports it does not have the rights to — in particular the National Hockey League. The study shows that “[w]hile there has been an increased promotional emphasis on those leagues … that has not resulted in a spillover effect when looking at ‘SportsCenter.’“
NASCAR took up 4% of time on SportsCenter in May, while MLS, the WNBA and the AFL took up 0.2%, 0.8% and 0.13%, respectively. A seven minute feature on chessboxing took up more time on the program than MLS, WNBA and AFL coverage combined. As a comparison, the National Hockey League took up 4.6% of time on SportsCenter in May, making the NHL the fifth most covered topic on the program that month, behind only the NFL, NBA, baseball and miscellaneous topics.
NBA v. Baseball.
Despite the fact that the NBA Playoffs were in full swing during the month of May, Major League Baseball was far and away the most covered sport during that month. Baseball was covered more than the NBA by a 3:1 margin in USA Today and the New York Times, a 4:1 margin in the Los Angeles Times, and a 6:1 margin on the FSN Final Score. The latter program devoted 63% of its coverage to Major League Baseball in May. In regards to the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, keep in mind that both New York and Los Angeles have two baseball teams, and neither the New York Knicks nor Los Angeles Lakers were still playing in the month of May.
SportsCenter gave by far the most attention to the NBA Playoffs, devoting 25% of its coverage (compared to 37% for Major League Baseball). Other outlets did not exceed 14%. The discrepancies in coverage regarding baseball on the FSN Final Score and the NBA on SportsCenter can be explained by the fact that FSN and ESPN are rights holders for baseball and the NBA, respectively.
Other notes.
Coverage of the NHL exceeded coverage of the NBA in the Los Angeles Times, likely due to a combination of the championship run of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the early failure of the Los Angeles Lakers. 13% of sports coverage in the L.A. Times was devoted to the NHL, nearly doubling the amount of coverage in the next most-interested outlet — the New York Times, which devoted 7% of its sports coverage to the NHL.
Horse racing took up only 1.6% and 0.6% of coverage on SportsCenter and the FSN Final Score, respectively, by contrast to the 5% devoted to the sport by USA Today, the New York Times, and Los Angeles Times. This is despite the fact that both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes took place in the month of May. Horse racing took up .73 more seconds of airtime on SportsCenter than coverage of the IRL.
The WNBA and LPGA Tour took up a combined 3 minutes and 11 seconds of coverage on SportsCenter in May, and a combined 1 minute and 41 seconds on the FSN Final Score. USA Today covered both the WNBA and LPGA more than any other outlet, devoting slightly over 1% of its total sports coverage to either organization. The New York Times was the only other outlet to devote more than 1% of its coverage to either the WNBA or LPGA, alotting 1.4% of its total coverage to the latter.
ESPN was far more interested in offseason football than any other outlet. SportsCenter devoted 7% and 3% of its coverage in May to the NFL and college football, respectively. No other outlet approached those numbers. Only one other outlet devoted more than 2% of its coverage to football, on the pro or college level: the New York Times used 4% of its sports coverage in May on offseason NFL.
Click here to read the Sports Business Daily article, which includes a full table showing how much coverage the five cited media outlets devoted to a given sport.
