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Media

Physical Education: AQA GCSE, topic 7.2.1

Television and Sport

Lots of companies, like BT and Sky, show sport on their channels. The benefits for these companies are:

Lower costs

Lower costs

  • Sport can cost less money to televise than drama programmes for TV companies.
  • This is because TV companies are only paying for television rights and the production team to televise (show on television) sport. For a drama programme, they would have to pay for the cast, the staging, the production team and the backstage staff.
Fast-paced viewing

Fast-paced viewing

  • Sport also makes a very good show.
  • It is exciting, fast-paced and contains few stoppages in play.
  • Sport is often competitive, which may make it popular.
Role model performers

Role model performers

  • Watching performers with high levels of skill, strength or fitness may attract viewers.
  • Furthermore, the personalities of the performers (or role models) may attract viewers.
Easy to follow

Easy to follow

  • Sports often have simple rules.
  • This can make them easy to follow and understand.

Audience and Development

Sport has also had to adapt and develop to the media to make it more exciting for viewers. An example is the introduction of 20/20 cricket to make cricket more exciting.

Audience

Audience

  • The TV audience (and media) influence the time of sporting events.
  • Sport is aired at popular times in the week to make sure that the TV companies get the biggest audiences possible.
  • E.g. football kick-off times on Saturday at 12:30pm/3:00pm/5:15pm and Sunday at 1:30pm/4:00pm.
Development

Development

  • Sport has also benefited from technological developments.
  • Tools like slow motion replays, hawk-eye and TMO (television match official) can all make sport more exciting for the TV audience and crowd.

Media Coverage of Sport

Except for television, the media cover sports in lots of different ways.

Radio programmes

Radio programmes

  • Radio programmes are useful because they provide running commentaries and talk shows where sport can be discussed.
  • This gets the public involved and mixes public opinion with the expert opinions of professionals.
Social media

Social media

  • People can keep up-to-date with sports using platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
  • People can download apps to follow scores with live updates, log onto websites that may contain forums (to chat on) and watch highlights on sports channels’ apps on smartphones.
  • Fans can communicate with other fans, players and teams using social media or websites.
Newspapers

Newspapers

  • There are 2 types of newspapers:
  • Broadsheet.
    • Place emphasis on being an information service.
    • Have fewer pages about sport but cover a wide range of sports.
  • Tabloid.
    • More interested in sporting personalities and only 25% of their newspaper contains sport.
    • Only cover the ‘main’ sports (e.g. football).
Internet

Internet

  • The internet is an interactive platform that lets people from all over the world interact with one another.
  • Websites are now far more interactive than they used to be.
  • We can access them from any platform: laptops, mobiles, tablets etc.

Test yourself on Media

  • Which of the following is a cost incurred by TV companies showing sport?

  • Which of the following are key reasons sport on TV is often popular?

  • Which of the following are examples of technological developments in sports that have contributed to their attractiveness on TV?

  • Which of the following is a sporting innovation made in order to increase viewing figures?

  • Which of the following is not an example of a platform through which sporting content can be accessed on the internet?

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