How Does Satellite Television Effect Elite Sports?

With the increasing development of satellite television and the mass audience it attracts,professional and elite sports have simultaneously had a boost in popularity and capital, with both thesports and broadcaster benefits from.

Satellite television has given sports moreopportunities to advertise themselves to a wideraudience which doesn't only increase support for it,it also leads to an increase in ticket andmerchandise sells. But just the television coverageby it self is a major income for most elite sportteams.

Television Contracts

The English Premier League, which was introduced in 1992, has satellite television to thank for itsglobal success and for its wealth of riches. In 2007, The Guardian's James Robinson highlighted thatthe UK contract alone for the coverage of the Premier League is worth over £1.7 billion. Thecapital is shared between the 20 clubs depending on how many of their games are shown live onsatellite TV.

With the increase of television coverage, sports' broadcasting has become worldwide and this raisesthe commercial interest within the sport which means more companies will want to associate theirbrands with that sport. Robinson's research in 2007 showed that the Premier League had aworldwide audience of 2.6 billion people with 1670 hours of coverage a week, 55% of this was inAsia.

Advertising

Sport can now reach new markets from all around theworld and this means there are more markets forcommercialisation. American football is a good exampleof this as the Super Bowl is the most watched sportingevent in the world as it attracts an audience of 175million people. Companies know that it attracts a mass audience and therefore they want theirproduct advertised during the big game. But the NFL are also well aware of this and they cantherefore charge huge amounts, up to $3 million, just for a 30 second advert.

The media also gains a lot from elite sports, not only money from the advertising of goods, butduring big events, they can charge subscription fees for pay-per-view events. Sky now has over ninemillion subscribers, with each person paying between £20 and £60 a month. Many argue that thesuccess and vast income coming into the company is due to the mass sport coverage they offer.

Influence of Satellite TV

Due to Sky's high influence over sports, theycan control times and dates of matches andthis is most evident with rugby league. Beforethe creation of the Super League in 1996,rugby league used to be a winter sport, butsince Sky didn't want it to class with thefootball season, they moved it to a summersport. This shows the impact media has onsport and due to the money involved; it canalter an entire season.

It can therefore be seen that satellite television and elite sport do share a symbiotic relationship.Sport relies on the media for coverage to boost popularity and for valuable income which is essentialfor elite sport clubs. The media also needs sport as without it, Sky television and other satellitecompanies would not have grown and been as successful as they are today.