Football Without Football: Innovating in Sports Programming During the Sport Rights Crisis: The Case of El Avispero on Aragón TV

Abstract

The article examines the Aragón TV program El Avispero, considered a notable case of innovation in sports programming within a period marked by a crisis in sports broadcasting rights and challenging economic conditions between 2013 and 2016. To conduct this analysis, three types of sources are utilized. First, bibliographic and press sources are consulted to provide essential context for the study. Second, unique internal documents are analyzed: the production rundown of a representative episode of the program, which reveals the program’s content selection, hierarchy, and approach, as well as the annual internal reports from Aragón’s public television network, which enable a detailed analysis of key aspects such as audience ratings and their evolution over time. Finally, five in-depth interviews with key television executives and program journalists serve as the primary source for this study. The findings highlight that creativity was a crucial factor in generating football-related content during this period, allowing Aragón TV to maintain its commitment to sports programming without access to actual game footage. This approach proved successful, as shown by the audience data and the sustained presence of El Avispero in the programming lineup across several seasons. Aragón TV’s strategy for sports programming underwent a transformation: while initially relying on premium content in its early years, the network adapted its sports programming to a context of austerity during the latter seasons of its first decade.