European Sports Media

“Sports absolutely overpowers film and everything else in the entertainment genre,” Rupert Murdoch.

Since the 20th century arrival of television, sports have become a media event giving viewers at home the visual experience of the stadium or better. Sports have also been combined with advertising and sponsorship to build the industry. Global sports events like the World Cup combine sports with tourism.

According to Papathanassopoulos, “Television has replaced ticket sales as the prime source of finance for professional sport.” Eurosport dominates the transnational market by giving coverage in 12 languages. The UK is largest by audience in the European market with Sky News leading. Scandinavia has had the weakest market.

Sports are the strongest force in pay/on demand tv. The dominance of PPV caused the EU to get involved in 1997. They established “directives” to guarantee all citizens to access “great common experiences.” However the countries created different laws with Demark creating more accessiblilty.PPV pricing is determined by cost of the actual tickets. PPV offers replays and different angels you cannot get at the real game. Some teams are forming alliances with networks. Websites are increasing in relevance, 1 billion hits on the World Cup website.

Jean Baudrillard, The Racing Driver and His Double, Screened Out, 2002

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) originally studied German then Sociology, eventually teaching at Paris IX Dauphine. He is best known for attacking the “technological event.” He proposed the simulacra, essentially the media representation of the real. His constant random referencing without footnotes is considered postmodern. Some people criticize him as an aggressor rather than academic: Baudrillard's hyperprose demands only that you grunt wide-eyed or bewildered assent.

Formula 1

Began in 1950

Racing at high speeds, up to 360 km/h (220 mph)

Called “the world’s most expensive sport” with the most sponsored drivers

Formula 1 is a massive television event, with a global audience of 600 million people per season

Includes a circuit of 17 separate Euro-Asian races with the Monaco Grand Prix being the most prestigious from 1929

FIA characterized the Monaco Grand Prix as contributing "an exceptional location of glamour and prestige" to motor sport. It is also unique because it uses the actual streets of Monte Carlo.

Baudrillard's article describes technology & man, the alliance of the two reconciled by speed. The third player is the sponsors, mainly the car companies Ferrari, Renault, Brawn, Maclaren and Porsche. BMW has only been on the scene since 2000 which was a strategic effort.

Baudrillard described Formula 1 as

Part of an era of performance

An excessive expenditure, a spectacular sacrifice

Efforts of thousands culminate in a single dazzling moment

Where is the pleasure of driving? At 180 mph there is calm

The driver is the operator of crowd passions

“The impact of Formula One lies then in the exceptional and mythic character of the event of the race and the figure of the driver…it is not clear why speed would be both severely limited and morally condemned in the public domain and celebrated in Formula One…a fundamental illusion for all, and one that justifies all the excesses” p. 169

“If Formula 1 is a spectacle, a collective passionate (though perfectly artificial) event, embracing the multiple screens of technological research, the living prosthesis of the driver, and the television screens into which the viewers project themselves, then it certainly has a very fine future….Such a concentration of technology, money, ambition, prestige is a monster (as is the world of haute couture…as far removed from real clothing as Formula 1 from road traffic.)” p. 170

The fascination with speed is not limited to Formula 1. The Isle of Man is a notable UK motorbike race and Le Tour de France is another global sports media event the emphasizes speed.

European Entertainment Media

Author Papathanassopoulos summarizes the state of European media:

• Digitization has increased the overall number of channels

• Subscription channels are a US invention. HBO appeared in 1972 and established the precedent for channels like Sky 1 which came to the UK in 1982. Canal+ then appeared in France in 1984.

• During the 1990’s Europeans increased familiarity with American thematic channels. Thematic channels succeeded in Europe because

-customers wanted what the US had

-increased satellite/digital ability

-subscriptions were desired by customers and more profitable for companies

•The main groupings for channels are news, sports, music, children, and adult.

•The main point for the author is the general increase in themes as well as the role of localization or customizing global broadcast. Even globally distributed theme channels are customized. The “glocal” trend is not only language but also technology, transitional segments (interstitials), local segments and completely local versions.

French Entertainment Media:

Canal+ is similar to HBO. While it features many US films it also funds and supports French cinema. In 2008, Canal Plus plowed e173.96 million ($256.6 million), a record, into pre-buying 142 French films. Canal Plus pre-bought 64% of all French-originated films. Recently in a story in Variety magazine producer Djamel Bensalah ("Neuilly samere") explained: "You can make a film without (French broadcasters) TF1, France Televisions or M6, but not without Canal Plus." Watch a commercial showing Canal+ support of screenwriters.

The Cannes Film Festival is one of France’s biggest moments in entertainment each May, mainly because it attracts global releases.

• The festival was established in 1946

•The “Official Selection” are films screened for a competition however many films not selected also have screenings and press junkets

•In sympathy for the students and workers, the 1968 Cannes Film Festival was halted on 19 May. Leading filmmakers Truffaut, Godard and Roman Polanski spoke to the press. The president of the French Cinema association was replaced and the Film Directors Society of France was founded (SRF).

Truffaut announcing the closure of Cannes in May 1968

•France has a tradition of more serious cultural media. They started Arte in partnership with Germany and have the state funded radio channel France Culture. The station is similar to NPR and has a variety of programs.

•The privacy laws in France decrease celebrity-paparazzi style entertainment. Paris Match, E! News France and Oops! focus on American celebrities and place minor emphasis on French celebs.

•By contrast to France, the UK and Sweden have excessive paparazzi style press with many magazines and websites devoted to both celebrities and royals. Netherlands based “Royal Press Europe” tracks their every move.

•Like the US, Europe has supported reality television. Duvuna Frau-Meigs describes in her essay "Big Brother and Reality TV in Europe," the increase of reality television and many of the social factors that generate both similar and different types of European reality shows from US counterparts.

Dubbing, Piracy & Counterfeits

Dubbing is a standard procedure in the exportation of media materials. It provides immediacy of material and reinforces the regional language. The key debate in dubbing is the strange obviousness of the final product with altered sound.

Dubbing basics:

•Dubbing for children’s animation is standard

•The most common US import that is dubbed is Japanimation

•Voiceover is commonly used for television news which allows some of the original audio to come through

•Russia, Spain and Italy dub the most. Germany and Austria are close behind

•France simultaneously releases both dubbed and subtitled

•In some countries, dubbed voices become famous

•One study on Spain suggested that dubbing films was an intentional effort at maintaining a national language. In other words, Spain which already had problems with dialects, did not want to support the spread of English

•Croatia and Serbia use subtitles because they do not have master audio recording studios

•Israel (Hebrew & Arabic) and Finland (Finnish & Swedish) are examples where double subtitles are common.

•Dubbing can also be used to censor content on broadcast television

•Dubs and subtitles create conflict if the meaning is altered

•The Situationists 1973 “Can Dialectics Break Bricks?” was an intentional re-dub of a kung fu movie into a Marxist narrative

For more on dubbing, see this summary

Listen to the NPR account on the dubbing of American films in Europe

Media Piracy is the unauthorized copying of materials and selling them. Some argue that it has resulted from demand. There are various types or versions with different laws. Organized crime in China produces the largest number of pirated dvds. Some argue that communism simply opposes the personal claim for profit on intellectual property.

Finally counterfeits are simply imitations. Some imitations pass themselves off as the real thing but some imitations are legal because they are considered artistic interpretation. Indian Superman, the Soviet Winnie the Pooh and Turkish ET are just a few of the "remakes" in other countries. While they are not presented as the original they are presented to a culture with people who may grow familiar with the copy, not the original. They are also customized for the culture with many differences, watch them here.