Media, broadcasting, and communication
Broadcasting and other media channels are a key part of major sporting events and can be used to help engage viewers with other legacy outcomes.
Broadcasting, and other media channels such as news coverage and social media, are a key part of major sporting events and can be used to help engage viewers with other legacy outcomes, such as increasing awareness of the value of participation, encouraging local and international tourism, and inspiring community cohesion and pride. 10 Although this can also be complicated by negative coverage of issues within the host country. 11, 12
No matter how many spectators attend a major event in person, a significantly bigger audience can be engaged through an effective broadcast and media campaign.
Commonwealth Games
The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games had an estimated: 13
- viewing audience of 1.5 billion worldwide
- viewing audience of 16 million in Australia
- 1.2 million spectators attend competition venues
- 1.1 million people experience the Festival 2018 program across Queensland
- 113 million hits on the official GC2018 website
- 1.5 million followers on social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube)
The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games were: 14
- mentioned over 1 million times on social networks during the 11-day event
- the first to provide live coverage of the Games events via a YouTube channel
Invictus Games
The Sydney 2018 Invictus Games had: 15
- 491 competitors from 18 nations
- 105,000 spectators attend competition venues
- An estimated 25.7 million viewers
- 150+ hours of coverage across ABC TV and third party digital channels (BBC, CTV, TSN, SkyNZ, TVR, STB)
Social media is playing an increasingly important role in the bidding process. Analysis of the successful Australian and New Zealand bid for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023TM suggests that the “As One bid harnessed Twitter to communicate a hosting vision that appealed to multiple audiences while strategically, and successfully, resonating with contemporary FIFA politics”. 10
To maximise positive media and broadcasting coverage, it is important for event organisers, sponsors, and stakeholders across the bidding and event process to ensure that a collaborative and comprehensive media, broadcasting, communication strategy and evaluation plan are developed and followed throughout the event cycle. 16
Resources and reading
- World Cup 2022: Qatar is accused of ‘sportswashing’ but do the fans really care?, opens in a new tab Argyro Elisavet Manoli, The Conversation, (21 November 2022). Fifa’s choice of Qatar as host of the 2022 men’s football World Cup has been controversial since day one. Questions continue to be raised about the nation’s attitude to human rights, and its treatment of migrant workers.
- 2022 Table TTA Tour - Brisbane: Media Statistics Release, opens in a new tab, Table Tennis Australia, (8 September 2022). Key results for the livestream included: 6,500 unique viewers; 8,300 total views; people from 10 countries viewed – Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, USA, Italy, UK, Germany, Finland, Canada, Japan; 16,700 people (total reach); 37% watched live, 63% watched on demand.
- Play for all: Invictus Games Sydney 2018, opens in a new tab, Nicola Alcorn, Deloitte, (8 February 2019). Invictus Games Sydney 2018 welcomed 491 competitors and over 1000 of their family and friends from 18 participating nations for 8 days of competition. The celebration of strength and recovery inspired many, and amassed 1000 avid volunteers for the event. The events were held in Sydney Harbour and at Sydney Olympic Park, enabling community participation and driving community spirit through play.
- In the five major Australian capital cities alone, around four million people viewed the ABC coverage between 20–27 October while 105,000 attended the Games in person.
- Into the spotlight: media coverage of the Paralympic Games has come a long way, opens in a new tab, Tony Naar, The Conversation, (15 September 2016). From 1960 until 1972, newspapers carried occasional results and stories about the performance of Australian athletes at the Paralympic Games, although there was more emphasis on stories before departure and covering their return. In 1988, the first ABC TV crew attended the Seoul Paralympic Games. While the crew provided some brief footage for news reports during the Games, the main outcome was another post-Games documentary. It wasn’t until 1992 that the ABC sent a TV crew with the express purpose of sending pictures back to Australia during the Games.
