Sport Beyond Television

'Hutchins and Rowe...move the debate forward in an important book, built on extensive original research, that explores sport beyond television and in so doing maps out the complex environment within which popular cultural content gets produced, circulated and consumed in the digital age. The authors are careful not to fall into the trap of dismissing television as insignificant in the networked online era of communication. Rather, they position sports content within a more extensive and complex environment and in so doing they succinctly sketch out, in some detail, a new landscape of disruption and change, but also connect with media traits that bear the hallmarks of continuity in an age of change.' - Raymond Boyle, University of Glasgow, UK in Media, Culture & Society

'Yet what is most impressive in this book is the particular attention paid to what has remained unchanged, and how the existing sports economy is able to adjust itself in negotiation with the new media. The most striking example pertains to the authors’ continuous discussion of television. Instead of seeing online communication as a total substitute for sport broadcasting, Hutchins and Rowe emphasize the remaining influence of television, arguing that contemporary online sport communication actually installs and extends the television screen to the computer screen and in turn forms "multiscreen" spectatorship. The broadcasting companies, far from surrendering in the digital war over sport content, are among the most powerful agents to possess and use digital media to extend their screen coverage. This argument reminds us that new-media studies can never stand alone but need to situate these technological innovations in the historical coexistence with traditional media.' - Yuan Gong, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA in the International Journal of Sport Communication

'As the global sports and new media industries continue to grow in popularity and economic importance, their dynamic inter-relationship is also becoming increasingly sophisticated. Indeed, for a considerable time now, the rapid developments within the media–sport nexus have necessitated a thorough and up-to-date examination of its current, uncertain state. With their research monograph Sport Beyond Television, Brett Hutchins and David Rowe, two of the leading scholars in the field of sport, culture and the media, respond directly to the need for a comprehensive analysis of the sport–media complex at this pivotal juncture in the industry’s evolution.' - Leon Weber, University of Glasgow, UK in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport

'Brett Hutchins and David Rowe continue to add invaluable insights to the media sport canon with their latest engaging co-edited collection. The book provides a salient exploration of different televisual, mobile and digital technologies shaping sport as media, particularly when understood in relation to socio-cultural online practices, communities and engagements that are also taking place. As such, their work affords an illuminating discussion of the interweaving of contemporary sports, audiences, commerce and socio-technological relationships.' - Damion Sturm, University of Waikato, New Zealand in Media International Australia