Sports for Sale: Television, Money and the Fans - Hardcover

This detailed history of the growth of televised sports in America offers an inside look at how sports are packaged and sold for viewer consumption. It describes how television can manipulate sporting events (Alpine skiing, for example, was once taped so that the winning skier was the last competitor to appear, a device intended to keep the viewer watching until the final commercial), and how network executives manufacture events to compete against real events signed by competing networks. The text includes an examination of the careers of major American broadcasting figures, details of the most innovative and popular shows, and concludes with predictions for the future of sportscasting made by network and cable executives.

About the Authors David A. Klatell and Norman Marcus are the Directors of Boston University's Institute in Broadcast Sports. They are Associate Professors of Journalism and Broadcasting & Film, respectively, at Boston University's College of Communication.