Watching Sport, Worldwide

Football / Soccer is the world's favourite televised sport, but try guessing which sport comes second, or estimating how many Chinese have attended a live football match in the last 3 months, without the help of Synovate's recent survey of sport watching on 4 continents...

Following its survey of sport and celebrity in India (see DRNO Nov. '03 www.mrweb.com/drno/news2764.htm and www.mrweb.com/drno/news2769.htm ), Synovate gathered more than 9,000 responses in the US, Germany, Brazil, India, Canada, Russia, France, China and Korea regarding sports preferences and priorities. Of these, only 17% of respondents expressed a general lack of interest in sports. Respondents were asked a series of questions about the importance of professional spectator sports in their lives.

Unsurprisingly, football (soccer) is the world's favourite televised sport, selected by 24% of respondents. Soccer scored highly everywhere except North America and India. In the US, only 1% of respondents list soccer as their favourite televised game, and the US was the only country where zero respondents reported having attended a live professional soccer game within the previous three months.

Cricket is the overwhelming favourite in India, of course, with 93% saying it was their favourite televised sport. India's huge population, combined with the lack of global critical mass in any sport apart from soccer, means that cricket may possibly be the world's second most popular televised sport (and one well off the radar of US marketers). In terms of sponsorship, Pepsi has hit the spot in India with nearly half (49%) of Indian respondents volunteering it when asked to mention which brand comes to mind as a sports sponsor. Coca-Cola only achieved 13% recognition. Score one for Pepsi in the ongoing vicious Indian cola war.

American football came out as the world's third most popular televised sport, just ahead of baseball. 37% of Americans and 11% of Canadians put it first. Elsewhere the sport does not show up in the figures, except, interestingly, in China, where 3% of respondents marked 'gridiron' as their favourite televised sport.

Russian are the ultimate channel-hogs, with nearly 74% who have recently attended live sporting events saying that no one dares to change the channel away from their favourite sports at home. The Chinese are close behind with 69% and then India, with 67%. Korean, American and German fans are more tolerant of channel changing, with 44%, 47% and 50% respectively - or is this a result of the high number of homes in these countries with more than one television set?

TV may be prominent in sponsors' minds, but attendance at live events is perhaps a good indicator of the depth of passion about a sport, and some of the results regarding attendance are eye-openers.

Overall, 23% of respondents said they had attended professional live sporting events in the three months previous to the survey, with soccer way ahead and cricket second, but American football dropping from 3rd in the TV ranking to 6th in live attendance. The Chinese are the biggest attenders of live sport, with 55% having attended in the last three months - of these, 58% saw a football match and 30% saw a basketball game. And given China's 1.3bn that's a lot of people turning out for matches.

Some companies have already spotted that potential. The survey found that 31% of Chinese sports fans buy clothing and equipment brands used by their favourite athlete. This goes a long way towards explaining Adidas' efforts to dam the flood of fake David Beckham jerseys in China.

Other questions were used to gauge the extent of sports fanaticism among different nationalities. 76% of French respondents admit they have become embroiled in a heated argument over the performance of their favourite teams or athletes, while the Canadians stay coolest, with only 24% losing it. Social and employment researchers may be as interested as sponsorship experts in the numbers who admit calling in to work sick after staying up all night watching their favourite sport. India came out on top by far - 24% of respondents confessed to taking bogus sport-inspired sick days, while 16% of Russian do the same but only 4% of Germans. A whopping 78% of Russians admit to checking sports results while at work, something to which only 14% of Germans will confess.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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