Streaming Services and Sports Media
Streaming services have had the most significant impact on sports journalism. The services offered have made accessing games to be more convenient to the audience. Online broadcasting makes it possible for fans to watch live or past games whenever and wherever they want. Also, the streaming of matches is more efficient because the fans can watch the games from any device. Earlier on, one could only enjoy their games when they were around a TV. At the moment, one can watch the games on their phone or tablet. The ability to stream games has also increased the audience of the games. Earlier on, one could only enjoy the game if they were within the U.S. for them to access the sports station. With these factors in mind, the media stations have had to come up with online platforms that allow their audience to access both the live and past games.
John Lindholm refers to these changes in sports media as ‘Netlix-ication’ of sports broadcasting. He states that the changes have been necessitated by factors such as global consumption and technological advancement (Lindholm 100). Åsa Kroon & Göran Eriksson provide that streaming is more advantageous to sports journalists. This is because they can easily refer to a previous match to help them in their analysis (Kroon and Eriksson 844). However, they provide that a considerable percentage of the audience would still prefer watching the games from a TV as compared to their smartphones or tablets. Aaron Goldman then states that the increase in online streaming services is set to change the media landscape as a whole. This is because the online audience is different from traditional viewers. Most of the people streaming games are on-demand viewers, and they prefer an uninterrupted viewing (Goldman, 2019). The increase in the number of online viewers, has forced stations to try and acquire the legal rights of broadcasting the games (Goldman, 2019).
In conclusion, it is clear that streaming of games over the internet has greatly altered sports media streaming in the U.S. This is because it has made it easier for fans to watch the games, increased the viewership, made sports reporting to be more interactive and efficient by allowing reporters to make better analysis, and by necessitating the improvement of IP rights to include the online streams. Therefore, streaming of games has impacted all the salient areas in sports broadcast. The media stations are forced to invest on their online platforms and ensure that they take into account the needs of their online audience, the commentators have to consider and interact with their online audience, and the media houses and sports bodies have to rethink the laws governing sports broadcasting to ensure that they do not infringe on the proprietor rights of other parties.
Works Cited
Goldman, A. (2019, October 15). How The War Over Sports Rights Will Change The Media Landscape. Retrieved from Next TV: https://www.nexttv.com/blog/how-war-over-sports- rights-change-media-landscape
Kroon, Åsa, and Göran Eriksson. “The impact of the digital transformation on sports journalism talk online.” Journalism Practice 13.7 (2019): 834-852.
Lindholm, Johan. “The Netflix-ication of sports broadcasting.” (2019): 99-101.