In October, THE DAILY tracked the editorial content of
the 11:00pm ET editions of the top three nightly sports news
shows and monitored the coverage time devoted to individual
sports and subject matters. In its analysis, THE DAILY did
not include intro, post-intro, pre- and post-commercial
conversation between anchors, promos for network Web sites
and upcoming programming or commercial time. The following
lists the total time allotted to each league, event or
subject in highlights, voice-overs, over-the-shoulder
graphics and any other on-air mention. The figures are also
expressed in a percentage of total air time (THE DAILY):
ESPN FOX SPORTS NET CNN/SI
"SportsCenter" "Primetime" "Sports Tonight"
MLB 10:10:28 - 28.80% 6:53:34 - 23.24% 3:50:24 - 20.11%
NFL 5:15:13 - 14.87% 5:08:18 - 17.32% 3:07:14 - 16:34%
NCAA F'Ball 1:36:57 - 4.57% 1:42:11 - 5.74% 1:56:42 - 10.19%
NHL 1:51:22 - 5.25% 1:37:41 - 5.49% 0:56:21 - 4.92%
NBA 1:18:28 - 3.70% 1:10:30 - 3.96% 0:51:50 - 4.52%
Men's Golf 0:25:37 - 1.21% 0:26:43 - 1.50% 0:37:33 - 3.28%
P. Stewart 0:29:33 - 1.39% 0:33:47 - 1.90% 0:19:07 - 1.67%
Boxing 0:16:12 - 0.76% 0:13:44 - 0.77% 0:23:34 - 2.06%
Chamberlain 0:23:02 - 1.09% 0:10:59 - 0.62% 0:08:37 - 0.75%
NASCAR 0:20:58 - 0.99% 0:01:53 - 0.11% 0:09:18 - 0.81%
Misc. 0:13:41 - 0.65% 0:03:37 - 0.20% 0:11:27 - 1.00%
Women Tennis 0:01:19 - 0.06% 0:07:08 - 0.40% 0:05:51 - 0.51%
Men's Tennis 0:02:09 - 0.10% 0:04:19 - 0.24% 0:04:31 - 0.39%
NCAA B'Ball 0:01:48 - 0.08% 0:04:33 - 0.26% 0:04:21 - 0.38%
CART 0:06:31 - 0.32% 0:02:01 - 0.11% 0:01:12 - 0.10%
Human Intrst 0:00:47 - 0.04% 0:06:04 - 0.34% 0:02:27 - 0.21%
Pete Rose 0:02:44 - 0.13% 0:01:20 - 0.07% 0:04:22 - 0.38%
Soccer 0:02:39 - 0.13% 0:01:17 - 0.07% 0:01:28 - 0.13%
LPGA 0:02:30 - 0.12% 0:00:38 - 0.04% 0:01:51 - 0.16%
Formula One 0:00:00 - 0:00% 0:01:47 - 0.10% 0:00:54 - 0.08%
IRL 0:00:30 - 0.02% 0:00:00 - 0.00% 0:01:01 - 0.09%
Grand Prix 0:00:00 - 0.00% 0:00:00 - 0.00% 0:00:54 - 0.08%
W. Payton 0:00:00 - 0:00% 0:00:35 - 0.03% 0:00:23 - 0.03%
CONTENT 22:04:31 - 64.30% 18:32:39 - 62.52% 13:01:22 - 68.20%
TOTAL AIR: 34:19:47 29:39:43 19:05:42
FOLLOW THE LEADS: Over the 31 October broadcasts,
ESPN's "SportsCenter" led with MLB 16 times, the NFL and the
death of Payne Stewart four times each, the NBA and NCAA
football twice each and NASCAR, the NHL and the death of
Wilt Chamberlain once each. FSN's "Primetime" led with MLB
18 times, the NFL seven times, Stewart three times, NCAA
football twice and Chamberlain once. CNN/SI's "Sports
Tonight" led with MLB 20 times, Stewart four times, the NFL
three times, NCAA football twice and men's golf and
Chamberlain once each. Miscellaneous = content such as
ESPN's "Plays of the Week" and coverage of events such as
marathons, figure skating and mountain biking.
