Television to me seems to be the main focus of attention when it comes to broadcasting sport to the general public. I believe that from a study of seeing how much coverage is shown in the three main means of publishing that television has the most power in attracting people to watch the sport on the television.
The reason for me thinking this is because when you watch the sport on the TV it gives the watcher a feeling of being a spectator in the ground by giving a range of angles to watch the sport from and being able to see the sport more clearly and watch every minute of the action without being disturbed by the person moving around in the seat next to you or the bloke in front of you standing up every time the ball goes into the opponents half. The power of TV will give the viewer the best chance to see all of the sport they wish to watch from the comfort of their own armchair and allow them to actually watch their sport.
For example some supporters are either unable to afford the ticket prices and travel costs that need to be put in to the being able to go watch the game so by having the game shown on TV for a pay-per-view fee, which is normally a third of what a ticket to the game might cost they are able to follow their favourite team or sport. Also some football teams like Manchester Untied or Arsenal have sold out home games week in, week out so for some people unless you’re a season ticket holder it is very difficult to buy a ticket to see the game.
So by having an alternate option of seeing the game live from the comfort of your living room will appeal to these fans unable to get into the ground. Also due to the introduction of cable and SKY TV the wide range of sporting events that can be viewed at any one time from anywhere in the world has made people viewing sport from their home jus as popular as going to watch the game live. ‘ The BBC started broadcasting regular sport from 1936 and set up sports view, now known as Grandstand, the first all sport dedicated programme’
The game has also changed on how we can view it on TV over the years with the introduction of things such as the third umpire and ref’s in football being able to communicate with the linesmen over headphones. This has made the games more enjoyable to watch for the spectator because there is nothing more annoying than watching your favourite sport, and knowing that you should be awarded that try or given that penalty and you aren’t all because the ref cant see the action taking place.
So by having the third umpire that can be turned to in decisions that are needed to be made gives the game more fairness and will encourage more people to watch the sports either live or on TV. TV also along side live coverage on pay per view TV has replays of the action that happened during the day. The biggest example of this was Match Of The Day on the BBC. These sorts of programmes allow anyone with a TV to catch up with the day’s football action in the top flight.
The main reason for sport being interested in being shown on TV and for TV wanting to have live sport shown on their channel is because it brings in the largest amount of viewers and money. For example if the event being shown on the TV is the FA cup final between two top flight clubs then they will want the game to be shown on TV as it means publicity for their club, their sponsors, means that their fans will be able to watch the game and probably want to go out and show support by buying merchandise such as shirts and scarves.