The Importance of Free-to-Air Sports Broadcasting

The preceding chapter established that sport is a type of popular cultural output — alongside drama, comedy, film and music — that has the power to bring about socio-cultural benefits. Building on this argument, this chapter discusses whether the market can be relied upon to deliver the benefits of engagement in culture and sport and whether it has the capacity to fulfil cultural citizenship, civic participation and ultimately enhance the public sphere. Until the 1980s, in Europe at least, cultural citizenship obligations were partly addressed through the maintenance of public service broadcasting (PSB) institutions. Over recent decades, however, this model has come under threat from neo-liberal economic ideologies and commercial competition, especially in the form of pay-TV channels. Does the proliferation of commercial channels create an audiovisual space at the behest of citizens? If the answer to this question is yes, then government intervention to increase levels of engagement in cultural programmes, like sport, through the maintenance of public institutions may not be justified.