Watching Basketball on Television
in Latin America
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In most Latin American countries, the sport of choice is no doubt soccer. In the few countries where soccer is not dominant, such as Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, it is baseball that rules. Behind either soccer or baseball, we usually find basketball as the next favorite sport. This is true probably in many other regions of the world.
One significant reason for the global popularity of basketball is undoubtedly the excitement caused by the presence of televised basketball games, primarily those exported from the United States of America. That nation is currently by far the most dominant basketball power, as evidenced by the phenomenal successes achieved by the U.S. "Dream Teams" in world championships. Apart from those international tournaments, television viewers all over the world are supplied with a constant stream of US professional games. Since these games are being played for the US audience anyway, the additional revenues coming from international broadcasts represent easy profits. That is why there exists a concerted program to export NBA/WNBA everywhere.
According to the Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica 1998 study, 28% of persons 12 to 64 years old in Latin America said that they regularly watched basketball games on television. These games cover NBA regular season and playoff games, WNBA regular season and playoff games as well as local or national games. In the next table, we show the breakdown of the audience of televised basketball by various demographic characteristics.
| Demographic Characteristics |
Regularly watched US NBA games | Regularly watched US NBA playoffs |
Regularly watched US WNBA games |
Regularly watched US WBNA playoffs | Regularly watched national games |
| Country Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominican Rep. Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela |
14% 4% 13% 12% 21% 46% 41% 26% 44% 36% 47% 26% 10% 49% 5% 8% 38% 32% |
8% 2% 4% 4% 11% 40% 25% 18% 42% 33% 12% 17% 6% 50% 2% 3% 23% 23% |
2% 2% 6% 1% 3% 1% 3% 11% 8% 4% 11% 3% 3% 13% 0% 2% 2% 13% |
2% 6% 3% 1% 5% 2% 2% 11% 8% 6% 11% 3% 3% 15% 0% 3% 2% 12% |
7% 11% 18% 4% 6% 6% 17% 9% 14% 9% 9% 2% 3% 28% 1% 4% 29% 17% |
| Sex Male Female |
26% 12% |
15% 5% |
6% 3% |
5% 2% |
12% 10% |
| Age 12-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 |
25% 22% 17% 17% 14% 14% |
14% 14% 11% 6% 7% 7% |
5% 4% 4% 4% 4% 6% |
4% 5% 4% 2% 3% 4% |
12% 10% 11% 9% 9% 13% |
| Socio-economic Level A (Top 10%) B (Next 20%) C (Next 30%) D (Bottom 40%) |
25% 24% 20% 13% |
16% 13% 12% 6% |
7% 5% 5% 4% |
6% 4% 4% 2% |
15% 13% 9% 10% |
| TOTAL | 19% | 10% | 5% | 4% | 11% |
(source: Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica 1998)
We make these observations:
The strength of televised basketball is in the Central American and Caribbean countries. We note also that in Brazil, which accounts for 40% of the population of Latin America, the national games are in fact watched by more people than the US games. Of course, Brazil has also been successful at the world level, with their men's team led by the legendary Oscar Schmidt winning the Olympic championship in the pre-Dream Team days and their women's team led by the legendary Hôrtencia and Magic Paula also winning the Olympics title.
The NBA game is watched more by young men while the WNBA game is still watched by more males but it is more balanced across the ages.
Basketball viewing is correlated with socio-economic level. In one sense, soccer and baseball are more democratic in the sense that one can play with a minimal need for proper equipment and facility. For basketball, you would at least need a basketball, a hoop and some sort of level surface (you can dribble a soccer ball on a rock-strewn field, but not a basketball).
Brasil vs Australia, semi-final game of women's basketball, 2000
Sydney Olympics
Apart from demographic characteristics, we would guess that people who play basketball would be more appreciative of the top-action professional games. In this population, 8.9% of the people indicated that they had personally played basketball in the past 12 months. This could range anything from professional basketball to local leagues to pickup games to backyard games. For these basketball players, the table below shows their rate of watching basketball games on television. They are about three times more likely to watch NBA games, twice as likely to watch WNBA games and 50% as likely to watch national games compared to the general population. But for the purpose of preaching the joys and thrills of televised basketball games, these people are already converts.
| Regularly watched US NBA games | Regularly watched US NBA playoffs |
Regularly watched US WNBA games |
Regularly watched US WBNA playoffs | Regularly watched national games |
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| Played basketball in last 12 months |
55% | 33% | 10% | 9% | 16% |
(source: Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica 1998)
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(posted by Roland Soong on 8/5/00)
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