Since the first live, coast-to-coast, baseball and football games were broadcast in 1951, the sports media has played a central role in the growth and cultural impact of sports on society. Sports is a traditional part of society as both an educational fixture and an entertainment enterprise. Today, sports coverage in North American newspapers surpasses that of the economy, politics, or any other single topic. Sports occupy a major portion of our television programming with a large variety of U.S. cable channels dedicated to sports. Social media, such as Twitter, Face Book, and You Tube, are constantly widening the reach and broadening the connection of sports fans. The following is an overview of sports media and its evolution, which plays an all-important role in the sports world.
On television, ESPN, and its family of broadcast channels, which publicizes itself as having the widest reach to sports fans, covers a wide range of professional and college sports, as well as other sports programming such as sports talk, interview shows, and documentaries that are telecast around the clock. ESPN RISE is a high school sports magazine published monthly during the school year in 25 markets around the United States. The top athletes hoping to win an award in his or her sport attend ESPN’s annually televised “Espy Awards” program. Its industry-leading Sports Center and other shows, such as Pardon the Interruption and Outside the Lines, enjoy immense appeal. Fox Sports Net’s Final Score offers another choice for late night sports updates. These shows represent but a few regularly scheduled sports programming choices. Versus, a national sports network, is an example of an emerging presence in the ever-growing sports market. Sport-specific television channels include the NFL Channel (National Football League), MLB Channel (Major League Baseball), NBA Channel (National Basketball Association), Speed Channel (NASCAR), Golf Channel, and Tennis Channel, among others. In addition, the major national networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, all broadcast major sporting events year-round, as well as pre- and post-game expert analyses and sports news shows.
Cable movies channels such as HBO and Showtime offer regular sports features and documentaries. HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel offers in-depth sport features, and Showtime’s Inside the NFL analyzes games, teams, and players. Major cable and satellite television outlets for sports programming have emerged via regional sports networks that broadcast a full-schedule of sports events to local and regional areas — Fox Sports Net, Comcast Sports Net, YES Network, Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), New England Sports Network, Big Ten Network, and PAC10 TV, are examples that exemplify the broad reach of sports programming in every corner of the U.S.
Sports “subscription” services on cable and satellite television networks offer sports fans the opportunity to pay a fee to see all the games in a chosen sport during the course of the season. They include, among others, NFL Sunday Ticket, MLB Extra Innings, NBA League Pass, NHL Center Ice, NASCAR Hot Pass, and MLS Direct Kick.
Sports radio, a long-time staple in sports media, plays a predominant role in the ongoing, nationwide conversation about athletes, teams, sports organizations, competition, achievement, sports culture, and the sports media itself. Sports talk shows are broadcast across the country by “talk sportscasters” via local or regional radio, national radio networks such as ESPN and Fox Sports, and XM/Sirius satellite radio shows such as Mad Dog Sports Radio. Many other national sports talk shows are emerging on satellite radio, as well.
Print media built the foundation of sports media. Newspapers and magazines have devoted substantial space to sports for over a century. Daily and weekly newspapers feature “beat” writers who cover assigned sports teams and columnists who write opinions about a variety of topics in the sports world. General interest and sports specialty magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, and ESPN The Magazine, dedicate their entire publications to the world of sports.
Nearly all the sports media outlets — television, cable, satellite, radio, newspapers, magazines — have companion websites and blogs (both company-sponsored and individual sites) that expand their sports coverage and report on sports-related news and issues in more depth. In addition, there are many popular sports websites, such as yahoosports.com, fanhouse.com, and sportsnetwork.com, which offer comprehensive sports coverage and/or information.
Most hand-held PDAs (personal digital assistant), such as mobile phones, portable computers, portable media players, etc. that have a visual display, can deliver real-time sports scores and news to users.