SOC 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sut Jhally, Sports League, Rogers Communications
12 Jan 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Page 41 and 49: ideology and hegemony
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2/3 of Canadian pop (22.6 mil) watches a professional sporting event on TV every week.
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Over 99% of the TV viewing pop.
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Sport is a primary reason that Canadians watch TV:
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Question: How do we explain the central role of sport in popular culture?
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Part of Conflict Paradigm
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Economic organization shapes social institutions, which shapes ideology.
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Gramsci says we can challenge ideology.
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Historical Materialism
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Sport and Popular Culture (not on quiz, on midterm)
Historical role of sport in the development of
capitalism.
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Role of sport in today's post-industrial capitalist
economy today.
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Material (economic) functions
Role of sport in maintaining social relations of
capitalist infrastructure.
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Relationship between sport and dominant societal
beliefs and values.
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Symbolic power of sport as ritual celebration and
escape.
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Ideological functions
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There is something special about sports that allows it to make more money on TV than anything else.
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"The combination of ways to make money on TV sports are damned near infinite." - Gustave Hauser, former c-
chairman of Warner cable.
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Communal bonds; fitting in, local or national identity
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Escapism
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Entertainment
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Participation; health, fitness
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Violence/aggression (safe place)
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Reflects dominant values of infrastructure/ideology: hard work, success, competition
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Sports
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Material functions more hidden.
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Sport/Media Complex: Material vs Ideological Functions
Sport and mass media- symbiotic relationship.
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Sep. 2000: Rogers Communications buys Jays for $160 mil, less than that pitcher.
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Nov 2004: Rogers buys SkyDome, renamed to Rogers Centre.
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Rogers decides to invest more in sports. Things more expensive though.
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2010: Properties more valuable, Rogers has more stakes.
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Bell and Rogers split the stake 50/50 and will share broadcast rights.
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Each company will expand value-added content that is not shared to increase profits.
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Dec 2011: Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan sells 79.53% stake in MLSE to Bell and Rogers for $1.32 bil.
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Rogers obtains national rights to all NHL games, including the playoffs and Stanley Cup finals, on all of its
platform in all languages.
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CBC retains rights to Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights (but have to partner w/ Rogers).
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Nov 2013: Rogers signs 12 year, 5.2 bil deal w/ NHL.
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Sport/Media Complex: Rogers Communications buys Sports!
Revenues generated from broadcast rights
Exposure/publicity/promotion provided by media coverage.
Historically, professional sports have grown + been valuable bc of push of mass media.
Professional sports leagues benefit from:
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Content for generating ad avenues.
Ownership of professional sports franchises.
Penetrating media "markets."
Selling cable packages to consumers.
Coporate media networks benefit from:
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Sports and mass media have a symbiotic relationship based on mutual self-interest.
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Driven specifically by media that gave it exposure.
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Media benefits bc sports is content for generating ad revenue.
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Ex. Sports league benefits - Canadian Football league rights bought by TSN; worked hard to build it back again.
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Don’t want to miss a second of sports because it's playing LIVE.
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Why are sports so important?
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Marshall McLuhan: Famous for saying "the medium is the message."
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Technology - medium of culture.
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Content: sports.
Medium that content is delivered through is more important content itself.
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Pg. 50 Technology
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Sports/Media Complex
Week 3 - Sports & Popular Culture
Friday, January 29, 2016
10:10 AM
SOC 202 Page 1
Content: sports.
Fact that it's live, you're definitely audience to it
Sports harder to watch on digital media bc owned by companies.
Medium changes, way we engage with sports changes.
Digital technology radically changed it that David Price is making more money than the entire Jays.
Media gets its revenue from selling ads.
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Usually advertisers selling stuff to us. Smythe: we are being sold to advertisers from TV.
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Invented to get us to watch long enough for us to watch advertisements.
Netflix interferes with this but sports still follows this (because it's LIVE).
Something happening-commercial-something happening-commercial.
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For Dallas Smythe, "a materialist approach should ask what economic function the mass media serves for the
capital … in this key view it is advertising that provides the key to the economic function of the media. Smythe's
own suggestion as to the product of mass media is that it is audiences that are produced as commodities to be
sold to advertisers" - Sut Jhally
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The product is you. Your eyes are being sold and advertisers are paying for them.
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Material Functions: The Audience Commodity
Advertising main source of revenue.
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1890s: newspapers have dedicated sport section.
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RCA sells $83 mil worth of radios between 1922-25.
Sport used as a "bait" to sell radios.
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Advertising main source of revenue for radio stations.
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1920s: radio technology
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Gillette pays $100 000 for rights to sponsor World Series of baseball.
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Gillette sales increase 350% during the 4-game series.
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1939: Advertisers discover true potential of sports/media relationship.
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Sport used to sell radio technology to audience as well as radio audience to advertisers.
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Sports used to sell television technology to audience as well as television audience to advertisers.
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Demographic variables such as age, income, sex, geographical location, etc, made available to
advertisers.
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Sport is most efficient way of reaching men 18-49.
Sports audience demographics are the most precise and specific.
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1940's-1970's:
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Material Functions: Historical Context
"Viewer-friendly" rule changes.
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Television time-outs
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Video replay
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Area black-out rules
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Press boxes built in to support media coverage of game.
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Reporter access to players.
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Hockey Night in Canada (Saturday): days devoted, can't escape it.
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Monday Night Football (NFL)
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Broadcasters gain increasing influence over when, where, and how sports are played.
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Glowing hockey puck to make it more TV-friendly and ad-friendly.
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Fox bought rights to NHL.
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We can see: Sports drives media, media drives sports.
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Impact of Sports/Media Complex:
In what ways is sport crucial in generating revenue for media?
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Athlete branding
Sponsorship
How is the audience commodity now being sold to advertisers?
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Web cookies = customized advertising
Social media: Likes and follows, synergy w/ snapchat, etc.
Apps for sports that show BTS footage.
How are new digital technologies being sold to consumers using sport?
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How has digital technology changed the Sport/Media complex?
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****Pg. 50-52 "Technology & Regulation, Innovation, Consolidation"
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Sports are not the product; you are. They're the means to buy you- how much you let the apps access to get to
them (photo, ID, wifi connection, location).
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What has changed w/ digital technology that's new and more profitable than when it was just TV?
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Cross media synergy
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More access to sports = more deeply engrained in media landscape.
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Sports Media Complex Today
Sports provide "both an escape from the alienated conditions of everyday life and a socialization into these very
structures" - Sut Jhally
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Sport as "PLAY"
"ORGANIZED" sport
Fun, engaging, escape from alienated conditions of life
Socialization into these structures
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Ideological Functions of Sport: Historical Context
SOC 202 Page 2
