Media, Sport and the Globalization of Culture

Media, Sport and the Globalization of Culture

Some important unifying observations: • In media societies, the image becomes the product • All of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. More and more of what was directly lived has moved away into a representation • Such a society is a society of the spectacle • The spectacle is provided through the mass media as mass entertainment • Describes a media and consumer society organized around the production and consumption of images, commodities & staged events

Some important unifying observations: • The mass media turns everything into mass entertainment (movies, Internet, pop music, tabloid newspapers, paperbacks, video games, computer games, and of course sports) • The production, distribution & consumption of mass entertainment (read: IMAGE, REPRESENTATION, SPECTACLE) SPECTACLE is now central to American (Canadian, European, etc.) post-industrial capitalism • Sport becomes a product only as much as it can deliver a BRAND

Global Sports=Global Finance: The changing face of Premiership Ownership structures – Aston Villa owned by American Randy Lerner – Chelsea FC owned by Russian Roman Abramovich – Fulham FC owned by Egyptian Mohammad Al Fayed – Liverpool FC owned by Americans Tom Hicks & George Gillett – Manchester City FC owned by former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra

– Manchester United owned by American Malcolm Glazer – Portsmouth FC owned by Russian Alexander Gaydamak – Sunderland FC owned by group of Irish investors fronted by ex Ireland and Sunderland player (now club chairman) Niall Quinn – West Ham owned by Icelandic businessman Eggert Magnusson – Derby County FC owned by American Andy Appleby)

We now have a scenario in which foreign players play for their foreign paymasters to entertain an audience of largely foreign fans under the banner of an English town or city name

Clubs constantly for sale or in the news as potential takeover targets

Ongoing speculation over ownership

‘Traditional’ Supporters no longer know who they would like as club owners – to owners the club is a business venture; to supporters owners should act as trustees & caretakers of the club’s heritage Many Liverpool FC fans would like Dubai International Capital (DIC) to buy out the current American owners as they believe DIC would better uphold the ‘traditions’ of the club

Others still attempt to buy the club outright – www.shareliverpoolfc.com

Liverpool fans launch bid to buy out club 'It is time to answer the concerns that fans have about the patterns of ownership' http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2249738,00.html

While the fans are looking to buy the club, investors are interested in buying the brand For investors club ownership will allow them to make money from the brand; for supporters ownership is about trying to preserve the spirit of a club, rather than simply becoming a brand

The Albiceleste as Media Product: Sold off as a BRAND! 1978 & 1986 World Cup winners 2006, the team is now the ‘property’ of Russian Viktor Feliksovich Vekselberg who has holds rights to the representations: TV rights, tickets, & merchandising He owns the rights to the ‘Argentina World Tour’: a two year series of Friendly Matches that are scheduled & located according to the best available financial return

When Argentina played Brazil in London …the story behind the staging of the game reveals the hidden power of sports management companies and their pivotal role in shaping the international football calendar. Although Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi might steal the headlines on the pitch, the real power brokers off it are two sports marketeers based in Switzerland and the third richest man in Russia. The match has been organised by the sports rights agency Kentaro, which owns the management and organisation rights for Brazil's remaining six games in Europe in 2006, and Renova, Russia's largest management company, which has been awarded the rights to organise all Argentina's friendlies until 2011. Both companies argue their roles are positive, bringing benefits to the teams, federations and spectators alike. Philipp Grothe, joint chief executive of Kentaro, says: "Without the two companies this game would not happen. It is not the core business of a federation to hire a neutral ground and it is a high-risk business." They deny they have any influence over selection, insisting their role is to facilitate the logistics, maximise ticket sales, advertising and sponsorship revenue and negotiate lucrative television rights deals Aug 10 2006: http://football.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1840951,00.html

Sport marketers must understand: Professional Sport has been turned into entertainment – Rate of return becomes the ONLY argument for its existence – Rate of return determines its nature – Sport marketers compete against movie marketers, casinos, video games, etc.)

• Professional sports (including brands, celebrities) are now part of the experience economy and need to be marketed as such • As a media-driven product, sport products are increasingly marketed to a global audience, e.g. David Beckham

Global Brand Personalities

Do Sports Depend on the Media? • No, not when they are organized by and for the players themselves • Yes, when they are organized as forms of commercial entertainment – Media coverage attracts attention to sports and provides news of results – Television coverage remains a key factor in the growth and expansion of commercial sports

Have Sports Sold Out to the Media?

• Authenticity? • Fan identification? • Spectacle versus Competition? • Profit versus Tradition?

