The Media

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the today’s lesson you should have a knowledge and understanding of:

- consider what the main media formats are

- Consider the ways in which they cover sport, sporting events and competitions

- Start to compare the advantages some forms may have over others.

The Media

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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 and this can influence people to take part in sport.

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.

How many advantages and disadvantagescan you think of for this form of media?

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

This is one of the most powerful and commonly accessed form of the media and it transmits as digital and as analog.

TelevisionIn 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.

Group A Group BThe Olympic Games Commonwealth GamesThe Grand National Ryder CupFIFA World Cup Finals Test Matches (Cricket)Rugby World Cup Final RWC matchesFA Cup Final Wimbledon GamesWimbledon Tennis Finals World AthleticsRugby League Cup Final Five Nations

Television Continued:

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?

The body that regulates the arrangements for the televising of sport is the Independent Television Commission (ITC).

The BBC and other channels

The terrestrial 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 three 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.

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 £1.31 billion pound for and it will go back up for sale 2013.

£1,300,000,000

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)

Information Technology

The widespread use of computers now allows far greater use of technology. CD ROMS can be used as either a source of information or as interactive programmes. 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.

Radio

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.

Alike TV there are specialist radio stations that concentrate on sport, for example Radio 5 Live. Its advantages over TV are the broadcasting costs are much lower, plus radios are portable, cheap and plentiful and listeners can tune in whilst driving or whilst on the move, so the potential audience is bigger.

What is the current new form of media?

Key Terms Digital – high quality images and

sounds that are converted into a digital signal with several stations at the same time

Analog – a basic signal, usually transmitted and received by an ariel

Pay per view – where you pay for and watch one specific event or broadcast at a time

Being able to identify exactly what the media is and what it consists of is a common topic, but you will also need to know specific advantages each may have over the others

Homework Carry out a survey to look at all the different

ways sport is covered on television.

If possible compare the various activities covered on the different channels