On Thursday November 8th the Sport for Business Members’ round table programme will look at the issues surrounding broadcasting and sport.  It is clearly an area that is of vital importance not only to the funding of sport but also to its appeal for commercial partners and its hold over the general public.
Ahead of the gathering of smart minds to look at the future we thought it would be good to look back at the history of sports broadcasting and present today another six early milestones that show the central role which sport has played in the medium of our age.
1944 – The first commercial sponsor of sports broadcasting was Gillette who supported NBC’s Cavalcade of Sports for 20 years after an initial experiment just before the end of the second world war. It moved to Television four years later.  Gillette were persuaded to commit to sport by purchasing rights to the World Series in 1939 and selling four times as much product as had originally been forecast.
1958 – The BBC introduced Grandstand, billed as ‘today’s sport as it happens.’  The compendium style programme ran continuously on Saturday afternoons for 48 years and covered such occasions as the 1966 World Cup, Olympics, FA Cup finals and a host of other sports that would never otherwise have enjoyed air time.  In 1997 Des Lynam made the announcement live on air that the racecourse was to be abandoned due to an IRA bomb threat.  The re run race on Monday was the last commentary by Sir Peter O’Sullevan.
1962 – The first All Ireland Final to be broadcast live on RTE was between Tipperary and Wexford.  There had been fears that television would lead to a reduction in attendance but the rights for the first two finals were sold for a nominal sum of £10.  The payback in terms of excitement was rapid with Tom Moloughney scoring the first goal for the Premier County after only 50 seconds.  That was bettered two weeks later when Kerry’s Gary McMahon fisted a goal after only 35 seconds.
1979 – In September 1979 ESPN (Entertainment Sports Programming Network) was launched by a former commentator Bill Rasmussen.  After discovering that it was cheaper to hire satellite time for 24 hours rather than five the idea of a rolling sports network was born.  Its success was assured when Anheuser Busch became the first advertiser buying spots worth $1.4 million around college sports broadcasting.
1991 – Sky Sports was broadcast for the first time on April 20th 1991.  Wrestling was the main sport covered together with a variety of football from minor competitions.  One year later it bought the live rights to cover action from the Premier League.  The monthly subscription to the channel in the early days was listed at £5.99 but discounted to £2.99.
2010 – In March 2010 You Tube broadcast its first live sports action showing Indian Premier League cricket. It had previously drawn an audience of 10 million for a U2 concert shown live in 2009.
Next week we will carry a series of articles on the future of sports broadcasting, ahead of the Sport for Business Round Table on the subject which is bringing together leading figures from sport, business, the media and the political establishment.
View all the latest news on the commercial side of Irish sport (including yesterday’s first six in this series of sports broadcast milestones)
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