Rupert Murdoch, at the Annual General Meeting of News

Corporation in1996:

“Sports absolutely overpowers film and all other forms of

entertainment in drawing viewers to television. We will

be doing in Asia what we intend to do elsewhere in the

world – that is, use sports as a battering ram and a lead

offering in all our pay television operations”

Cashmore, Ellis (2010). Making sense of sport. Fith Edition. New York: Routledge

Sports & Media Introduction

“Sports, as never before, had so completely permeated

the logic of the marketplace in consumer goods that by

1992 the psychological content of selling was often more

sports-oriented than it was sexual”

Donald Katz (1994) Just Do it: The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World

Cashmore, Ellis (2010). Making sense of sport. Fith Edition. New York: Routledge

IntroductionSports & Media

Have journalists confused the roles of reporter and fan?

Sport as

commoditySports & Media Singularities

Sport remains, in a context of largely fragmented audiences, as one of the last examples of “must-see television”1

Sport as

commoditySports & Media Singularities

Everybody is watching the same at the same time? Sport as a get-together show2

“When President Kennedy was assassinated, The National

Football League decided to go ahead with their full schedule of

games just two days later. Commissioner Razelle’s reasoning at

the time was that the country needed something in such a time

of national tragedy”

Paul Hoch (1972)

Sport as

commoditySports & Media Singularities

The Familiarity vs. Unpredictability media content axis

Familiarity

Unpredictability

Formulaic

TV show

Modern

film

SportBoth extremely familiar

and unpredictable

News

3

Golden Age

TV dramas

“Football is theatre without a script”

Jimmy Hill, ex Footballer (circa 1990)

Sport as

commoditySports & Media Singularities

Rational-emotional commodity4

Sport as

commoditySports & Media Singularities

One of the last strongholds of masculinity?5

In the context of the crisis of masculinity, when no one knows

any longer what does it mean to be a man, does sport provide

a way to overcome that uncertainty?

HistorySports & Media

Timeline of

sports on

media

1773

1880

1921

1930

1952

1946

2013

1994

1937

1979

Boston Gazzette

Reports on horseracing

and cricket

Pulitzer set up a sports

Department in the New

York Herald

First radio sports

broadcasting in

America. Boxing

event in Pittsburgh

First soccer match televised in the

UK. Arsenal vs. Arsenal reserves

BBC paid $30 per game

for broadcasting rights

BBC paid $300 for

very special games

Broadcasting rights of a sports team

amounted to 3% of its budget

Average cost of a 30

second-ad in the Super

Bowl was $3.7 million

USA asked permission to FIFA

to introduce TV breaks in the

World Cup

ESPN launched the first

all-sports networkHBO first satellite telecast to

subscribers: Muhammad Ali

in “Thrilla in Manila”

1975

“All rule changes in the last two decades have helped to

increase the pace of the game to build up non-violent

excitement by punishing slow decisions”

Otto Penz (1990)

“Why are virtually all races today those which seek to reducetime rather than increase the distance covered?”

Otto Penz (1990)

AdvertisingSports & Media Endorsement

Sports branding

Which values could Barcelona City borrow from FC Barcelona?

AdvertisingCity

BrandingBarcelona

“FC Barcelona is continuing to

expand the number of languages on

its website.

From Friday, Portuguese has been

added, meaning there are now a

total of nine languages (Catalan,

Spanish, English, Chinese, Arabic,

French, Indonesian, Japanese and

Portuguese). The next project is to

add Turkish to the list”.

WWW.FCBARCELONA.CAT10/21/2013 11:00

Sports branding AdvertisingCountry

BrandingQatar

Sports branding AdvertisingCelebrity

Branding

Negative salary/advertising ratio

Positive salary/advertising ratio

Forbes’ list of world’s

highest-paid athletes

2013

Neutral salary/advertising ratio

PlayerGross Annual

Salary USD (estimated)

Ter Stegen 4,661,000

Gerard Piqué 10,171,000

Jeremy Mathieu 7,628,000

Javier Mascherano 8,476,400

Jordi Alba 6,357,800

Adriano 5,085,600

Dani Alves 10,171,000

Sergio Busquets 5,636,540

Xavi 11,018,200

Andrés Iniesta 11,018,200

Rakitic 6,357,000

Pedro 5,085,600

Luis Suárez 16,952,000

Lionel Messi 44,680,000

Neymar Jr 12,714,000

http://www.tsmplug.com/football/barcelona-players-salary-list-2014/

“If you’re not paying for television,

you’re not the customer,

you’re the product”

Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner

“Shows are delivery vehicles

for advertising”

June Thomas, Slate.com

What good comes from buying sports content?

I. Global awareness

II. Readily readable content worldwide

III. 18-49 target audiences eager for new products

IV. Already existing communities

What evil comes from buying sports content?

I. Steep price

II. Sport-related drawbacks: violence, sectarianism…

III. Lack of control over our community, unbranding, brand collision

IV. Asymmetrical effect, loss aversion pattern

Sports & MediaBroadcasting

rightsAdvertising

Why companies buy sports broadcasting rights at a loss?

2.6

1.68

1.34

1.03

0.690.6 0.59 0.56 0.55 0.51

Marca El País As El Mundo La Vanguardia El MundoDeportivo

La Voz deGalicia

El Periódico deCatalunya

Sport Abc

Audience of Spanish Newspapers May 2014 (daily readers in millions)

“The commercialization of the Olympic Games will never be

tolerated. They will remain the only sport event in the world

where there is no advertising in the stadia or on the athletes

vests”

Juan Antonio Samaranch, former IOC President (1981)