The Curious Case for Media Monopoly in Technology-Driven Sports. Issue 1 (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Potts, Jason; Thomas, Stuart
• Is Part Of: Media international Australia. Number 155:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 140
• Page End: 148
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Australia -- Periodicals; Communication -- Australia -- Periodicals; Australia -- Cultural policy -- Periodicals; Médias -- Aspect social -- Périodiques; Médias -- Australie -- Périodiques; Communication -- Australie -- Périodiques; Massamedia; Communication; Cultural policy; Mass media; Mass media -- Social aspects; Australia; Periodicals; 302.23
• DOI: 10.1177/1329878X1515500116
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1324-5325

Abstract

This article examines the effect of technological change (innovation) on sports. We argue that innovation affects a sport through two pathways: sports equipment and sports media. We propose a simple economic model with positive feedback, which predicts that technology-enhanced sports will dominate the sports ecology. There is also the opposite phenomenon of technological overshooting that causes the elite end of a sport to develop much faster than the beginner's end, damaging entry into the sport. We present this model through a case study on windsurfing, illustrating the role of sports media. A surprising result is that the case study suggests a welfare-maximising case for monopoly licensing of sports media in newly emerging sports, or sports with rapidly changing equipment technologies.