But why are these contests of skill, originally designed to test the abilities of the participants and then to delight those who attend, so popular from a distance, on an illuminated iridescent screen? A range of possible appeals maybe involved in gathering the large audiences for sporting events.
Viewers identify with their team, their favorite players, and those warriors who carry the good name of their city, college, conference, nation, ethnic heritage, or other characteristic, into battle. Sports offer real heroes and villains, as opposed to the fictional characters of televised drama and comedy.
Fans become familiar with those real individuals and their teams, following them, learning about them, living and dying with them, or, in the immortal words of ABC Wide World of Sports, experiencing with them the “joy of victory and the agony of defeat.”
Sports on television is live television, it is history in the making, it is being “up close and personal” (again, thanks to ABC) as possibly momentous events unfold.
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To thrill in the victory of a favorite, to join the excitement of the moment in an exhilarating game or to learn more about the teams, players or games on television are among possible satisfactions that are obviously specific to sports on television.