Does cross‐border broadcast of foreign football change the demand pattern of domestic recreation?. Empirical study of imports of audiovisual services through digital satellite television

• Published date: 15 June 2012
• Date: 15 June 2012
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/14770021211239686
• Pages: 191-211
• Author: Abiodun S. Bankole,Olanrewaju Olaniyan,M. Adetunji Babatunde,Rifkatu Nghargbu
• Subject Matter: Economics

Does cross-border broadcast

of foreign football change the

demand pattern of domestic

recreation?

Empirical study of imports of audiovisual

services through digital satellite television

Abiodun S. Bankole, Olanrewaju Olaniyan,

M. Adetunji Babatunde and Rifkatu Nghargbu

Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate Nigeria’s audiovisual services import demand

using foreign football transmitted through digital satellite television (DSTV) as a case study. The major

focus is on whether such imports effectively replace local recreation in watching domestic football.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors examined descriptive statistics. The methodology

employed is a combination of descriptive analysis and cross-sectional regression.

Findings – The paper’s analytical framework establishes a link between the conventional import

demand and demand for football functions, while the estimated empirical counterpart found that the

demand for foreign football via cross-border satellite transmission is a statistically significant function

of taste for foreign football, quality, and entertainment. While descriptive statistics indicate

respondents’ preference for foreign football, the test of significance rejected the hypothesis that the

demand for foreign football broadcast service imports has replaced demand for domestic football as an

entertaining sport. In addition, the demand for foreign football broadcast is fairly inelastic, as a greater

percentage of the respondents will watch foreign football even if the cost of subscription or cost of

paying per view in the viewing centers increase.

Originality/value – The paper describes the first of this type of research to be conducted in Nigeria.

Keywords Nigeria, Television, Entertainment,Football, Consumer behaviour,Audio-visual services,

Cross-bordersupply, Services import demand

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Trade in electronically delivered products, in which more and more developing countries

are beginning to participate and which offers an increasingly viable alternative to the

movement of individuals, is today largely free of explicit barriers (Matoo and Stern,

2008). As a result, audiovisual services have been playing a crucial and formative role in

the society. These services are closely linked to the preservation of cultural identity and

social value. It also plays a major role in shaping public opinion, safe guarding

democratic system and developing creative potential. Audiovisual services are closely

related to other services such as tourism, software, recreational, cultural and sporti ng

services. The growing wave of globalization appears to be deepening the rapidly rising

import of audiovisual services such as television, movies and the music entertainment

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

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Broadcast of

foreign football

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Vol. 11 No. 2, 2012

pp. 191-211

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1477-0024

DOI 10.1108/14770021211239686

through satellite transmission. While this services trade has increased the variety of

entertainment or recreational choice available to the global consumers, many Nigerians

now also prefer to watch foreign sports via digital satellite television (DSTV). In recent

times, the pattern of demand for recreational activities such as football has chan ged, as

more Nigerians have been observed preferring to watch foreign football games via the

satellite either at home or at pay-per-view TV viewing centers. Partly as a result of this

changing demand patterns, the local football industry both as a source of entertainment

to Nigerians and in terms of institutional intervention from government is neglected. It is

also observed that foreign clubs namely Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal,

among others have more fans in Nigeria than the local clubs.

In effect, this increased demand for foreign football entertainment constitutes an

import of audio visual services supplied mainly through the DSTV at the expense of the

patronage of the local football as a recreational activity. According to Guest (2009), in

Kenya and Uganda, the DSTV had a dominant control in the premier league

broadcasting. Guest (2009) reported that in Dandora, Nairobi, Kenya, many DSTV

pay-TV centers have established viewing centers in several locations as businesses for

viewing the European premier league. In Uganda, English premiership logo is seen

everywhere, in rural huts, and mini-buses indicating the wide spread of passion for

European football exploded with the increasing availability of television and satellite

broadcast. One policy concern of this demand pattern is the degree of openness of this

industry to international trade and whether government can raise import taxes on this

type of imports as it does on imported goods on which import duties are levied.

Encyclopedia (2010) defined audiovisual as works with both a sound and a visual

component. Traditionally, audiovisual services sector covers the production and

distribution of audiovisual contents such as motion pictures, radio and television

programs and sound recordings (Mukharjee, 2000). According to Pasadilla an d Lantin

Jr (2005) and United Nations (2002):

[...] the audiovisual services industry is composed of several subsectors as classified by the

WTO service sectoral classification list (MN.GNS/W/120) based on the United Nations

provisional central product classifications (CPC). These are motion pictures and videotape

production and distribution services categorized as (CPC 9611), Motion pictures and

projection services (CPC 9612), Radio and television services (CPC 9613), Radio and television

transmission services (CPC 7524), Sound recording (CPC not applicable) and others.

The main concern should be preventing the introduction of new barriers, which the

dramatic expansion of exports is showing signs of provoking.

It is noteworthy that Nigeria is engagedin both the import and export of audiovisual

services, thelatter an offshoot of a booming film industry christened Nollywood that has

been found to worth about $5billion annually. Nonetheless, the import of audiovisual

servicesappears to exceedthe exports with criticalimplicationfor the balance of payments

if we considered the fact that Nigeria posts services deficit. In addition, the growth of

demandfor football entertainmentvia DSTV in Nigeria relativeto the rest of the world and

the possibilitythat this demand can replacesources of domestic recreationand growth, in

particular, the domestic premier league, justifies an examination of the subjectmatter.

The objective of this paper is to identify the pattern of demand for audiovisual

service imports as a recreational activity and examine the determinants of same using

a case study of the demand for foreign football broadcast via the DSTV. The paper also

seeks to examine the replacement tendency of domestic football as a means of local

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