ABSTRACT
Social media are now well established as backchannels for the discussion of live sporting events (from World Cup finals to local matches), and pose some critical questions for sporting bodies: on the one hand, they offer an opportunity to attract and engage fans and thus grow the sport, but on the other they also undermine central message control and broadcast arrangements. FIFA and IOC have both attempted to ban photos and livestreams posted from sporting arenas, while NFL, NHL, and others have recently offered some full-match livestreaming directly via Twitter, and other sports have worked with providers like SnappyTV to post instant video replays on social media. But such innovation is often hampered by existing media partnerships: interestingly, it is niche sports that emerge as comparatively more at liberty to explore innovative social media models, while leading sports like football are locked into restrictive broadcast deals that—at least for now—preclude secondary transmission via social media.
