What is it about?
Many economists think fans like to watch games with unpredictable outcomes on TV or live. This paper uses TV audience size data from free-to-air broadcasts in Spain to show the opposite: people actually prefer to watch dominant teams like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona because they either prefer to watch a dynasty dominate weaker teams or hope to watch an epic upset victory by an underdog.
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Why is it important?
Shows that outcome uncertainty does not adequately explain why people watch sports on TV.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Loss aversion, upset preference, and sports television viewing audience size, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, February 2019, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2018.12.002.
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