ABSTRACT
ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: FIFA AND ITS EVENTS ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY
New media, such as social media websites and blogs, are changing how we live our lives. For example, the social media website Facebook had over 845 million monthly users by the end of December 2011 (Facebook, 2012) and Twitter has over 100 million active users (Twitter, 2011) worldwide. This is also true for FIFA. FIFA’s 2010 World Cup in South Africa was the biggest live sports event to be broadcast in 3D: over 30 countries around the world had access to 25 of the 64 matches in 3D, thanks to innovative broadcasters and Sony technology (FIFA, n.d.). The 2010 World Cup demonstrated incredible viewing numbers: it had 71,867 broadcast hours over 214 territories, reaching a television audience of 3.2 billion individuals (KantarSport, n.d.), and a total television audience of 40 billion over the course of the month-long event. Nearly 100 licensees also provided online viewing of matches and 35 licensees provided mobile coverage in over 80 territories, viewing options which were used by millions of fans around the world (KantarSport, n.d.). Fans could also obtain the latest information as it happened on their mobile smartphones and tweet their reactions. FIFA also created an Interactive World Cup, the latest edition being in 2010 when over 775,000 individuals entered and competed against each other over a six-month period to determine the champion. At the time of writing FIFA had yet to put video replay cameras in goals for use by officials during matches, thought its president, Sepp Blatter, started to push for this technology in early March 2012 (Sportsmail Reporter, 2012). Still, FIFA and its organizing committees do
OBJECTIVES
use other technologies for the hosting of World Cups. This includes the latest artificial turf, new advances in stadium design, new technology for increased security, the design and materials used for the official ball, and the material used by the teams and officials for the uniforms and shoes. As we can see, major sports events are at the forefront of technology use.
