The cost of sports

[sam_gordon]

This is meant to just educate, not start a debate.

I recently have had a reason to come up with a budget for a company to produce a "basic" (ie: 5 camera, SD) football game. The cost came to ~$17K. Obviously going HD or adding cameras would greatly up the cost. The cost also did not include travel (air, hotel) which would generally be done for at least key positions (talent, director, producer). I'm sure someone will come along and say this is the cost of doing business, and they'd be right. I am not trying to justify subscriber fees, but was actually surprised when the total got that high. Here is a list of what I included:

Production Truck
Uplink Truck
Satellite Time
Director
Technical Director
Producer
Graphics Operator
'Fox Box' Operator
Audio Operator
2x Audio Assistant
Replay Operator
Video Operator
5x Camera Operators
Red Hat (Time Out Coordinator)
Parab Operators
2x Utilities (cable pullers)
2x Talent
Statistician

What I did not include (but is common on a crew)
Assistant Director
Stage Manager
Cart Operator (w/cart)
Sideline Reporter
Technical Manager
Operational Manager
Overtime (usually an hour or two)

The larger shows will have as many as a 12+ cameras (increased cost), which also adds more replay operators. Doing an HD production adds cost on the production truck, uplink truck, and satellite space line items. The more complicated shows will also add a 'set day', which adds an additional day for 7-8 key roles.

Yes, I know you can trim this list even more. I have a pretty good (although not exact) idea of what each of these positions cost. Most of the positions are filled on site by local operators, although weekly shows (MNF, Thursday night Football, Saturday Prime Time game, etc) might travel in some more bodies. But paying hotel & airfare is almost as expensive as the day rate. A local station doing a local game would be able to cut some of the costs by using existing staff & equipment.

I came up with 28 minutes of commercial time. To just break even, a 30 second add would need to be ~$300. Of course, any company that simply "breaks even" won't be in business very long.

The cost was larger than I would have guessed, and thought some folks here would be interested in what's involved.

 

[the mack]

?

 

[Teehar]

Yet the broadcasters that televise the sporting events,make a killing.

 

[Scherrman]

$300 for a 30 second ad is not that terrible really. If you charged $375 to $400 an ad it would still be reasonable and you'd make some money to cover other costs.

 

[dare2be]

Production costs of televising a sporting event are a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the rights to do so. That is where the majority of the advertising and subscription revenue goes to.

 

[navychop]

Yep. I noticed that little item was excluded.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[TNGTony]

Scripted television costs 5-30x as much as sports to produce. The largest expense in pro sports production, by far, is the rights fee.

 

[sam_gordon]

Production costs of televising a sporting event are a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the rights to do so. That is where the majority of the advertising and subscription revenue goes to.

You are correct. The cost for the rights will vary based on the organization. And while you could get $400+/:30 ad for 'major' games, I don't know how easy it is to get that for 2nd or 3rd tier games.

 

[Scherrman]

Well I pay $1,000 for a front page colored ad in the local penny saver paper now. A 30 second ad during the nightly local news here cost $400 so one during a football game should be fairly similar.

 

[Huntr]

You are correct. The cost for the rights will vary based on the organization. And while you could get $400+/:30 ad for 'major' games, I don't know how easy it is to get that for 2nd or 3rd tier games.

NBC/CBS/FOX/ESPN will collectively pay about $5 billion per yr for NFL rights in the next contract ('14-'22). The NCAA b-ball tourney rights currently cost 10.8 billion for CBS and Turner over 14 years (for just the tourney...). ESPN pays about $2 billion/year for the rights to broadcast NCAA FB. They will pay about $500 mill/year for rights to the 4 team playoff that starts next year. Think about that. 3 games, $500 million.

Sad to say, but production costs are just about irrelevant.


eta: And the ad rates aren't covering it, either. The ad rate for the Super Bowl this year was $3.8 mill for 30 seconds. Maybe the CFB playoff eventually gets there, but I doubt it. BCS championship gm ads cost about a quarter of the Super Bowl rate.