Factors that Shape the Demand for International Football Games Across Different Age Groups

In recent years, the composition of revenue sources has changed substantially for professional football clubs, thereby leading to a significant dependency on broadcasting income. Accordingly, economists, traditionally more interested in the economic analysis of football stadium attendances, have begun turning their attention to the potential determinants of television audience demand in professional football. Despite this rapidly increasing interest of economists in exploring the determinants of football TV demand, there is, however, little empirical evidence on the stability of such determinants across different age groups. This article addresses this notable research gap. More specifically, analyzing the German TV demand for 174 international football games played by the German national football team between season 2004-2005 and 2016-2017, our exploratory study reveals that the determinants of international football demand are not necessarily robust across all age groups.