The NBA Playoffs are in full swing at present with extensive time delayed coverage on ESPN. There are many lessons to be learnt from the ways in which US Sport promotes itself Here are three things to strike us from the coverage of the Celtics, the Bulls and the Heat.
Gaming
The ESPN Programming is sponsored by NBA2K13, the best selling video and mobile game executive produced by JayZ. Sport is all about fitness and participation but it is also at the heart of entertainment. Kids do not play sport to keep them away from the XBox or the Playstation as used to be the exhortation.
They are now as likely to play in order to live out in reality what they have done on screen. It was once famously recorded that Formula 1 star Jaques Villeneuve knew a circuit he had never raced because he had played it on a console game to be prepared.
Equality
Equality is given due prominence right through to the very heart of elite sport. Court side digital advertising throughout the games has promoted the Women’s NBA season which starts as the men finish and attracts commercial and audience interest as a result of being promoted from which Europe is rapidly learning lessons.
This will be a theme of the Business of Women’s Sport Conference being organised by Sport for Business and UCD Smurfit Business School on June 20th.
The cult of the individual
Like most team sports, the focus through the lens of TV and media focuses on the stars as individuals rather than components of a team. It is easier to promote and focus on one individual than on a complex group even through the workload is shared.
CableTV.com has produced a fascinating look at the impact Lebron James had in moving from Cleveland to Miami and at how on a hard calculation he is actually underpaid in value terms by an eye watering $15 million.
LeBron James Is Underpaid – An infographic by the team at CableTV.com
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