- Post-Games Sustainability Report, opens in a new tab, Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation, (August 2018). GC2018 was a transformational event for the Gold Coast, our event cities and communities throughout Queensland. It created new opportunities, built capacity and shaped an enduring legacy that will last beyond the Closing Ceremony. It is estimated that GC2018 had a cumulative viewing audience of 1.5 billion worldwide, reaching 16 million individuals in Australia alone. The GC2018 website had 113 million hits, while our social media channels had over 1.5 million followers, eclipsing previous Commonwealth Games records. There were more than 1.2 million spectators in the competition venues and over 1.1 million people experienced the Festival 2018 program held across Queensland.
- Invictus Games Sydney 2018 - Game On Down Under Event Review, Australian International Military Games Limited, (2018). This report is a snapshot of the highlights of the Invictus Games Sydney 2018. It revisits some of the most inspiring moments and provides an analytical and data based overview of what we accomplished. Some key numbers included: 491 competitors from 18 nations; 1263 volunteers; 105,000 spectators; 10,000+ primary and secondary students attended; 16 assistance dogs. Some key outcomes included:
- There was a 36% increase in the number of Australians aware of the Invictus Games in the 23 months from December 2016.
- More than 8.7 million Australian adults followed the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 in some way: 39% followed on TV; 11% followed online and through social media.
- The number of adults who would consider purchasing a product from a sponsor who supported Invictus Game Sydney 2018 more than doubled.
- Coverage extended across ABC’s TV channels, news network, extensive regional and metro radio networks and owned and third party digital. There were 105,000 spectators; 150+ hours coverage (ABC, BBC, CTV, TSN, SkyNZ, TVR, STB); 25.7M+ viewership.
- Glasgow 2014 XX Commonwealth Games Post-Games Report, opens in a new tab, Commonwealth Games Federation, (2014). This report identifies a number of environmental initiatives or savings delivered by the Games.
- The Games was delivered on time and within its £575.6 million budget.
- Glasgow 2014 was mentioned well over a million times on social networks during the 11 days of Games Time.
- Viewers around the world were able to watch live Commonwealth Games events for the first time online, via the Glasgow 2014 YouTube channel.
- The Host Broadcaster provided a multi-channel service comprising six channels of ready-made material with overrunning commentary – a first for the Commonwealth Games. It also produced the Games Channel, which ran from the start of the first significant action each day until the end of the last live competition, followed by a highlights programme.
- more than 600,000 unique visitors to Scotland’s largest ever sporting and cultural festival between 23 July and 3 August 2014.
- Glasgow 2014 contributed towards a healthy economy. Scottish companies won 68 per cent of Tier 1 Games related contracts, worth £290 million. Twenty-five per cent of winning businesses were Glasgow-based.
- The largest ever peacetime volunteer recruitment drive saw 50,811 applications become approximately 12,500 amazing clyde-siders, and the lowest ever volunteering age cut-off for a major sporting event meant that 16-year-olds could take part.
- The event delivered a lasting impact. The multi-award winning Athletes’ Village, built in consultation with athletes, will be converted into Scotland’s first large-scale sustainable housing development as part of an ambitious east end regeneration plan.
- EY’s Attractiveness Survey has shown that the country is set to benefit from the ‘halo effect’, where Scotland’s increased profile from these large-scale sporting events will boost potential opportunities for inward investment. The Games has already helped Scotland secure 37 further high profile national and international events, with an estimated economic impact of £14 million.
- We Did It: A Content Analysis of Australian and New Zealand Online News Media Coverage of the Bid Process for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, opens in a new tab, Eleanor Crabill, Callie Maddox, Adam Beissel, International Journal of Sport Communication, (17 November 2022). The purpose of this study was to examine online news media coverage of the Australia–New Zealand joint bid to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. A content analysis was used to examine 77 domestic online news media articles published in response to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup bid and hosting announcement. The findings revealed that the popular online news media centered on three themes: opportunities for women and girls in sport, legacy outcomes, and commercial benefits. However, there was a clear lack of critical engagement from the news media over the bid’s initiatives, claims, and promises. Only 2.5% of all online news media coverage engaged in meaningful discussion, analysis, and critique of the purported social and economic impacts of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. This study raises critical questions about the role of Australian and New Zealand (sport) media in (a) serving as a prominent forum through which the As One 2023 bid committee could circulate strategically crafted, preferred narratives regarding the event’s legacies and impacts to manufacture consent and public support for event hosting and (b) propagating a postfeminist celebration of women’s sport mega events that uncritically circulates specious claims of women’s empowerment, participation growth, and commercial benefits of the event.
