Domestic vs. foreign football matches: are viewers interested in the same features?

Previous research on broadcast football (soccer) focused exclusively on domestic matches, overlooking the potential audience that foreign football matches may have on domestic television. This research aims to reveal the determinants of audience for foreign football matches and compare them with domestic ones. The dataset comprises 528 free-to-air matches (2017-2020), broadcasted in Russia. Ordinary Least Squares regressions model the data. Our findings evidence that derbies and high-quality matches increase the broadcast demand for both domestic and foreign matches. However, we offer evidence that scheduling elements and the uncertainty of outcome have a different impact on domestic and international matches in the same setting.