Leading sports news outlets ignore many leagues

 

If you're a sports fan, you know most of the sports news available for your viewing or reading. What you may not know is that each of the outlets that broadcast live games tend to be biased towards the properties where they have a direct bet.

Most recently, I watched an NFL game on Fox. In the score ticker at the bottom of my screen, I noticed that they showed scores from the English Premier League. Earlier in the day, Fox had sent a repeat of Liverpool against the ข่าวร้อนพรีเมียร์ game. Clearly, these scores are designed to increase interest in the property they are sending. I do not remember CBS or NBC ever showing EPL scores in their tickers. It is clear that only the EPL's broadcast partners find it appropriate to show these scores.

Also, ESPN does not pay much attention to the NHL in the United States. Coverage dropped significantly after the NHL moved their game to Versus, now renamed NBC Sports. Rarely do you find a great NHL story at the top of the headlines on their espn.com website. One could argue that hockey is simply not popular enough in the United States to justify coverage, but the lack of coverage has been significant since they stopped broadcasting NHL games. Similarly, the Canadian Football League (CFL) in Canada moved their game broadcasts exclusively to TSN (The Sports Network). Previously, games were shared with the nationally subsidized Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). Since then, coverage on TSN's sports broadcaster competitor Sportsnet and other competitive Canadian businesses has been drastically reduced.

Of course, these news outlets report a score, but otherwise they do not spend time in their daily schedules to discuss or analyze last week's results or upcoming matches. Here's why: if ESPN or Sportsnet do not have the rights to broadcast a particular sport, they see that at any time they spend covering that sport or league as free advertising and promotion for their TV competitors. Why spend time during the evening or late at night highlights or develop a 60-minute show to focus on a sport exclusively broadcast live by another network?

Unfortunately, if you like multiple sports, that means you probably will not be able to get all the coverage you want in one place. You need to choose the outlets that best cover your favorite sport. If you want NHL coverage, you probably need to look beyond the ubiquitous ESPN properties. To get CFL coverage in Canada, go to TSN. Of course, if you are online, you can just go to the sites of the given league of interest.