[ecrea] Sports Rights and Public Service Media/Public Broadcasting

Sports Rights and Public Service Media/Public Broadcasting

Case studies on economic and political implications from n countries

For the first time in its history, the International Olympic Committee has
given the exclusive transmission rights of the Olympic Games for 50 European
states to a non-European corporation. The bundle of rights summing up to 1,3
billion Euro comprises the winter games in Pyeongchang/South Korea, the
Summer games in Tokyo 2020, the winter games in Peking or Almaty/Kasakhstan
and the summer games 2024 (candidates are Boston, Paris and Rome). The
U.S.-based Discovery Communications and its subsidiary Eurosport prevailed
over the BBC in bidding for the rights for Olympic broadcasts. Furthermore,
it won the rights to be the sole provider for the transmission of the
Olympic Games for all European countries, to cover all financial risks of
the rightsholder and to enable the transmission on all platforms. This is
the culmination of prolonged development, during which it has become
increasingly difficult for public service media/public broadcasting to
compete in the acquisition of sports rights.

The premium price for broadcasting rights to live major sporting events is
an increasingly common trait of the contemporary political economy of mass
communication (Evens, Iosifidis, & Smith, 2013; Kidd, 2013; Scherer & Rowe,
2013). The consequences of this development may result in higher costs for
audiences to receive programming and content on premium sports events,
decreasing audiences for sports, less public attention for lesser -known
sports, and a restriction in the remit of public service media/public
broadcasting.
A special issue of International Communication Gazette, edited by Gregory
Taylor (University of Calgary, Canada) and Barbara Thomass (University of
Bochum, Germany) examines current cases and developments in the field of
sports copyright and public service media. We are seeking papers that will
contribute to a critical examination of this topic.

We invite abstracts on any of the following topics
-	Determining value in sport transmission rights
-	Case studies of competition and bidding on sport transmission rights
and public service media/public broadcasting
-	Role of public service media for public attention in sports
-	Olympic Games and public service media/public broadcasting
-	EU regulations and decisions on public service media and sports
rights
-	Sporting events and the public interest in mass media
-	Sport, cultural identity, and national media
-	Neo-liberalism and a growing class-based sporting divide
-	Digital rights and sport in the 21st century

Submissions:
Empirical studies, theoretical discussions and research reports (not yet
published) are welcome. Proposals should make reference to one of the issues
mentioned above and should be structured for a length between 5000 and 7000
words. The abstracts (about 500 words) should be divided into a) a cover
sheet with title, name/s and contact details, and b) an anonymous text with
title (please be sure to remove all author identification from the abstract
itself) and submitted to (gregory.taylor2 /at/ ucalgary.ca) and
(Barbara.Thomass /at/ rub.de) by March 4th  2016 as PDF documents via e-mail. The
deadline for the selected papers will then be late July 2016.


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