Essay on The Evolving Television Sports Market place

Surviving the relationship of US sports and television entities at the end of the 1980s, Eastman and Meyer (1989) predicted that sports programming “will change radically in the next decade” (p. 97) and become “the crucible for programming research in the 1990s” (p. 118).

In the same volume, Bellamy (1989) characterized the relationship of sports and television entities as a “partnership of oligopolies not likely to be altered in the near future.”

To a large degree, these relatively modest and somewhat contradictory predictions have come to pass. With a seemingly endless proliferation of television channels, sport is seen as the programming that can best break through the clutter of channels and advertising and consistently produce a desirable audience for sale to advertisers.

In economic terms, the telecasting of sports provides a television entity with a level of product differentiation that distinguishes it from its rivals.

This often takes the form of “branding” whereby sports coverage becomes identified with a specific television provider, such as the “NBA on NBC” or ABC’s NFL Monday Night Football.

Brand identification is regarded as a key in leveraging corporate assets and in building audience loyalty at a time when viewers are now regarded as “restless” and likely to use a remote control device (RCD) to choose among many viewing options (Bellamy & Walker, 1996).

Sports also are seen as a critical component of the international expansion plans of the US television industry. To Fox Sports’ President David Hill, “sport, is the last frontier of reality on television about the only thing that can guarantee an audience” because of its ability to offer viewers around the globe “a shared communication experience” (Lafayette, 1996, p. 145).

While the sports and television partnership maintains many of its traditional structural features, the combination of a rapidly developing multichannel and international television industry and the increasing marketing-driven nature of sports has caused some disruptions in the once predictable relationship (Cox, 1995).

To a substantial degree, this volatility can be linked to the overwhelming economic success of the relationship. The US sports industry is a media-made phenomenon.

Television through its power to manufacture “stars, ” sell products, alter lifestyles, and most importantly, commodity audiences made spectator sports an element of mainstream culture (Jhally, 1984; Maguire, 1993; McChesney, 1989; Real, 1989; Whannel, 1992).

However, technological diffusion and regulatory change have altered the traditional economic structure and concomitant behavior of the television industry. The result is that sports entities are now able to exert more autonomy within the relationship.

The purpose of this section is to present an analytic overview of the present status of the big sports and big television partnership. Here, “Big sports” will primarily be defined by the Big 4 professional sports leagues operating in the US Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and such periodic mega- events as the Olympics.

“Big television” will refer to the Big Four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox); such major television program suppliers and distributors as ESPN; and, where relevant, the Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) that have had such rapid growth in the last decade.

While the primary emphasis will be on US sports and television entities, there will be some discussion of international deals that increasingly are important to the partnership.

Ultimately, what follows is an analysis of the efficacy and attractiveness of sports product to television in a changing media environment. Underlying the analysis is recognition that sport is one, and arguably the most, important exemplar of the programming critical to the success of the emerging “new” oligopolies in television.