Monopoly Versus Duopoly in Sports Broadcasting: Consumer Surplus Implications
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The sale of sports broadcasting rights typically involves two distinct stages: first, rights are allocated by sports leagues to broadcasters; second, broadcasters market their content to consumers. This paper focuses on the downstream stage, analyzing how consumer surplus depends on whether a single broadcaster (monopoly) offers the entire product, e.g., the entire league, or multiple broadcasters (duopoly) hold exclusive packages (i.e., exclusive subset of matches). In the latter case, consumers interested in the entire product must subscribe to both firms’ offers to fully reconstruct it. We show that consumer surplus under monopoly exceeds that under duopoly when consumer valuations for the entire product are sufficiently high relative to the valuations for single components (i.e., exclusive subset of matches) and when marginal costs are low. Conversely, when the added value of the entire product compared to the single components is not sufficiently high or marginal costs are higher, duopoly benefit consumers.
Source: Journal of Sports Economics
Authors: Paolo Roma, Tiziana D’Alfonso, Sabrina Auci
Institutions: University of Palermo, Sapienza University of Rome
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7154155515