# How do television stations make money off the world cup? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 29, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872 "2010-06-29T01:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/1 "2010-06-29T01:02:35Z")
Every game I’ve seen, there’s only been about 5 minutes worth of ads during half time. How do television stations make money from screening the world cup? ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/2 "2010-06-29T01:08:25Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Every game I’ve seen, there’s only been about 5 minutes worth of ads during half time. How do television stations make money from screening the world cup? Same way the Superbowl does, as I understand it. They can charge a hell of a lot for those advertisements. Besides those five minute breaks, there’s also the build-up and let-down programmes built around them which can include chances for advert breaks. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/3 "2010-06-29T01:38:58Z")
In Singapore, [the TV stations charging a people a limb for it](http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/geekonomics/post.htm?id=63018728). In a nutshell, it’s USD 67 plus cost to subscribe to the sports cable channel , plus other hidden costs. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/4 "2010-06-30T11:09:40Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Every game I’ve seen, there’s only been about 5 minutes worth of ads during half time. How do television stations make money from screening the world cup? Each games will have a pre-match commentary (2 ad breaks at least), half time they’ll squeeze in another 2, post-match commentary at least another 2. So it isn’t that bad really. Of course, the marvelous [BBC](http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm) doesn’t even get to charge for ads. I think it’s in their contract that they have to cover a certain amount of ‘golden ticket’ sports events (World Cup, Wimbledon, Olympics etc) in return for their licence fee. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/5 "2010-06-30T11:49:34Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Of course, the marvelous [BBC](http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm) doesn’t even get to charge for ads. I think it’s in their contract that they have to cover a certain amount of ‘golden ticket’ sports events (World Cup, Wimbledon, Olympics etc) in return for their licence fee. Not so much the BBC’s contract or charter, it’s actually part of law, which may surprise Americans not accustomed to this sort of market intervention in the TV industry. Broadcasting rights to certain sporting events must be made available to free-to-air TV services such as the BBC and ITV . I am not quite sure how that affects negotiations between the TV companies and FIFA, in the case of the World Cup - I presume they still pay a reasonable amount, and they can’t just say “hey, you have to give us the rights anyway, so here’s £1.50”. And I also don’t know if there are rules saying that the free-to-air rights must be shared in some way. The World Cup has always been shared by the BBC and ITV, anyway (to the chagrin of pay-TV operators these days - it’s quite comical to see Sky Sports having to cover the World Cup when they can’t show any matches :D). ---
**Author:** ![Stormcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/6 "2010-06-30T12:47:17Z")
I don’t know how it is generally done, but for the US most of the time they’ll add a small overlay graphic - I noticed one for hyundai during the US-Ghana game - that stays up by the score for the entire game. I don’t know if they get as much as if they were doing a full ad, but it’s up there all game long. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/7 "2010-06-30T12:56:12Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Broadcasting rights to certain sporting events must be made available to free-to-air TV services such as the BBC and ITV . Australia too, known as [anti-sophoning laws](http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD..PC/pc=PC_91821). Interested parties have been [spruiking](http://www.keepsportfree.com.au/) ahead of a review. ---
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-television-stations-make-money-off-the-world-cup/544872/8 "2010-06-30T14:18:27Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Broadcasting rights to certain sporting events must be made available to free-to-air TV services such as the BBC and ITV . Quite similar to the situation in Germany. We haven’t had a broad revolutionary movement for a long time but if the World Cup couldn’t be watched “for free”, well .. 😃