Is there a premium for beauty in sport consumption? Evidence from German TV ratings for tennis matches

Meier, Henk Erik; Konjer, Mara

doi:10.1080/16138171.2015.11687968

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The results above suggest that physical attractiveness plays a significant role in various fields, yet, in tennis, Meier and Konjer (2015) put forward that there is no beauty premium. Using TV ratings from live telecasts of over 1,000 tennis matches on German free TV, the researchers analyze the relationship between attractiveness and tennis TV-ratings.…”

Section: Physical Attractiveness and The Beauty Premiummentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In comparison to any other sport (especially team sports), the TV camera focuses only on two players, thus, reducing the noise in the data. In contrast to Meier and Konjer (2015), we analyze data over several years and use more reliable methods to derive attractiveness scores. Our analyses indicate that facial symmetry plays a positive and significant role for female tennis matches, while we do not observe any significant effects for male matches.…”

Section: To Study the Relationship Between Physical Attractiveness Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rodríguez, Pérez, Puente, and Rodríguez (2013) analyze the determinants of TVviewership for professional cycling and find that outcome uncertainty plays a significantly positive role for cycling. In tennis, Konjer, Meier, and Wedeking (2015) and Meier and Konjer (2015) control for outcome uncertainty and player quality in their analyses. The authors suggest that player quality and outcome uncertainty, measured by win probabilities via betting odds, attracts more TV-viewers ).…”

Section: Sports Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The few exceptions have focused on baseball (Trail & James, 2001), American football (Berri, Simmons, van Gilder, & O'Neill, 2011), European football (Mutz & Meier, 2016), and tennis (Bakkenbüll, 2017;Bakkenbüll & Kiefer, 2015;. A recent attempt by Meier and Konjer (2015) empirically analyzes German TV ratings for tennis games, finding no evidence for a beauty premium in sports consumption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Tennis TV-Viewership

2018

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What is beautiful is good, the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho wrote over 2,500 years ago. Studies in social sciences, anthropology, psychology, and economics have shown various effects of physical attractiveness. Physically attractive people are hired more often, receive faster promotion, and generally earn more per hour; thus, there is a beauty premium. However, within the context of sports, little is known about consumer preferences concerning athletes' physical attractiveness. In this study, we analyze 622 live tennis matches from 66 Grand Slam tournaments between 2000 and 2016, examining the relationship between attractiveness, measured by tennis players' facial symmetry, and TV-viewership. We show that facial symmetry plays a positive role for female matches while there is no significant effect for male matches. The effect persists in several subsample regressions and robustness checks. Our results have important implications for managers in the field of sports. TVbroadcasters will likely acknowledge additional revenue potential from advertising due to increased viewership and change their programming accordingly. We contribute to the sports management and economics literature in that we introduce a new method to measure facial symmetry and show that physical attractiveness plays a positive role in tennis TV-viewership.

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Section: Physical Attractiveness and The Beauty Premiummentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: To Study the Relationship Between Physical Attractiveness Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sports Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Tennis TV-Viewership

2018

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“…The analysis of TV audience data was facilitated by the fact that since the 1990s, in most countries, TV viewership information was being collected through the use of automated people meters. With compliance levels above 90% (Meier & Konjer, 2015), this methodology delivers much more reliable data than the formerly used diary methods or phone surveys.…”

Section: Literature Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Differences in TV Viewership Between Seasoned Football Fans and Occasional Watchers of Football Games in Russia

Reeth

Osokin

2019

Journal of Sports Economics

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This article explores Russian TV viewership for football games at seven international football tournaments from 2006 to 2018. The research goal is 2-fold. First, we identify the determinants of Russian viewership for football mega-events. We focus on patriotism effects, and we check for any hosting impact of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Second, we analyze how these determinants differ in explaining two distinct TV metrics: Audience Size and Reach. Results indicate that the metrics are partially driven by different determinants which can be linked to two types of viewers: seasoned football fans and occasional watchers of football games.

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