MEP315 SPORT, MEDIA AND CELEBRITY

10. SPORT AND (NEW?) MEDIA

Key new media concepts

Convergence – technological and economic

Digital broadcasting / intellectual property rights

Web 2.0 and remediation Citizen / participatory journalism

UK sports media: an overview

TV: some terrestrial free-to-air provision (BBC, ITV, Channels 4 & 5), subscription-based providers (Sky, Setanta), limited pay-per-view TV

Radio: BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, talkSPORT (all national), local BBC / commercial provision

Internet/mobile: subscription services (e.g. e-season tickets), online betting (betfair.com), live streamed video content (e.g. SopCast)

Print: The Sportsman (2006-obselete), The Racing Post, magazine titles (esp. on football)

Convergence

Technological: synergising of TV and computer-based applications for sports coverage (e.g. Windows Media Center), providing greater user choice and interactivity

Economic: increased concentration of ownership across media platforms (News Corporation, Google, Yahoo all active in online sports rights acquisition)

Broadcasting / intellectual property

Collapse of ITV Digital (97-02) pay-TV service – straining of relations between sports and media organisations

Football clubs increasingly ‘go it alone’ and follow the MUTV (1998) model – e.g. Chelsea TV (2001), Rangers TV (2004), Celtic TV (2004), RMTV (2005), LFC TV (2007), Arsenal TV (2008)

Major clubs seek increasing control of intellectual property rights (such as imaging production and distribution)

Web 2.0 and remediation

Web 1.0 (1991-2004): static, ‘readerly’, mirrors established media brand hierarchies

Web 2.0 (2004-): dynamic, ‘writerly’, user-generated, lowers barriers of entry for alternative and diverse grassroots content

Web 2.0 sports coverage harder to regulate, less tied to major ‘media players’, nourishes free / pirated content provision

Remediation (Bolter and Grusin 2000) – new media ‘remediate’ old media (e.g. YouTube as online archive of classic sporting TV moments)

Citizen journalism

From consumer to auteur / journalist (Rowe 2004)

Sports-based blogs provide public forums for information and debate (e.g. footyblog.net, caughtoffside.com)

Reaction to PR-controlled media content coming out of elite organisations

Weakening of traditional journalistic authority in sports press and broadcasting industries?