ABSTRACT
“‘Not a Traditional Business’: Sports TV as For-Profit Public Good?” is an historical examination of how sports structure the business of television, particularly as regards broadcast rights and policy, network brand identity, and audience cultivation. Using a critical media industry studies lens, it examines the association of sports television with the public good and broadcast television’s public service mandate. In focus are the lasting significance of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and the transformation of both television networks and professional sports leagues through media rights deals, from the broadcast era to the present.