Global media companies influence what sports we see & read about in the media

Global Economic Factors in the Sports-Media Relationship Global economic factors have intensified the sport-media relationship because transnational corporations need vehicles for developing: – – – –

Global name recognition Global cultural legitimacy Global product familiarity Global ideological support for a way of life based on consumption, competition, individual achievement, & a focus on social status & material possessions

Examples:

Adidas in New Zealand Coke in India Molson in USA

Do the Media Depend on Sports? •

Most media do not depend on sports for content or sales

•

Daily newspapers have depended on “sports sections” to increase circulation and advertising revenues

•

Many television companies have depended on sports to fill programming schedules, attract male viewers & the sponsors that want to reach them – Many sport events have media audiences with clearly identifiable demographics

Rupert Murdoch’s aggressive approach towards buying television rights for leading sports through the 90’s was based largely on the fact that he intended to use sport as a "battering ram" into people’s homes for the expansion of his global pay television network

Trends in Televised Sports • Rights fees have escalated rapidly since the 1960s • Sports programming has increased dramatically • As more events are covered, ratings for some particular events have decreased –

Audience fragmentation has occurred

• Television companies use sports events to promote other programming • Television companies are now often one part of transnational conglomerates that now own teams, sport events, & other businesses

Producing a Global Sport Product • Examples of media influence • Pay Per View • Teams’ Moving • Internationalization of Team Rosters (NBA, Real Madrid, but even National Teams, ex. Senegal v. France!) • Increased Violence in Sports (WWE, Ultimate Fighting) • Reduction of events to dramatic & simple stories • Increased selling of the image

Trends in Televised Sports

Why is it that some sports find it difficult to attract commercial sponsorship?

Trends in Televised Sports – Media is probably the number one reason sport is now seen as a commodity – Media has been the ultimate fuel to make the market the driving force in sport. The Result: • The invention of “the Franchise” was a Commercial & Media innovation rather than a sporting development • TV broadcasts meant that games can be broadcast from anywhere, so that local loyalties have become expendable. Teams become moveable and are moved to the biggest available TV market • Cultural origins, the means by which sporting allegiances were once decided, are being replaced by commercial ones • Perhaps the Champions League final between Real Madrid & AC Milan will one day simply become the “Microsoft Cup Final” between Hewlett Packard and Sony?

Barclays Premier League • The Big Game

The Audience • Broadcasts reach over 160 countries and a cumulative global audience base of over 570 million • First league potentially to make more off of TV rights abroad than domestic. Currently – cumulative TV rights abroad: CDN$1 billion – Domestic rights CDN$ 3 billion (Sky & Setanta)

Premier League’s Game 39 Proposal • For each team to play an extra Premier League game outside of England once a season • Equates to 10 games a year in markets such as US, China. Japan, Australia etc • Mooted of late, but for now seems to have been shot-down. It’s cheerleaders however are sure to regroup & return with another proposal • Some say the idea aims to defend integrity of the league rather than damage it • Logic is that if not done by the Premier League they face increased threat of breakaway Super-League

Creating old-style Fandom in the New World • The Sons of Ben • Supporters of an MLS team that does not even exist… in Philadelphia •

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/02/20/phillys_footballphiles_looking.html (includes article and links to YouTube and supporter blogs)

• Reaction to the corporatization of sport • Likely to be a major selling point in Philadelphia’s efforts to get an MLS team • If Philadelphia do get the next MLS franchise their efforts will most likely ironically play into the ever increasing corporatization of sport – they will become important as both a potential valuable target market & as a selling tool for the franchise (experience they create) – (Think Toronto FC and the experience the hardcore fans create for all fans of the game)

Video Games

Video Games & Virtual Sports Marketers need to answer questions such as: – What are the dynamics of playing video sport games & virtual sports, & how do they differ from other sport-related experiences? – How can video sport game experiences be linked with other sport experiences? – What kind of new experiences can be created & what new markets might they create? – What narrative themes are structured into the images & actions in video sport games? – Will virtual sports compliment or replace sports as we know them today?

Blurred Boundaries: Video Games as Simulated Sports ¡ The graphics and images in video games now come close to matching images in televised sports ¡ TV producers now use special filters to make the action in televised games look like video games ¡ Some athletes use video sport games to train ¡ Some children today are introduced to sports through video games ¡ Being good at playing video sport games is a source of status among many young people (e.g. famous Madden players) ¡ Playing sport video games provides regular social occasions for many people, especially young males

Madden Bowl on ESPN The annual Bowl pits the top eight Madden gamers in the NFL against one other in a sudden death tournament that is now broadcast on ESPN & ESPN 2 2006 Competing players: Willis McGahee (Buffalo Bills) Marcus Trufant (Seattle Seahawks) Edgerrin James (Arizona Cardinals) Chad Johnson (Cincinnati Bengals) Alex Smith (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) Antonio Gates (San Diego Chargers) Mark Clayton (Baltimore Ravens) Santana Moss (Washington Redskins) http://kotaku.com/gaming/2006-ea-sports-madden-bowl/madden-bowl-hits-espn-168400.php

Media representations of sports are carefully edited to highlight dramatic action Remember Kerri Struck? Remember “Plausibly Live”?

Media representations of sports are carefully edited to highlight desirable images, identities, & ideologies of a city, region, or nation

1992 Dream Team: What story is being narrated here?