When the home team is not featured: Comparison of two television network commentaries during broadcasts of the 2006 FIFA World Football Cup

Broadcast commentary of sport contests is often seen as biased or “one-eyed” for the “home team”. This study sought to determine if this labelling was correct. Two different broadcasts of the national Dutch team's games during the 2006 Federation Internationale de Football Association's (FIFA) World Cup in Germany were compared. Both the Dutch Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) and Australian Special Broadcast Services (SBS) networks each televised this team's matches, together providing eight matches for analysis. First, the framing strategies used by each broadcaster were identified through a fourteen category thematic scale derived from the data. Secondly, a Chi-square analysis of the results revealed significant associations for the types of themes employed by the home network (NOS) and those of a neutral broadcaster (SBS). Results also revealed associations for the use of nationalistic themes in the commentary. These results have salience for sport management and sport media studies as audience size and therefore revenue generation is of import.

► Framing strategies used by two national broadcasters were identified through a content analysis. ► Results revealed significant associations for the types of themes employed by television networks. ► Results also revealed associations for the use of nationalistic themes in both broadcasts.