Television: Medium of choice for sports fans

Glenn Enoch, vice president of integrated marketing research at ESPN, presented interesting data from ESPN’s research operation during a special sports symposium Thursday at the Broadcast Education Association’s annual meeting. The research confirms that the rise of new media platforms haven’t dethroned television. Among the most interesting ideas he presented:

• Sports fans are heavier users of all media than are non-sports fans.
• TV is still king for sports fans.
• The higher the household income, the more time spent with sports television. For instance, in households with more than $125K in annual income, about 15% of time with television is with sports programming.
• The older the sports fan, the more time spent with sports television.
• Men are far more likely to watch sports programming alone than are women.

The last point on this list was one of the few comments Enoch made during the presentation about gender differences related to sports consumption. Gender and race are two identity factors that influence consumption patterns. – M. Hardin