Research question: The aim of this paper is to analyze minute-by-minute TV demand in the case of road cycling. The paper addresses at least two new hypotheses. First, breakaways and episodes of ...climbing mountain passes increase the audience within a specific stage. Second, the presence of commercials during the broadcasting reduces the audience significantly.
Research methods: We have collected information about the minute-by-minute TV audience for all the stages of the 2015 Vuelta a España. To check our hypotheses, we have applied multivariate regression analysis, after controlling for other common variables such as competitive balance or stage profile.
Results and findings: Related to our first hypothesis, the TV audience increases when the leader is climbing a mountain, and when a top ten rider is involved in a breakaway. For our second hypothesis, the TV audience decreases when commercials are broadcasted even on a split screen.
Implications: This paper highlights the relevance of the analysis of the minute-by-minute TV audience demand in the case of road cycling, at the same time suggesting some hints for enhancing TV audience. On the one hand, organizers may wish to schedule more mountain stages, where breakaways tend to be more likely. On the other hand, TV channels should choose time slots for advertising carefully, since their negative effects on TV audience ratings appear to be quite significant.
