Browsing by Author "Evens, Tom"

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    The Next Big Match: Convergence, Competition and Sports Media Rights
    (Sage, 2016-09-01) Smith, Paul; Evens, Tom; Iosifidis, Petros
    Using examples from a number of different European countries, this article analyses the increasingly prominent position of traditional telecommunications companies, such as BT (UK), DT (Germany), France Telecom/Orange (France) and Telefonica (Spain), in the contemporary sports media rights market. The first part of the article examines the commercial strategies of telecommunications operators and highlights how their acquisition of sports rights has been driven by the need to ensure a competitive position within an increasingly converged communications market. The second part of the article then moves on to consider the regulation of the contemporary sports media rights market. Most significantly, this section emphasises the need for further regulatory intervention to ensure that increased competition for sports rights leads to improved services and lower prices for consumers, rather than merely endlessly spiralling fees for the exclusive ownership of premium rights that are then passed on to sports channel and/or broadband subscribers.
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    The political economy of television sports rights.
    (Palgrave Macmillan., 2013) Evens, Tom; Iosifidis, Petros; Smith, Paul
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    The Regulation of Television Sports Rights: A Comparative Analysis
    (Sage, 2015-03-27) Smith, Paul; Evens, Tom; Iosifidis, Petros
    Based on seven different sports broadcasting markets (Australia, Brazil, Italy, India, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States), this article provides a comparative analysis of the regulation of television sports broadcasting. The article examines how contrasting perspectives on television and sport – economic and sociocultural – have been reflected in two main approaches to the regulation of sports broadcasting, namely competition law and major events legislation. The results of this analysis suggest that in many cases the balance between commerce and culture in sports broadcasting has shifted too far in favour of the commercial interests of dominant pay-TV operators and sports organisations. Here, the case is made for the pursuit of an approach to sports broadcasting regulation that seeks to balance the commercial priorities of broadcasters and sports organisations with the wider sociocultural benefits citizens gain from free-to-air sports broadcasting.