Darts has evolved from a pub game to a major televised sport, with the 2024 World Championship final attracting 3.71 million viewers. Platformization, including dedicated streaming services like PDC.tv and the rise of social media, has greatly contributed to this popularity. These platforms offer global reach and engagement, allowing the sport to attract new fans worldwide.
Is YouTube taking over TV in sport? Digital transformations in the sports media industry
The traditional dominance of TV as the primary medium for sports broadcasting is now challenged by digital platforms like YouTube. An academic paper discusses how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is using YouTube as a complementary platform for the Olympics broadcast. It highlights YouTube's digital advantages such as real-time access, user-driven content co-production, and versatility of communication. The paper also points out the IOC's increasing dependency on the YouTube algorithm for audience engagement and its selective focus on key user markets. While YouTube has not yet overtaken TV for live broadcasts, its role in sports consumption is undeniable.
An Analysis of Digital Disruption in Sport
Traditionally, broadcasting scarcity within media meant that whoever controlled the distribution of media possessed all the power (Hutchins & Rowe, 2012). The digital revolution has the potential to disrupt and significantly alter the sport media industry and its discrete separate markets (Hutchins & Rowe, 2009). This is evidenced by digital media lowering entry barriers, which... Continue Reading →
Digital Revolution? Persisting Gender Inequalities in Digital Sports Broadcasting: The case of FIFA TV on YouTube
A research comparing men's and women's FIFA World Cup videos on YouTube found that while men's videos have more views and engagement, women's videos received more likes per view, showing signs of favorable engagement. These findings suggest that the digital revolution has not fully disrupted gender inequalities in sports media, but there are hopeful indicators of an increasingly equitable consumption of content.
How new digital platforms saw the rise of fantasy leagues and eSports
In the video below, we discuss how new digital platforms came to prominence within today's society largely due to the emergence of web 2.0, and how from this, sports organisations have begun to implement their own sport consumption platforms in the form of fantasy leagues and eSports. Thank you all for following the series, If... Continue Reading →
Media and Digital Transformation in Sport 