- “Winning the women’s world cup”: gender, branding, and the Australia/New Zealand As One 2023 social media strategy for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, opens in a new tab, Adam Beissel, Verity Postlethwaite, Andrew Grainger, Sport in Society, Volume 25(4), pp.768-798, (2022). We explore how the As One bid harnessed Twitter to communicate a hosting vision that appealed to multiple audiences while strategically, and successfully, resonating with contemporary FIFA politics. Our findings suggest content relied on two primary ‘legacy’ narratives which both conformed to current FIFA strategy and broader social and regional politics: growing football participation among women and girls and strengthening cultural, economic, and political relations in the Asia-Pacific. Ultimately, we argue the use of Twitter was strategic and targeted, deliberately appropriating popular FIFA narratives to build an emotive ‘legacy’ vision to gain support from voting members of the FIFA Council.
- ‘Masters of your fate and the captains of your soul’: media representations of the 2018 Invictus Games, opens in a new tab, Peter English, Bridie Kean, Simone Pearce, et al., Sport in Society, Volume 24(7), pp.1217-1232, (2021). The Invictus Games was established by Prince Harry in London in 2014 and Sydney hosted the fourth version in 2018. Due to the profile of Prince Harry and the growth of the Games, the media has played a major role in delivering news and information about the event and its competitors, as well as highlighting broader themes of rehabilitation and inclusion. This descriptive study investigates the media coverage of the 2018 Invictus Games to identify key narratives underpinning the representations of the event. This paper employs a quantitative and qualitative content analysis to examine similarities and differences in reporting from four Australian media organisations across print, online and television. The findings are based on the examination of 176 articles and more than eight hours of television and multimedia content. The results highlight a greater focus on the event, as well as celebrity and entertainment elements, than those who were competing.
- The primacy of sports television: Olympic media, social networking services, and multi-screen viewing during the Rio 2016 games, opens in a new tab, Brett Hutchins, Jimmy Sanderson, Media International Australia, (11 May 2017). Using the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a case study, this article examines the intersections between (1) broadcast television coverage of the Games, (2) digital live streaming of Olympic events via desktop computing and mobile apps, and (3) the social networking services, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. It is argued that broadcast television anchors the flow of content across screens, with social networking services both extending the televisual logics of media sports coverage and emphasizing their own commercial influence and command of massive user numbers. This arrangement ultimately bolsters the power of television as the primary means through which sports mega-events are experienced.
- Sport mega-events and the media, opens in a new tab, Kamilla Swart, Michael Linley, Gift Muresherwa, Chapter 15 in Legacies and Mega Events, opens in a new tab, Routledge, (2017). This chapter presents case studies of media analyses conducted on both the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, using a similar methodology, as illustrative cases within the developing context. It aimed to provide insight into South Africa and Brazil, as destination brands, had been profiled through the media over four periods and in relation to the imperatives established in the hosting of the respective World Cups. A qualitative analysis was undertaken using Leximancer to evaluate the content of media coverage in four key markets for each country. Several important findings are highlighted to showcase evidence that both supports and refutes the media legacy of both World Cups.
- eventIMPACTS, opens in a new tab, (accessed 4 November 2025). Developed by a consortium of UK-based organisations that have an interest in staging or supporting major public events, the eventIMPACTS ToolKit is intended to provide organisers and supporters of public events with some key guidance and good practice principles for evaluating the Economic, Social, Environmental and Media related impacts associated with their event. Each area of impact has links to the available supporting documents, case studies and survey tools.
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