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Bogusz, Barbara --- "Commercial Freedom and Sport: Has Sport Lost its Sporting Edge?" [2007] ELECD 261; in Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika (eds), "The Regulation of Sport in the European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: The Regulation of Sport in the European Union

Editor(s): Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203632

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Commercial Freedom and Sport: Has Sport Lost its Sporting Edge?

Author(s): Bogusz, Barbara

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

8. Commercial freedom and sport: has
sport lost its sporting edge?
Barbara Bogusz

INTRODUCTION
In the twenty-first century the concept of culture has broadened to encompass
more populist pursuits such as sport and is no longer confined to just literature
and the arts. The development of technology has allowed for cultural pursuits
to be disseminated more widely and accessed by consumers at a place and time
of their own choosing. The prevalent cultural encoding of sport takes into
account the relationship between the consumer, spectator and the sports
person. Tensions that exist in the relationship between sport and culture are
perhaps most evident in the media rights sales with cultural obligations
demanding broad access on a free-to-air basis of some sporting events. By
contrast, sports' governing bodies seek to maximize the value of their product
through selling rights to the highest bidder. This will readily mean exclusivity
of ownership and access by the consumer only through a Pay-TV platform.
The growth of new media has also introduced new interpretations of what
culture constitutes. Consequently, those sports or events which are designated
as `listed' or `protected' events and are guaranteed to as wide an audience as
possible are being viewed as more cultural than those not on the list.
This chapter adopts the standpoint that the one time spectator of sport has
today also become a cultural consumer of sport who demands access to live
sporting events. In the light of the technological developments, the amount of
...