Professional football is one of the most popular television 'genres' worldwide, attracting the support of millions of fans, and the sponsorship of powerful companies. In A Game of Two Halves, Sandvoss considers football's relationship with television, its links with transnational capitalism, and the importance of football fandom in forming social and cultural identities around the globe. He presents the phenomenon of football as a reflection postmodern culture and globalization.Through a series of case studies, based in ethnographic audience research, Sandvoss explores the motivations and pleasures of football fans, the intense bond formed between supporters and their clubs, the implications of football consumption on political discourse and citizenship, football as a factor of cultural globalisation, and the pivotal role of football and television in a postmodern cultural order.

This text presents the long history of football on television, where, today, most people watch it.

Television has always augmented its dramatic and variety programming with sports. After covering wrestling and boxing matches for several years, ABC added the hugely popular Roller Derby between 1949 and 1951, and later, college and pro football. Today, there is a multitude of pay and cable networks devoted exclusively to baseball, football, golf, hockey, tennis, ice-skating, and auto racing. Rather than focusing on live sports broadcasts, however, this book chronicles the history of sports-themed comedies and dramas, to see how our national fictions have affected our authentic sports experiences, and vice versa. Sports dominate the television landscape today, and still the demand for more is so great that pay and cable networks continue to find funding and success, even when devoted exclusively to a single sport. But this is really nothing new: television has always augmented its dramatic and variety programming with sports. Live sports have had a tremendous impact on what we see on television, and on how we see it. Rather than focusing on live sports broadcasts, however, this book takes a critical look at sports-themed comedies and dramas, to see how our authentic sports affect our national fictions as well. From the character studies that supplement Olympic coverage, to nightly highlight reels, to reality programming on ESPN, sports both echo and help shape the myths that pervade our culture. Sports on Television covers the changing relationship between live sports broadcasts and television dramas, as well as the important technological developments and cultural shifts that have changed the way we view the reality of sports. In 1949, after covering wrestling and boxing matches for several years, ABC added the hugely popular Roller Derby, and later moved on to college and pro football, where humble beginnings have since developed into a national obsession. In the early sixties Jimmy Stewart played a disgraced baseball player in Flashing Spikes-which was also one of the rare ventures into television for veteran director John Ford. On HBO the Yankees have been the subject of both 61* - about Roger Maris's quest to top Babe Ruth's home run record - and The Bronx Is Burning, about the 1977 Yankees team. And there have been sports-themed TV sitcoms as well, such as Sports Night, Aaron Sorkin's critically lauded but commercially unsuccessful project, which preceded his work on The West Wing. Meanwhile American Gladiators—a strange blend of canned programming and authentic athletic endeavor that in effect puts television audiences in an arena with what amounts to professional athletes—is quickly becoming one of the most popular shows on primetime. Here, Marill gives due time to all of these unique projects.

Noted sports historian writes on the relationship of the media to college athletics. Chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2003 by Choice Magazine The phenomenal popularity of college athletics owes as much to media coverage of games as it does to drum-beating alumni and frantic undergraduates. Play-by-play broadcasts of big college games began in the 1920s via radio, a medium that left much to the listener's imagination and stoked interest in college football. After World War II, the rise of television brought with it network-NCAA deals that reeked of money and fostered bitter jealousies between have and have-not institutions. In Play-by-Play: Radio, Television, and Big-Time College Sport noted author and sports insider Ronald A. Smith examines the troubled relationship between higher education and the broadcasting industry, the effects of TV revenue on college athletics (notably football), and the odds of achieving meaningful reform. Beginning with the early days of radio, Smith describes the first bowl game broadcasts, the media image of Notre Dame and coach Knute Rockne, and the threat broadcasting seemed to pose to college football attendance. He explores the beginnings of television, the growth of networks, the NCAA decision to control football telecasts, the place of advertising, the role of TV announcers, and the threat of NCAA "Robin Hoods" and the College Football Association to NCAA television control. Taking readers behind the scenes, he explains the culture of the college athletic department and reveals the many ways in which broadcasting dollars make friends in the right places. Play-by-Play is an eye-opening look at the political infighting invariably produced by the deadly combination of university administrators, athletic czars, and huge revenue.

In this groundbreaking book, the author of "The Coach" presents a painstakingly researched history of the relationship between television and college football.

The former Senior Vice-President of ABC Sports provides a blistering first-time expose of the hardball world behind the TV sports. Here are the giants under the microscope--Howard Cosell, Roone Arledge, Jim McKay, Frank Gifford, O.J. Simpson, Al Michael, and more.