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Sport, television, and entertainment influence on sport public relations

This is an excerpt from Sport Marketing 5th Edition With HKPropel Access by Windy Dees,Patrick Walsh,Chad D. McEvoy,Steve McKelvey,Bernard J. Mullin,Stephen Hardy & William A. Sutton.

In mid-2005, Dick Ebersol, then Chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics, finalized negotiations with the IOC to move the swimming and gymnastics competitions for the 2008 Beijing Games to mornings instead of evenings, thus allowing those sports to be broadcast live during the NBC prime-time telecasts in the United States.

The change in the Beijing Olympic competition schedule was a brilliant strategic negotiation that proved to be “golden” for swimming sensation Michael Phelps and for NBC. The media zoomed in on the storyline of Phelps’ second attempt to chase Olympic greatness and match or break Mark Spitz’s mark of seven gold medals, which dominated the pre-2008 Beijing Olympics news cycle. NBC’s ability to showcase Phelps’ nightly swimming feats live in U.S. prime time allowed the network to reach the largest possible audience available, further amplifying the Olympic coverage and the Phelps storyline. Phelps served as the centerpiece of intense Games media attention, commanding the top spot in a rapidly moving multiplatform news cycle during the first week of the Beijing Games, creating watercooler conversations for the public and fueling even greater interest.

In today’s fractured TV universe and competitive content environment, live sports event broadcasts command the largest television audiences on broadcast and cable TV. Sports are entertainment television; they are prime-time television. Sport programming has emerged as a coveted and dominant force across the spectrum of content platforms. In an era of expanded entertainment options, niche programming, and time-shifted viewing, live sports events have emerged as dominant and durable programming. Sports events accounted for 88 of the top 100 most-watched broadcasts in 2019. The NFL boasted an impressive 41 of the top 50 and 73 of the top 100. NBC’s Sunday Night Football is the top show in prime time. Fox Sports’ America’s Game of the Week is the most-watched program on all of television. The Olympic Games telecasts dominate prime time throughout the duration of the event.

More Excerpts From Sport Marketing 5th Edition With HKPropel Access

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