Calling on Marketing Types

Yesterday the Sparkseses watched the US play Brazil in the finals of the Confederations Cup – the premiere soccer event in this non-World Cup year. I think xTian might post about the game. I would like to post about the business. Here is the question for you marketing types: do the major networks want soccer to become a legitimate 5th professional team sport in the US (on par with football, basketball, baseball, and hockey)?

My initial reaction is yes. Event-driven telecasts, like sports or American Idol, continue to draw large numbers of viewers even while the rest of the TV audience splinters. Plus, that is the only segment in which people still watch commercials (viewers are much less likely to TiVo a live event than a sitcom). If American viewers suddenly take an interest in soccer, the networks get to add hundreds of hours of additional event broadcasting.

But as I sat there watching the game, I began to think that maybe networks wouldn’t be so happy with soccer after all. Soccer games are divided into two one-hour blocks that cannot be interrupted, with one 20-minute halftime in between. How do you make the add revenue work with that? Yes, maybe you get a lot of eyeballs, but how does that pay the piper when you cannot break for a beer commercial? Would a network make more money just showing A Few Good Men instead?

Well?