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
"Sports popularity has been replaced with politics in recent years," stated Martin Lin
PHOTO: GEORGE TSONG, TAIPEI TIMES
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
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.
Since the phenomenal success of international baseball competition in Taiwan last year, the sport has become the flavor of the year with local sports fans. At present Videoland's live broadcasts of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) are the most watched sporting program in Taiwan, drawing viewing figures of upwards of 3 percent.
Not that Videoland's executives expect these figures to last, however, as local sports fans are prone to changing their viewing habits on a whim.
When Taiwan's bowlers were notching up gold medal after gold medal at the Asian Bowling Championships four years ago, sports fans couldn't get enough of the game.
"Sport is a fad thing in Taiwan," continued Lin. "For example, three years ago we saw bowling topping the TV sports ratings charts. It was so popular that four channels carried the sport and viewing figures were on average between 0.5 and 0.7 percent of the population."
A year later, however, with Taiwan's bowlers still performing exceptionally well on the Asian circuit, the general public's passion for the sport dropped to an all time low and viewing figures plummeted almost overnight.
The sports channels didn't have to wait long for the next sporting fad. From 2000 until last year, the armchair sport of choice was billiards.
"Billiards topped the ratings for over a year and half and drew some pretty large audience figures," recalled Videoland's deputy manager. "The 2000 Amway Cup recorded viewing figures of over 60,000, or 3 percent."
The nation's passion for billiards and bowling, sports considered by many as unworthy of television coverage, centers on the player's world rankings.
"Taiwan lacks sporting heroes, which is why there's so little interest in sport. When Taiwan's billiard players and bowlers were the best in Asia people watched them," stated Lin. "And the same can be said of baseball. But as we don't have many sporting heroes, people remain largely uninterested in sport."
Although local baseball presently tops the TV sports ratings, come June all this is set to change. Taiwan's soccer team might be ranked 173rd in the world, but this doesn't deter thousands of viewers from tuning into the FIFA World Cup.
The event, which is held every four-years is expected to generate audience figures of between 3 and 5 percent. While this is still minute when compared to TV audience figures in the UK or even China, this is enough to make it the TV sporting event of the year.
"Even though soccer has a very small following in Taiwan the World Cup always proves popular," continued the Videoland sportscaster. "It's just a shame Taiwan is so bad at the sport and that it only happens every four years."
According to Lin, one of the main reasons behind the continual success of the FIFA World Cup in Taiwan revolves around an illegal pastime known as gambling. When Videoland aired horseracing, however, many viewers cried foul.
"I'm positive that if gambling was legal in Taiwan we'd see viewing figures skyrocket. We aired several international horse races a few years ago and while viewing figures certainly didn't break any records we had good viewer feedback," said Lin. "Unfortunately, we were thought by many to be promoting gambling rather a sporting event. This put a damper on the whole affair and we've been reluctant to broadcast live races ever since."
According to ERA's Martin Lin the illegality of gambling is a major stumbling block in the advancement of sport both on and off the television in Taiwan.
"Along with the lack of local sporting heroes, the illegality of gambling is one of the reasons sport has never taken off here," stated ERA's Lin. After all, what is sport if you can't put some money on your favorite team?
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