Television and the Transformation of Sport

Abstract

Sport played a significant part in the growth of television, especially during its emergence as a dominant global medium between 1960 and 1980. In turn, television, together with commercial sponsorship, transformed sport, bringing it significant new income and prompting changes in rules, presentation, and cultural form. Increasingly, from the 1970s, it was not the regular weekly sport that commanded the largest audiences but, rather, the occasional major events, such as the Olympic Games and football’s World Cup. In the past two decades, deregulation and digitalization have expanded the number of channels, but this fragmentation, combined with the growth of the Internet, has meant that the era in which shared domestic leisure was dominated by viewing of the major channels is closing. Yet, sport provides an exception, an instance when around the world millions share a live and unpredictable viewing experience.

Understanding the convergence of markets in online sports betting

“…The competition between sports in each market made non-hegemonic sports try to avoid time slots populated by hegemonic sports (most importantly football in Europe) and re-schedule in less competitive time slots. The multiplication of sporting competition formats at national and supranational level further saturated a market that -far from stagnation -continued to deliver huge audiences (Whannel, 2009). In this new development, although still intensified during the weekend, professional competitive sport began to occur on a daily basis.…”

Manufacturing conflict narratives in Real Madrid versus Barcelona football matches

“…Clásico coverage is thus consequent to the 'celebrity culture' perspective (Whannel, 2002(Whannel, , 2009(Whannel, , 2010) that characterizes the sports journalistic praxis in the new century. This individualization process, we argue, is reinforced by the 'quote culture' observed by Boyle (2006:42) that stresses the notoriety of a few actors to the detriment of collectiveness.…”

“…Garry Whannel coined the term 'vortextuality' in order to explain how contemporary, celebrity-driven sports media operates: … I developed the concept of vortextuality while analysing the media frenzy around the wedding of David Beckham and Victoria Adams, the death of Princess Diana, and the verdict announcement in the Michael Jackson trial, but it is also applicable to major sport events. The context for the effect was established by the combined impact of the erosion of the public-private distinction, the declining powers of regulation and censorship, and the growth of celebrity culture, combined with the expansion of the media and the increase in the speed of circulation (Whannel, 2009:210) Whannel focuses on the interplay of sport and 'celebrity culture' (Whannel, 2002(Whannel, , 2009(Whannel, , 2010 as a mechanism to understand the dynamics of sports journalism. Thus, the individualisation and personalisation mechanisms embedded in the day-to-day sports journalistic practice could motivate the "progressive retreat from the nationalistic matrix" (Llopis Goig, 2009:10) quotes, which is part of the process of conflict, as often these quotes are not liked… (Boyle, 2006:42) Quotation allows journalists to personalize the discourse and works as a conflict generator in sports journalism.…”

The Vuelta goes glocal: Changes in the Vuelta a España’s communication strategy and media relations under the new Amaury Sport Organization’s management

“…This is particularly true for what have come to be known as 'mega sporting events' (see below). Several scholars (see, for instance, Wenner 1998;Rowe 2004;Whannel 2009) have pointed out that the evolution of sport regulations and practices has been strongly influenced by television, to the extent that those specific sports that have better adapted themselves to broadcast transmission formats are the ones that have thrived and become most successful (Auslander 1999;Middleton 1990). In other words, the most significant change in sport history over the past three decades has been the increasing importance of broadcasters' demand for sport (Gratton and Solberg 2007).…”