The Listed Events regulation - are sporting events really that important?

Abstract

This article evaluates the rationale behind the Listed Events regulation, which objective is to protect major sporting events from being broadcasted exclusively on TV-channels with restricted penetration. It presents rating figures and surveys about people’s interest for various TV programmes. The data are mainly from Norway, but are supplemented with some data from other European countries. The article supports the regulation in the cases when the events generate positive externalities. However, the empirical data indicates that the proposed Norwegian list includes too many events, and that the suggested minimum penetration ought to be lower than 90%.