Sports warning lights flash on the TV screen: – It’s dangerous

Media experts predict that sports themselves will have to start paying to have their sports shown on television. The Secretary General of the Sports Federation is concerned.

– All of this that is happening in the media is of a negative nature, which also has negative consequences for sports.

– She was serious.

The only thing that is certain is that everything is uncertain.

These quotes belong respectively to media expert Lasse Gimnes, Secretary General of the Norwegian Sports Federation Nils Einar As and NTNU researcher Harri Arne Solberg.

Major media houses are still suffering huge losses. At the same time, a number of sports are seeking to satisfy the desire of television channels to achieve high viewing figures.

– It is a big challenge for this sport, admits Lasse Gimnis.

• NRK lost NOK 54 million in 2022.
• TV 2 announces cost cuts worth NOK 400 million.
• Viaplay expects an operating result of less than SEK 1.5 billion this year.

What these three have in common is that they run the sport for Norwegian television screens. The negative trend strongly affects sports.

“I think it may become difficult to get significant rights income for many sports in the long term, and that there may be more sports that do not show their sports on television,” Jimenez says.

The media expert points to VG’s issue as there are no major Norwegian TV channels showing Kolstad and Vipers in the Champions League. To date, no Norwegian performer has the right to model skates.

A trend we want to see more of, predicts several people VG spoke to.

There may be costs associated with showing sports on television, Jimenez says.

He believes that there are likely to be cases where canals are formed paid To show sports.

– If you were to guess which other sports could follow handball and skiing, which one would it be?

– I want to be careful about that, but I think there are a lot of sports that will test that.

So how did we end up here?

Numbers from Association of Media Agencies It shows that advertising revenues on TV are down 9.5 percent from last year. Pirate streaming is also becoming more popular.

– It is illegal, but this is a situation that the police do not prioritize, says Harri Arne Solberg from NTNU.

Hence, we must not forget consumers’ own finances as energy prices, interest and general price increases increase, Solberg points out.

– Then you start cutting back on what is more luxury-oriented. And not on food, clothes, etc., as the researcher says.

Særforbund is already struggling financially.

The Football Association was in the red with 40 million last year, the Norwegian Ski Federation is running a huge deficit and the Norwegian Ice Hockey Association is in the red with 9 million. The Norwegian Hockey Association has chosen to close the national team at the end of the year.

Less TV time also creates uncertainty for sponsors.

Rema 1000 was heavily involved in Kolstad’s investment in handball. Sponsor manager Vidar Riseth told VG that low visibility could be detrimental to Norwegian handball.

Harri Arne Solberg believes that only football (in Norway) succeeds behind a wage wall.

– A few years ago, skiing and cross-country skiing tried to sell pay-TV rights. It was a miserable failure, because people were not willing to pay for it. When you have pay TV, sponsors start frowning, because they want attention.

Viaplay sold part of the winter sports rights to NRK in 2022. Ski WC is broadcast by both operators.

Lacy Gimnis believes many sports will suffer in the future.

– We’ve now seen cases involving skates that had microscopic numbers over several years on Viaplay. I think we will see more and more examples of this. indretten company should work on tailoring its product better.

He believes there is value in good viewing experiences. Gemens points out the importance of the time when NRK had multiple correspondents in the arena in the athletics toilet: At the same time as you follow Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Karsten Warholm, you also get Elisabeth Asserson (girlfriend) and Leif Olav Alnes (coach) in the screen .

The media expert believes that chess is one of the few sports that is going against the trend.

Chess was not a televised sport, but it became a televised sport because it became much more than that. There are these graphs, studio, commentary, etc. Creates viewing experiences.

The Norwegian Sports Federation (NIF) says it is concerned.

– For most sports in Norway, media income does not constitute a significant part of the income. But it is important for us that the sport is visible. It is obviously unfortunate when you lose vision during skiing or other sports, General Secretary Niels Einar As tells VG.

– For many associations and private organisers, the absence of the necessary income from media rights for their sports will challenge the ability to maintain a good exposure of activity and competition for our members – both in major sports and in children’s and youth sports. This is serious, Al-Aas says.

Both Jimens and Solberg explain that fewer sports will succeed on TV, and that top products like football and Formula 1 will increase.

-We will have a greater degree of focus on a few popular products. “We already have it today and I think the development will continue,” says Solberg.

Viaplay owns the rights to the English Premier League until 2028 and Formula 1 until the end of 2024.