Sport and the Media

3068-Ch10.qxd 12/3/02 7:52 PM Page 184 10 Sport and the Media DAVID STEAD Overview → Context and key issues → The sportmedia partnership → The media sports product: influences and outcomes → The media sport audience → Media sport: where to now? CONTEXT AND KEY ISSUES to income generated directly or indirectly from the media. The way in which sport In many ways, both today’s sport and the fills newspaper pages and television and media are classic outcomes and, indeed, radio schedules bears testimony to the icons of the far-reaching social, economic influence it has on the structure and extent and technological change that charac- of media activity. terised the twentieth century. Each has However, partnerships are not always developed extensively and rapidly as a equal, stable or constructive for those major global industry. Each plays a signifi- involved. In this chapter, consideration will cant part in structuring and informing be given to a number of themes and issues people’s lives. Each has a global as well as that characterise the link between sport and more local scope of operation and has the the media. Difficulties and tensions exist structures and practices to reflect this. but ultimately a media sports product Importantly, they are two industries tied emerges whether it is, for example, a live TV together in complex networks of relation- broadcast of the Olympic Games or a news- ships. Their respective histories of develop- paper report on a local rugby match. This ment have been fuelled and influenced by raises a series of issues about the nature of the dynamics of this partnership. The the product. Does the media presentation evidence of the partnership is all too appar- of sport mirror reality or is it a representation ent. The wellbeing of particular sports or, and a construction reflecting the media’s indeed, sport as whole has become linked objectives and the influences and practices 3068-Ch10.qxd 12/3/02 7:52 PM Page 185 Sport and the Media 185 of the professionals working in it? Such has, indeed, become a principal leisure questions will also be considered later but activity and source of information. Through they in turn introduce the part played by it we gather our knowledge not only of our the audience for media sport. For example, immediate world but also of the complex is the viewer knowledgeable about the sports global village in which we now live. It acts products on offer to them and do they exer- as a key socialisation agent and is integral to cise choice about what they view and how framing, determining and influencing our they receive the messages and influences picture of reality. Our experience of sport inherent in the programmes? The chapter has become increasingly constructed and will conclude by addressing this conun- ordered through television output. drum. Questions about the genesis and con- Sport has become ‘big business’. It is now tent of media products and the influences a well-established global industry with impacting on them figure prominently in international organising bodies, like the what is a growing sociology of sport litera- International Olympic Committee (IOC), ture on media sport (see in particular eager to promote and structure its further Kinkema and Harris, 1998; Maguire, 1999; development. Sport, but not necessarily in Rowe, 1999; Wenner, 1998; Whannel, all its forms, has something to sell. It has its 1992). events, leagues, clubs and elite performers. The mass media entered the twentieth Sport can make money but the costs century with the emphasis on the printed involved, not least the large rewards paid to word. Today, in the early years of the the top performers in some sports and the twenty-first century, it is television and capital and revenue expense of increasingly radio that are to the fore. Satellite-based spectacular sports stadiums, has left it with multinational companies like BSkyB TV an insatiable appetite for more and more have appeared on the scene and are now funding. The world of sport is a competitive major players in the global sport media one, not just in terms of which team tops marketplace. There are new developments the league or who wins the gold medal, but like the Internet which have further also which sports are able to attract the extended media activities. Sport has long greatest financial resources. The relation- been an important aspect of media output ship with the media is central to the politi- but more recently there has been a growth cal economy of sport. Traditionally, it was in specialist media sports products. the medium through which key informa- Dedicated sports-only TV channels (e.g. tion like schedules of events/matches, SkySport1), radio stations (e.g. TalkSport), venues and times was transmitted to the and publications (e.g. Sports First) have public. Today, the media, primarily televi- appeared in ever increasing numbers. sion, offer sport-added attractions in terms The exposure to and consumption of of finance from broadcasting fees and expo- media products, including those concerned sure to advertisers, sponsors and a wider with sport, have increased dramatically. A audience. Hence there is the all too appar- Henley Centre report has gone as far as to ent readiness of sports organisations to get suggest that people in the UK spend nine involved with the media. However, along- hours a day consuming media in its various side the obvious benefits come some possi- forms, with television viewing occupying ble costs to sport. To link with the media the equivalent of a day a week. (Financial has meant sport losing a degree of control Mail on Sunday, 31 Jan. 1999: 38). Television over its own activities and destiny. The 3068-Ch10.qxd 12/3/02 7:52 PM Page 186 186 The Impact of Commercialisation promise of media attention and the wide- the bidding and decision-making processes ranging spin-offs (in terms of increased pro- are complex and sensitive. Competition for file, status and finance, greater numbers of broadcasting rights and the prominence of participants and spectators and enhanced sport in media schedules have had a dra- attractiveness to sponsors and advertisers) matic inflationary effect on the fees paid to make such loss of control something sports some sports. An early globally televised organisations appear willing to accept Olympics, such as the 1964 Tokyo Games, (Goldlust, 1987). The ability to appreciate cost the lead broadcaster around £1m. and deal with the full extent of the conse- More recently, it has been reported that the quences of its partnership with the media is US broadcaster NBC has paid the IOC a major challenge confronting sport in the $3.5bn for the rights to the Winter twenty-first century. Olympics of 2002 (Salt Lake City) and 2006 (Turin) and the Summer Olympics of 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing). These massive sums of money have to be balanced out by THE SPORTMEDIA PARTNERSHIP the very considerable amount of airtime that can be filled by such events. Indeed, The media: competition sports broadcasting can be seen as a relatively and control cheap way to fill schedules. Sports events can also be particularly useful for the all-impor- The media sport production process tant audience ratings by attracting large num- involves the sports organisations, e.g. the bers of viewers and listeners. For example, ITV Fédération Internationale de Football in the UK attracted 23.2 million viewers, some Association (FIFA), the governing body of 80 per cent of the available television public, world football, working with the media for the England versus Argentina football companies. The sports bodies may do this match at the 1998 World Cup finals. The directly or through intermediary marketing number of viewers peaked to almost 27 mil- and promotional agencies operating on lion during the penalty shoot out! (Sport First, their behalf. They may engage with the 3 Jan. 1999: 16). media as individual companies or in partner- A successful bidder’s production costs for ship with others. The media organisation a major global sports event will involve the concerned may be a quasi-governmental expense incurred in securing the broadcast- body, like the British Broadcasting ing rights plus a heavy investment in Company, or a multinational global com- people, accommodation, travel and equip- mercial one such as BSkyB. A sport has ment. It is not surprising therefore that a something to sell, such as the TV and media company will endeavour to exercise radio broadcasting rights to cover its world considerable control over the event. If the championships, and it is up to the media sporting event concerned is not one that is companies to submit bids. The competition deemed to be particularly attractive, then to to become the agreed lead broadcaster can get the media on board may involve the be intense, although the sheer size of the sports organisation accepting an especially financial undertaking can lead to fierce weak bargaining and control position. Even media rivals working together on a bid. In the when the sports organisation involved is example of FIFA selling the rights to its World powerful, such as the IOC or FIFA, there is Cup, the sums involved are considerable and still a trade-off in terms of a loss of control. 3068-Ch10.qxd 12/3/02 7:52 PM Page 187 Sport and the Media 187 This can lead to significant changes in Another important control aspect of sport, for example, to dates, times and global media sport is the power exercised by venues. The actual structure and presenta- the North American media market. The tional style of an event may be strongly upward explosion in certain broadcasting reflective of the media’s interests.

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