Game Outcome Uncertainty and Television Audience Demand: New Evidence from German Football. Issue 2 (2nd November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schreyer, Dominik; Schmidt, Sascha L.; Torgler, Benno
• Is Part Of: German economic review. Volume 19:Issue 2(2018:May)
• Page Start: 140
• Page End: 161
• Publication Date: 2016-11-02
• Subjects: Competitive balance -- demand -- football -- outcome uncertainty -- soccer -- television -- uncertainty of outcome hypothesis; Economics -- Periodicals; 330
• DOI: 10.1111/geer.12120
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1465-6485

Abstract

Abstract: Despite its prominence in the economic literature, our knowledge regarding the role of game outcome uncertainty (GOU) in spectator decision‐making is fairly limited. Even worse, studies testing the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis (UOH) by exploring TV demand for European football have further intensified the original ambiguity. In this paper, we revisit the role of GOU in spectator decision‐making by testing the UOH with regard to two different sporting products: (1) domestic league and (2) knockout tournament games. Analyzing TV demand for almost 1, 500 German football games, we find support for the UOH in league, though not in knockout tournament games.