Transcript The Media - crestwoodpe

The Media
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the unit you should have a
knowledge and understanding of:
- What the main forms of media are.
- The different ways in which sport,
sporting events and competitions are
covered in the media
- The advantages of some forms of
media over others.
Introduction
The media – including TV, newspapers,
the internet and radio are extremely
influential in sport. One of the greatest
strengths is as a source of information
and a shaper of ideas and views. This
can influence people to take part in sport.
The Press
Newspapers
All daily newspapers have sports sections,
usually at the back. Some, especially the
weekend papers will have separate sports
supplements.
This form of media is very influential as not
only do they print results, match reports,
team news, rule changes and fixtures but
they also comment on many major sporting
issues – and especially about sporting
personalities.
Magazines
There has been a great increase in the number of
specialist sports magazines in recent years and most
sports have at least one publication devoted to them.
They concentrate on issues to do with those sports and
often print very detailed information for the readers.
Books
These can vary from novels with sporting themes
to textbooks dealing with particular aspects of sport.
Some of the most controversial books recently have
been autobiographies.
Television
Television has become one of the most powerful and
most commonly accessed forms of media.
It transmits as digital and analogue.
The introduction of digital TV, along with satellite
broadcasting, led to huge increases in the output of
sport on TV. In fact, dedicated sports channels were
introduced with Sky Sports 1 being the first,
launching in 1991. Digital TV has also led to ‘pay per
view’ sports events.
Satellite Television
Sky launched its sky sports service in 1991 and you
could obtain its service by subscription in 1992.
At present there is Sky Sports 1,2,3,4 and 5. As well a
number of HD channels, other sports channels and
individual team stations. It also possible to choose
your own camera angle whilst watching a game.
There are also a number of pay per view events
available on sky.
Sky currently have the rights to show the live
premiership football matches, something they paid a
staggering 1 billion pound for.
Terrestrial (Analogue) Television
The terrestrial (analogue) television programmes are those that can be
received by ordinary televisions using just an aerial and you must pay
a TV licence fee to watch these programmes.
The BBC receive money to pay for making and transmitting
their programmes from the licence fee which each household with a
television must pay. The other four channels are what is known as
‘independent networks’ and they raise all their money through
advertising revenue for adverts shown during commercial breaks.
Television companies bid for the sporting events that are
shown on television. This means they negotiate with the individual
sports (sometimes with organisers of specific competitions) for the
right to televise the activity. This had led to a lot of competition
between rival TV companies for the rights to show certain sports
Television (cont)
In the UK, sport has been regulated and controlled since the
Television Act 1954. This gave the government power to draw
up a list of protected events.
These ‘listed events’ cannot be shown exclusively on ‘pay per
view’ channels (for example on Sky/Cable). This list was
revised in January 1999 and the listed events were placed in
two categories. They are commonly known as ‘The Crown
Jewels’ of TV sporting events.
Listed events
A-LIST EVENTS
Olympic Games
Fifa World Cup Finals
European Football
Championships
FA Cup Final
Scottish Cup Final
Wimbledon (finals weekend)
The Grand National
The Derby
Rugby League Challenge Cup
Final
Rugby World Cup Final
B-LIST EVENTS
Cricket Test matches played in
England
Non-finals at Wimbledon
Six Nations Rugby matches
(involving home nations)
All other Rugby World Cup
matches
Commonwealth Games
World Athletics Championship
Cricket World Cup (finals, semifinals and matches involving home
nations)
The Open Golf Championship
The Ryder Cup
Television (cont)
The basic difference between the two groups is that
there is a legal requirement that the events listed in
Group A must be made available to ‘free to air’
terrestrial television, while the Group B events can
have live coverage on pay TV as long as there are
satisfactory arrangements for secondary coverage
(such as highlights) by a ‘free to air’ broadcaster.

Why do you think this act was put into place?
Many sports governing bodies have sold TV
rights to digital TV companies such as Sky for large
amounts of £. Eg The ECB sold English TV cricket
rights to Sky in 2005 after the Ashes win. Do you think
this has benefited Cricket?

Types of programmes broadcast
There is a wide variety of different ways in which television shows
and promotes sport including: (There is 9 on the list, how many
can you get?)
- Live sporting action
- Highlights programmes
- Documentaries
- Quiz Programmes
- News Bulletins
- Information Services (Ceefax and Teletext)
- Coverage of major sporting events
- Educational, schools, skill programmes
- Dedicated channels (such as Manchester United TV)
Radio
As with TV, the introduction of digital radio, DAB
(Digital Audio Broadcasting), has led to an
increase in the number of radio stations
broadcasting and the introduction of dedicated
sports channels, eg Talksport, 5 live sport extra.
Radio has some advantages over TV in terms of
broadcasting:
The broadcasting costs are much lower.
Radios are portable, cheap and plentiful and
listeners can tune in whilst driving or whilst on the
move, so the potential audience is bigger.
Most radio stations cover sport in much the
same format as television, but obviously
without the pictures.
However this works in radios favour as it is not
considered as a rival/ threat by television
companies and therefore are allowed to cover
all major sporting events. It is quite common to
have events broadcast on TV and radio at the
same.
Information Technology
This is the most recent addition to the ranks of
media. The widespread use of computers now
allows far greater use of technology.
CD ROMS can be used as a source of
information.
However the internet has the greatest
influence as a provider of information, with
literally thousands of websites allowing access
to a wealth of information on sport and leisure.
All major TV, radio and press use IT to further
enhance their sporting coverage.
In our next lesson we will look at
the influence of the media.
Hwk:
•List 5 advantages of sports coverage on
TV
•List 5 advantages of sports coverage on
the radio.
•List 5 advantages of sports coverage in
the press.
•List 5 advantages of sports coverage
using IT.