TV laments the lack of sports heroes

Until five years ago, Taiwan had five television channels devoted to sport. A drop in viewing figures due to the odd combination of poor performances on the international sporting circuit by Taiwan and democratization, however, saw that number drop to its present three.

And while ESPN/Star Spots and Videoland (緯來電視網) now enjoy a monopoly on the armchair sporting market, programmers are often at a loss as how best to please an ever decreasing and fickle local sporting audience.

"Sports popularity has been replaced with politics in recent years," stated Martin Lin (林煒珽), sports announcer on ERATV (年代). "People figure sport is not important and instead of rooting for one particular team they would rather root for a politician or political party. So it's hardly surprising that viewing figures have dropped and programs axed."

Fans of the NCAA were the latest to feel the thwack of the axe early last week when, after airing the entire opening rounds of this year's championship, ESPN/Star Sports pulled the plug on the playoffs.

The college basketball championship, which has been aired live on TV in Taiwan for the last six seasons, had, according to Maggie Chang (張淑媛), general manager of ESPN/Star Sports Taiwan, become so unpopular with viewers that it was no longer a viable programming choice.

Viewing figures for this year's NCAA championship had dropped to an all time low of less than 0.1percent of the population. And while international golfing events draw roughly the same minute viewing figures, the sport of kings proves a much more financially viable affair.

"Although golf generates the same number of viewers, the target audience is professional, which means advertising revenue makes it worth airing. Companies such as Mercedes Benz have no qualms about paying for advertisements during a golf competition, whereas they do for college basketball," explained Chang. "We tried to promote the NCAA with giveaways and prizes, but the viewer feedback proved so small that it really wasn't worth running the program anymore."

The failure of the channel's promotional drive might have left some at ESPN/Star with red faces, but it came as no surprise to ERA's Martin Lin. According to the sportscaster, sports promotions in Taiwan are often short-term affairs with little substance.

"Most local promotions fizzle out after a week or so because of the lack of media hype," continued Lin. "Taiwan's media is more concerned with sex and politics than promoting or hyping a sport. It's sad to say this, but unless a local sports person gets involved in a sex scandal the media won't sit up and pay attention."

Followers of the NCAA aren't the only sports fans to have booed local sports channels this year, however. Whilst Taiwan had both bobsled and luge teams participating in this year's Winter Olympics, with the exception of one minute news-briefs, coverage of the international sporting event was non-existent.

"Sure, we can have a team in the Olympics, but as Taiwan doesn't do very well the sport draws little interest," explained Alagna Lin (林煒凱), deputy manager of Videoland's sports channel. "Baseball on the other hand, a sport Taiwan does pretty well at on the international stage attracts thousands of viewers, especially after the success of last year's Baseball World Cup."

While less than 0.1 percent of the population tuned into recent NCAA games, a staggering two million armchair baseball fans tuned into Taiwan's match against the US during the Baseball World Cup last year, making it the most watched sporting event on the box in Taiwan for almost a decade.