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get their sports info
TV is still tops but video games are gaining
By Gabriel Spitzer
Sports media have not lost their appeal with kids, but advertisers may have a tougher time reaching them nonetheless.
A study released yesterday by Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI), sponsored by ESPN and the Amateur Athletic Foundation, reveals that 93 percent of kids ages 8 to 17 consume sports content through media.
But although television remains the most popular sports medium among kids, three of the top five media are not ad-supported: video games, books and movies.
SRI’s study follows up on a similar survey conducted two years ago. From 1999 to 2001, video games’ share of children’s attention has increased, seemingly at the expense of traditional media.
Seventy-six percent of kids consume sports content through video games. Twelve percent do so every day, putting video games practically on par with the 13 percent of kids who watch sports on television every day.
Two years ago just 10 percent played sports video games daily, while 14 percent watched sports on TV every day.
Still, television has not lost much of its share.
Ninety-three percent of young boys get sports content from television at least sometimes, the most of any medium. More girls, at 85 percent, get their sports content from movies, though as the study points out, most of kids’ movie viewing comes over the television set.
Television and movies both claimed 88 percent of combined boys' and girls' sports-media attention.
Internet use has grown significantly in the past two years—daily use has tripled—but it still lags way behind other media in satisfying kids’ hunger for sports content.
Just 45 percent of kids use the web to get their sports content, second-to-last among the eight media tracked in SRI’s study.
"Use of the internet went up a bit, but not as much as I expected it would," says David Tice, director of client services at SRI.
"Overall, something like 89 or 90 percent of kids say they use the internet, yet only 45 percent say they use it for sports. There seems to be a gap there. Maybe they’re not finding enough kid-oriented material online."
Print media finished way ahead of the internet among the survey respondents, perhaps giving the lie to the notion that kids don’t like to read.
Magazines (66 percent), books (60 percent) and newspapers (57 percent) all scored relatively high in the survey.
Ten percent of kids read the sports section of the newspaper every day, and 29 percent read it at least once a week.
The number of kids getting their sports content from magazines changed little in the last two years, even though kids’ subscriptions to sports magazines dropped by a third. Just 14 percent now subscribe to sports magazines.
Sports Illustrated is still by far the most popular sports magazine among kids, but ESPN the Magazine tripled its subscriber base in this demo over the last two years.
When kids watch sports on television, it tends to be around primetime. SRI’s survey shows that most kids prefer to watch sports between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., followed by weekend afternoons and, lastly, weekday afternoons.
Moreover, kids’ notoriously short attention spans mean they rarely stay put in front of the tube for long.
"We asked the kids when they watched their favorite sport on TV, how much of a game they’d typically watch. Only about half said they watch all or most of a game. That plays into the whole theory that kids aren’t paying that much attention, that getting them to sit through a whole game is getting more and more difficult," says SRI’s Tice.
The golden rule about kids’ attention spans seems to have one major exception—video games, again.
"The fidelity to video games is so high; the kids get to learn about the players and learn about the sport more through the video games than through TV," says Tice.
The Olympics pull in the most young viewers of any sport on television, with 84 percent of children reporting that they tune in. That number is up slightly from 80 percent in 1999. At the same time, Olympic-oriented sports like gymnastics and ice skating are down slightly.
Football has gained slightly in the last two years, now claiming 80 percent of kids. Professional basketball and baseball, however, both experienced slight declines since 1999.
The biggest gain among children goes to extreme sports. Whereas 51 percent of children said they watched extreme sports in 1999, in 2001 that number is up to 61 percent, making extreme sports the fourth-most-watched sport on television for kids.
SRI’s Tice suspects that this jump gets to the bottom of some of the erosion in traditional sports.
"You’re seeing kids getting into a lot of these extreme sports. Individually they may not have tremendous ratings, but on an aggregate basis that makes up for some of the dispersion we’ve seen on the larger networks, both broadcast and cable," he says.
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Kids’ sports consumption by medium |
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|
Medium |
Total |
Boys |
Girls |
|
Any use |
93 |
97 |
89 |
|
Television |
88 |
93 |
81 |
|
Movies |
88 |
90 |
85 |
|
Video Games |
76 |
88 |
62 |
|
Magazines |
66 |
75 |
57 |
|
Books |
60 |
68 |
50 |
|
Newspapers |
57 |
60 |
54 |
|
Internet |
45 |
52 |
36 |
|
Radio |
36 |
44 |
28 |
| Source:
Strategic Research Inc., based on interviews with 286 boys and 223
girls ages 8-17 Numbers given in percents. |
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Most popular televised sports among kids |
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|
Sport |
2001 |
1999 |
|
Olympics |
84 |
80 |
|
NFL football |
80 |
77 |
|
NBA basketball |
71 |
75 |
|
Baseball – major/minor |
63 |
66 |
|
Extreme sports/X-Games |
61 |
51 |
|
College football |
60 |
56 |
|
Men’s college basketball |
57 |
59 |
|
Professional wrestling |
50 |
53 |
|
Gymnastics |
48 |
53 |
|
Soccer |
47 |
43 |
|
Ice skating |
46 |
53 |
|
Auto/motorcycle racing |
46 |
43 |
|
Boxing |
44 |
41 |
|
Swimming/diving |
43 |
42 |
|
NHL hockey |
41 |
40 |
|
Tennis |
34 |
30 |
|
Skiing |
31 |
36 |
|
Women’s college basketball |
30 |
N/A |
|
WNBA Basketball |
29 |
N/A |
|
Women’s Basketball – college or WNBA |
N/A |
39 |
|
Golf |
27 |
25 |
| Source:
Strategic Research Inc., based on interviews with 420 children ages
8-17 who watched sports in 2001, and 412 children ages 8-17 who watched
sports in 1999. Numbers given in percents. |
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Media used
at least once |
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|
Medium |
2001 |
1999 |
|
TV |
55 |
58 |
|
Video Games |
43 |
40 |
|
Newspapers |
29 |
33 |
|
Internet |
17 |
14 |
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Movies |
17 |
N/A |
|
Magazines |
15 |
19 |
|
Radio |
12 |
13 |
|
Books |
10 |
8 |
| Source:
Strategic Research Inc., all children ages 8-17. Numbers given in percents. |
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July 20, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Gabriel Spitzer is a staff writer for Media Life.
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