From Broadcast Scarcity to Digital Plenitude

Abstract

This essay traces and analyzes emerging zones of conflict as the transmission of popular sport content shifts from the historically dominant platform of broadcast television to the online environment of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). These conflicts are many and marked, underpinned by a shift in the media sport content economy in terms of the production, distribution and consumption of content. This economy is conceptualized as moving from a long-established broadcast model characterized by `scarcity', with high barriers of access and cost restricting the number of media companies and sports organizations able to create, control and distribute quality, popular sport content. In comparison, the emerging online model is defined by `digital plenitude', with the Internet and WWW significantly lowering barriers of access and cost and thus increasing the number of media companies, sports organizations, clubs, and even individual athletes able to produce and distribute content for online consumption.