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SOCIAL ISSUES STUFF -
The following info relates to the role of the media in sport and increasing Americanisation
The Price of Sport
In 2000 the Football Association sold the TV rights for English football for over £1 billion to a variety of tv companies, some like Sky and NTL paid for the right to show live games and to offer pay Per View games, other like ITV paid to show the highlights of games on a Saturday night. Ten years previously the combined package had only cost BBC and ITV £1million.
Can you account for the dramatic rise in the cost of televising football in England?
Sponsors and Televison
Increasingly the tv cameras now pick up and highlight sponsors logos plastered across the playing surface of sports pitches and courts, Often these logos appear in 3D standing up right on the pitch, the reason for this is that broadcasting regulations (issued by the Independent Televison Commission ITC) in Britain state that you are not allowed to generate a sponsors logo electronically. Logos can be seen on hoardings but cannot be introduced specially by the by the tv company. To get around this sponsors paint their logo on the pitch, at a distorted perspective so that when the camera is at the right angle (usually a wide shot) the logo appears to stand up and appear as if generated on the Because the logo is on the pitch it gets by the ITC regulations.
Another method is for sponsors to get their name and logo seen in the media is to simply sponsor the entire venue - example include the Reebok Stadium, Britannia Stadium, Fosters Oval and McAlpine Stadium.
Can you think of any examples of where you have seen these pitch logos?
US Sport and the Influence of Television
In the USA, sports such as American Football and basketball are so reliant on TV coverage for their funding that they have adapted and changed their rules and competitions in order to suit TV scheduling.
In both sports Time Outs and official time stoppages have been built into the games in order to allow the TV companies to insert adverts. In all televised games, a TV official tells the referee or umpire when to restart play according to the timing of the advert being shown, in other sports such as baseball and golf the commentators simply read out adverts in their commentary on the play.
Can you think of any examples of these influences on sport in the UK?
Record Viewers
On the 4th July 1996 England played Germany in the semi-final of The European Soccer Championships (Euro 96). The game was watched by an estimated TV audience of over 25 million people. This was the biggest ever TV audience for any single event in the history of Televised sport in the UK.
Can you think of any events in the near future that may break this record?
PAY PER VIEW
This is where viewers can pay for specific sports events to be cabled or beamed into their television sets in their home or into pubs and clubs. The first ever pay per view event was in 1980 when a World Champion boxing match between Sugar Ray Leonard and Robert Duran was watched by 170,000 pay per viewers who paid £10 for the privilege. By 1995 a Boxing match featuring Mike Tyson was attracting a paying audience of 1.52 million people, generating an income of £41 million a fight. pay per view is now the norm in world championship boxing and pop concerts. After a short pilot football matches will also be available on pay per view from season 00/01.
Why do you think boxing was the first sport in the UK to offer pay per view?
THE ABOVE IS A SECTION FROM THE NEW ADVANCED PE & SPORT TEACHERS GUIDE PUBLISHED BY NELSON THORNES
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