Determinants of consumption for regional sports network programming: an examination of inheritance effects, lead-in, lead-out, and game viewership

HIGHLIGHTSEstimate viewership determinants for sequenced live sports programming broadcast on Regional Sports Networks.Statistically significant evidence of audience carryover from each broadcast to the next.Viewership preferences vary substantially by program type, suggesting unique consumption preferences.Local team performance impacts viewership for the subsequent pre-game show broadcast.The financial health of major North American professional sports franchises is closely tied to Regional Sports Networks. These networks purchase local market broadcast rights from franchises and then create sequenced pre-game and post-game show content bookending each live contest. Despite the financial importance of Regional Sports Networks, no study has empirically examined the drivers of viewership for this sequential content. We create a sample of sequenced pre-game show, game broadcast, and post-game show ratings and uncover statistically significant audience carryover from each broadcast to the next. We also demonstrate substantial variance in the viewership determinants for each live program, suggesting viewers have different consumption preferences for each program type. We further illustrate that local team performance relative to expectations significantly impacts ratings for the subsequent non-adjacent pre-game show broadcast. The results are crucial to broadcast rights valuation, advertising values, and programming strategy.