With the addition over the last several years of new channels and networks dedicated to sports – everything from Raptors TV to Rogers Sportsnet – the playing field available to advertisers has grown, as has the audience itself. And that may mean marketers are ready to see sports as more than a niche buy targeting men.

‘Overall tune-in has increased for some sports,’ says Bruce Grondin, president of Media Edge: CIA. ‘Golf is way up versus where it was, [while] others are flat and/or showing modest growth.’

He says golf is an area to watch for advertiser diversification because of the sport’s desirable demographic – white collar, educated and relatively wealthy. ‘There are a lot of investment firms that are advertising in golf now. A lot of management companies, like Accenture, are a big part of golf. It’s starting to draw some packaged goods [such as] Kraft brands.’

Keith McIntyre, president of Mississauga-based sports marketing firm K.Mac & Associates adds pharmaceuticals to the list of new advertisers he’s seen approaching sports programming because of its wide appeal.

The specialties say they’ve already been presenting themselves to advertisers as not just about men but very much about an inclusive, and thus potentially more lucrative, ‘adult 25-to-54’ demo.

CTV’s Joe Carter, SVP of CTV specialty sales (which handles TSN, WTSN, ESPN Classic Canada, NHL Network and Outdoor Life Network), says TSN’s marketing has changed to reflect the realities evident in its audience makeup. ‘If you go back 10 years, TSN [had] a tagline saying, ‘We deliver the male.’ And what we’ve noticed in the last five years is that the demographic that we are really selling to is an adult 25-to-54 demo – heavily skewed male, there’s no doubt about it. But the bulk of the presentations that we put together are for adults 25 to 54.’

The numbers for women are creeping up, if ever so slowly. Where it used to be 75/25 men/women, it’s now 70/30, he says. For WTSN, the female number is obviously higher – though not the majority you might think. As it turns out, the male/female split there is about 50/50, says Carter. This is perhaps where some of the most immediate gains are to be made in attracting new advertisers searching out even broader audiences, he continues.

‘With WTSN for instance, we would talk to the P&Gs of the world about Oil of Olay,’ says Carter. ‘We’re certainly getting what we think is a good share of all the people that are buying national television.’

Carter says new ad categories that have come on within the last 18 months are hair care, appliances and cereal, all targeted at women, 18-49. ‘[These are] businesses that have taken a look at sports and determined that there is an audience there for their particular brands.’

Rogers Sportsnets’ Dave Ballingall, VP of marketing, says buyers haven’t changed how they use the network in terms of demographics because the young station started broadly from day one. In particular, he credits Blue Jays programming with delivering a wider audience. ‘Even though our primary target group is men 18 to 49, the reality is sports does deliver women and kids. We’ve always sold a good chunk of our airtime against adults 25 to 54 as a buying demo.’

Whether that’s enough to attract many advertisers beyond the perennial beer, automotive and men’s toiletries set is not as clear, though the networks appear to be trying to capture more diverse viewership.

CBC Sports has perhaps made the greatest single stride in this direction with its Ice animated series, which made its debut during last season’s Hockey Night In Canada programming as a pre-game feature. The youth-themed Ice was sponsored not by a beer or automotive company, but by Priszm Brandz’ Pizza Hut brand and the affect on audience numbers was positive, says Doug Brooks, chief marketing and sales officer, English TV for CBC. ‘If you look at our audience numbers – regular season at least – I think we saw a bit of a shift.

‘Those are the things you really change over time,’ adds Brooks. ‘What it did was it attracted new sources of advertising revenue for us. We’ve really diversified the advertisers that are buying Hockey Night In Canada.’

As an example, he points to landing Toyota as a new in-game feature sponsor and promotions partner. Nevertheless, Brooks doesn’t suggest there’s a sea of change. ‘Clearly, we skew male. But one of the things we’d like to focus on the programming side going forward is to attract more women and family viewing – to bring in kids through experiencing the game with their parents. I think that’s also a very desirable attribute for an advertiser.’

K.Mac & Associates already takes an integrated approach to sports marketing. Sports properties have become much more mainstream: A lot of Canadians are passionate about sport, he says, adding that for that reason, any brand – whether sports-oriented or not – can be marketed to a sports audience.

‘It’s a great way to reach an audience because there’s a lot of interest in the relevant properties. The message we’re communicating doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a sport message. It could be a traditional brand program – it’s just that sport has that appealing audience,’ says McIntyre.

It’s certainly possible that sports are reaching more than just hardcore fans. Both Sportsnet and TSN attest to increasingly reaching the casual or light viewer because of the wide range of programming offered.

Essentially, when there’s something for everyone and it includes content beyond the anchor of hockey, such as the Olympics or soccer tournaments, there’s an opportunity to bring in more viewers.

TSN’s Carter expects to see a big boost from the European soccer championships this summer, as well as its partnership with CBC to broadcast the Olympics in 2004.

‘We know that the non-traditional sports fan is going to come in and sample the event,’ says Carter of the Olympics. He concedes that they won’t be there ‘day in, day out’ but ‘they certainly will be there for a Canadian Grand Prix or a big world junior hockey game.’

But will they stick around to enlarge the pie permanently? ‘I don’t know,’ he says. ‘Quite frankly, I don’t think we would necessarily retain them all. We would hope that somebody who comes in and sticks their toe in the water and watches a little bit of golf or soccer would want to stick with us. We’re probably reaching lots of different people over the course of a week with the various sports.’

That may be true, say some detractors, but it’s all in how you slice the numbers. Dennis Dinga, VP, director of broadcasting at M2 Universal, is bearish. He says tuning to sports programming is ‘relatively flat.’ He dismisses golf channel The Score as a ‘highlight channel,’ discounts diginets like ESPN Classic Canada and the NHL Network as having ‘no audience’ and says TSN performing as well as it is – drawing as well as, or better, than some conventional channels – is ‘nothing new.’ He says the explanation lies not in what the sports channels are doing but in what has happened at the conventional channels on the supply side.

‘What is happening now is there is a bit more demand [for sports programming] because in the past, compared to regular programming, it used to be priced at a premium. But with broadcasters increasing their rates so dramatically for regular programming, the price of sports programming really isn’t looking that bad anymore,’ says Dinga.

He’s got some backing in Jeff Berry, GM at PJ DDB – OMD Canada. Berry is circumspect on the increased appeal of sports programming, saying context is everything. ‘There is an increase [in tuning to sports] but not dramatically. Rather than having 30 hockey games a year to advertise on, we have 50. Same audience, just more programs to reach them in.’

Still, TSN’s Carter says more sports means more people tuning in and, for stations like WTSN, more opportunities to chase new advertisers.

‘With WTSN we are definitely trying to go after more of a female audience because of the programming,’ he says. ‘We’re trying to open some doors with some of the packaged goods people whose demographic is women 18 to 49 who are the principal grocery shoppers.’