• by Ken Liebeskind , April 30, 2002

Television advertisers love sports, since sporting event broadcasts are so popular with viewers. But advertisers should know that some sports are better than others.

A study of four recent sports broadcasts by Knowledge Networks shows that the Super Bowl remains tops for advertisers with the Daytona 500 close behind. The study also involved the Winter Olympics and the Final Four college basketball tournament.

The study looked at the way viewers watched the events and how closely they paid attention to commercials. Eighty-eight percent of viewers paid more attention to Super Bowl commercials than commercials shown during other special events, compared with 53% for the Daytona 500, 45% for the Olympics and 48% for the Final Four. Eighty-six percent noticed which companies sponsored the Super Bowl, compared with 85% for Daytona, 74% for the Olympics and 59% for the Final Four.

"The Super Bowl is the biggest, it scored high in everything," says David Tice, Knowledge Networks’ VP of client services. "Daytona matched or exceeded it and the Olympics was close behind."

Daytona actually beat the Super Bowl in the attentiveness category, with eyes on the TV 72% of the time, compared with 64% for the Super Bowl. This is due to the fact that the Super Bowl is a more festive event with people partying during the game, which takes their eyes off the TV. The Olympics actually won that category, with 74%.

The reason the Final Four trailed the other events is because of the way the event proceeds, with many top teams dropping out before the tournament ends. "In the Super Bowl they watch no matter who plays and Daytona has every driver in it," Tice says. "But in the Final Four there are upsets and the teams that get in don't necessarily have a great national following, so people aren't watching as closely."

Knowledge Networks conducted interviews with 15,000 viewers for the study, with the results released yesterday. The company hopes that the study will enable advertisers to understand which sporting events are most likely to hold the attention of a specific target audience and what audience perceptions of specific sporting events are.