It’s May 17th, 1939 and you own one of the 400 television sets that receives the Columbia Lions vs. Princeton Tigers baseball game. You are about to watch history. The United States first televised sporting event at Baker Field broadcasted by NBC.
Sports media before the television
Prior to televised broadcasting, radio commentating was the cause for the rise of sports popularity. Live updates and vocal reporting made it more accessible for more people to get coverage of the game.
Newspapers continued to have success with the post-game sports results and writings, as the sporting pages became more widely read by men in the 1930s. "Based on a survey 80% of men read over the section on a regular basis". Said Slusser
Sports broadcasting and the growth of sports
The rise of the television era brought exponential growth to the economy and popularity of sports. Televised games allowed audiences to expand beyond the stadium. As television sets became more popular, viewership grew to over millions of fans.
Unlike radio, broadcasting games added the personal experience of being at the game without the cost and time to actually go to the live event. Fans were then able to continue to formulate their own opinions on the players and game performance even when they couldn’t make the game. Bringing an aspect of entertainment to the sports world.
“The mass media, more than anything else, were responsible for promoting organized sport from a relatively minor element of culture into a full-blown social institution.” Said, Lever and Wheeler in Mass Media and the Experience of Sport.
Sports programming in the 1950s was set for local and weekday showings with weekend showings reserved for politics and religion, even though they had low ratings.
The development from sports news in the local columns of newspapers to the creation of sports-only television channels showed evidence of the importance of sports in leisure societies, causing the expansion of televised games.
“The rapid growth and popularity of sport telecasts on the local level demonstrated that men were willing to excuse themselves from chores and family outings to watch games.” Said Lever and Wheeler.
The increased watchability of sporting events opened a window for major revenue for the players, teams, and for advertised companies.
Sports and economics
Broadcasting games also added viewership value, turning sports into show business. The advancement and placement of sports on television networks opened up a new area of advertising revenue. Sports and advertising became reliant on one another for their advancement in the public eye.
“The “very symbiotic relationship” between the media and sports has profoundly affected both participants. And the advertising industry forms an important part of the relationship. Both sports and mass media keep trying to reach people as spectators, fans, and consumers; both actively affect the audience as well as the advertising market.” Said Beck and Bosshart in Sports and Media.
Every surge in popularity of a certain sport has led to increased coverage and viewership of each event. The popularity of a sport could depend on the record of local teams, or countries when referring to the Olympics.
“These programs reached enormously large audiences and achieved high ratings on TV, and so the media could demand extraordinarily high prices for advertising spots before, during, and after a sports event.” Said Beck and Bosshart.
The advancement of revenue from broadcasting sports turned games into extended events in order to create more time for advertisements, sponsor profits, and viewership value.
A soccer match on TV no longer lasts the regular game time of 90 minute. When it includes additional reports, analyses, and interviews, a game could take more than four hours.
The negative changes to sports through broadcasting
In 1958, Bell, the commissioner of the NFL, permitted “television time outs” to allow more time for advertising revenue. Which was not the only change made to the live games to advance television revenue and viewership.
Rules began to change concerning timing, action, and intensity towards the end of games. Players also began to shift their game, and skill advancement in order to be more favorable to the public and sponsors.
At home viewer experience caused the most immediate effect to live events due to the decline in ticket sales, as fans began to prefer their home viewing rather than attending the games.
Long-term positive changes in sports due to broadcasting
Instant replay and recordings of the broadcasted games allowed players, coaches, and teams to analyze past positives and negatives. This allowed fast advancements in the growth of player skills and game culture.
“Teams use footage to evaluate and coach players, and the league uses it to grade officials. Television also has led clubs to upgrade stadiums — including the installation of enormous video displays — to compete with the viewing experience at home.” Said NFL Operations
The long-term effect brought more interest from a wider audience and began to globalize sporting events. The increased number of TV channels because of cable and satellite television made it possible in 1979 to start the first network in the USA specializing in sports, ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network). (Sports media and communications timeline 1850-present)
This national network expanded the bounds of localized sports. Teams from every region could be found playing on ESPN. The effects of ESPN caused several other major networks to begin sports-only stations.
The expansion of national sports coverage caused the spread to go global.
“By the worldwide transmission of sports traditionally popular only in certain countries—baseball in America, cycling in France, sumo in Japan—television has fueled new sporting fashions elsewhere, and live reports from international events like the Olympics and Soccer’s World Cup have introduced audiences across the world to new sports. As a result, some sports owe their popularity in any part of the world almost entirely to television exposure.” Said Beck and Bosshart in Sports and Media.
Olympic Broadcasting and globalization of sports
Before broadcasting hit the United States, a test was done at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
“In today’s highly segmented media market, big sporting events such as the Olympic Games or the Soccer’s World Cup are some of the very rare events which still command a large audience, regardless of class, age, or other interests. Furthermore, language barriers do not matter much in sports, so an event can be transmitted internationally Said Gaustad.
The show of skill and popularity of sports in other countries brought globalized attention to a variety of different sports. Globalized broadcasts also created a market for globalized revenue.
"The Olympic Games can help promote sports that rarely get the attention that the aforementioned professional sports do. And so, the history of the modern Olympic games has become a history of Olympic commercialism” said Beck in Sports and Media.
“By 1948 in London, the Olympic Games were present in people’s living rooms, with live coverage allowing 500,000 people to follow the competitions up to 200km away from the stadium.” Said Larrosa
The global fans for large events increased national sport-only channels causing channels like ESPN to globalize their networks.
Sports and social media/livestreaming
Modern day mass media has allowed almost quicker than instant access to every game imaginable. Livestreaming is a cheap, with less to show for way of watching global sports at the tip of your fingers.
Social media has done the same as well. Even if you can’t pay for access to a game online or see it in person, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and sport-based apps give live updates to game scores and plays.
Advancing the viewership and popularity of traditionally non covered games even wider. Sports media has evolved into a world of connectivity, revenue, entertainment, and human contest.
Work Cited:
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Gaustad, T. (2000). The economics of sports programming. In U. Carlsson (Ed.), The 14th Nordic Conference on Media and Communication Research, Kungälv, 14- 17th August 1999. Special Issue of Nordicom Review, 21(2), 101-113. Göteborg: Nordicom.
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