UNSCRIPTED DRAMA: SOCCER AUDIENCE RESPONSE TO SUSPENSE, SURPRISE, AND SHOCK

By modelling minute-by-minute television audience figures from English Premier League soccer matches, with close to 50,000 minute-observations, we show that demand is partly driven by suspense and surprise. We also identify an additional relevant factor of appeal to audiences, namely shock, which refers to the difference between pre-match and current game outcome probabilities. Suspense, surprise and shock remain significant in the presence of a traditional measure of outcome uncertainty.