Live broadband streaming of the 2008 Beijing Olympics accounted for 2,200 of the estimated 3,600 total hours shown by the American NBC-Universal networks. At the 2012 London Olympics, unprecedented multi-platforming embraced online, mobile devices, game consoles and broadcast television, with the BBC providing 2,500 hours of live coverage, including every competitive event, much in high definition and some in 3D. The BBC also had 12 million requests for video on mobile phones and 9.2 million browsers on its mobile Olympics website and app. This pattern will only intensify at future sport mega events like the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, both of which will take place in Brazil. Increasingly, when people talk of the screen that delivers footage of their favorite professional sport, they are describing desktop, laptop, and tablet computer screens as well as television and mobile handsets.

Digital Media Sport analyzes the intersecting issues of technological change, market power, and cultural practices that shape the contemporary global sports media landscape. The complexity of these related issues demands an interdisciplinary approach that is adopted here in a series of thematically-organized essays by international scholars working in media studies, Internet studies, sociology, cultural studies, and sport studies.

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About the Author
Brett Hutchins is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Research Unit in Media Studies at Monash University, Australia. David Rowe is Professor of Cultural Research in the Institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney, Australia.

Reviews

"Digital Media Sport is an enjoyable read and relatively accessible for scholars and students, offering an informative text that traces some of the key contemporary digital sport transformations from diverse theoretical perspectives. This work could usefully complement screened/ digital examples, and offers an invaluable resource for contemporary sport, media and internet researchers." - Damion Sturm, University of Waikato

"In sum, this edited collection is a timely and much needed publication. The chapters, on the whole, effortlessly join together as the discussion builds step by step. The work is broad and offers a holistic picture of digital media sport, as researchers in this field continue to engage with contemporary challenges in a position of uncertainty and change...The book is well worth a read and would certainly be of use to media, cultural and journalism students as well as those with a broad interest in cyberculture and sport." -Daniel Kilvington, Leeds Beckett University, UK in Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

Book Information
ISBN 9781138243293
Author Brett Hutchins
Format Paperback
Page Count 274
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 408g