Текст песни Learn English via Listening — Sport and Television

There is little question that television has radically changed the sporting world.
Television has done more than just make existing sports more accessible to a mass
audience. It has been argued that the very nature of sport and spectators' experiences of
sport has been shaped by the medium of television.
The first televised sporting event took place on May 17, 1939. A baseball game between
two American schools-Princeton and Columbia-marked the beginning of a new era in
sport. The first broadcast, however, was not of particularly high quality. Viewers could
hardly see the players on the television screen, the technology at the time being of very
low quality. In addition, very few people owned television sets at the time. Only 400 TV
sets were in circulation, and the average cost of $600 made owning a set impossible for
most people.
This situation would soon change. Television as a popular and affordable medium grew
rapidly in the 1940s and 1950s. By the end of the 1950s, American televised sport entered
a "Golden Age." It was during this period of time that major sporting organizations, such
as professional leagues, and major amateur organizations, such as the International
Olympic Committee (IOC), realized the benefits of television. Not only could TV make
competitions available for a huge number of spectators, it could actually make money for
these organizations. Television companies, in turn, could make money by attracting
viewers and selling advertising space at increased rates. Television and sport entered
what some observers call a "symbiotic" or mutually beneficial relationship.
The business relationship developed between the American TV company ABC and the
Olympic Games is a clear example of the TV-sport symbiosis. In the 1960s and 1970s,
ABC recognized the importance of using international sport to attract viewers. By being
recognized as "The Olympic Network," ABC quickly rose from being the third biggest
commercial network in the U.S. to being the leading network. At the same time, ABC paid
higher and higher "rights fees" to the IOC, and the IOC, in turn, began to take a more
commercial and professional approach to the Olympic Games. The ABC role model has
paved the way for other television networks around the world. Today, television rights
pay for the majority of Olympic Games expenses.
The television and sport relationship has come a long way since the first
Princeton/Columbia baseball game. Today, more people experience sport as spectators
through the medium of television than they do as regular participants in sport. The
television and sport relationship, then, presents a bit of a paradox. While on the one hand
it has made sport more visible for more people, it has perhaps done so at the expense of
actual participation in sport.