The amount of Newspaper coverage between clubs in the Premiership differs tremendously, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, get large amounts of coverage and nearly always have a top story on the sport page. Whereas teams in the lower half of the division such as Sunderland and Middlesborough get no where near as much coverage because they don’t have big images and hype around them. I think newspapers should cover some of the lower teams more but not as much as the higher teams as football fans still want to hear about all football news but there are certain teams that a lot of the country follow more seriously.
There appears to be a large newspaper coverage gap between the Premiership and division 1 teams. However I think newspapers handle this well because larger local newspapers provide news about their local division 1 teams. For example the Express and star have coverage on Wolverhampton Wanderers and the recently promoted West Bromich Albion and Birmingham City. This is good because the majority of the fans live around the west Midlands. So unlike the Premiership where some teams seem to have all the coverage and others nothing, different newspapers around the country give you news about the local teams. I think this is good because no real hype is made so people can concentrate on football not what hairstyle a footballer has got or what he has named his baby!
I looked at some key sporting headlines that any football fan would have to know about. The 1st headline, “Five go off to play the internationals” is headline to the report that explains five Wolves footballers-Nathan Blake, Ivar Ingimarsson, Joleon Lescott have been picked for England U21 and Sammy clingan and Mark Clyde who have been picked for Northern Island U21. This headline shows the importance of newspaper media in Division 1 because these players could well be the future players of England and Northern Island.
My conclusion for newspaper coverage in the Premiership is that it tends to concentrate too much on certain more popular teams, and sometimes tends to forget about football and instead focus on the footballers personal lives. I think this is wrong because the sport pages should be filled with reports on sport not footballers personal lives. I think that the way larger local papers concentrate on their local teams in Division 1 is good because the majority of Division 1 supporters live in the same region of their teams. I think it is essential for coverage to carry on as it gives teams local support and it keeps all football fans topped up with the latest news.
Television coverage of football is as much of a must as newspaper coverage. It allows people to watch the game of football without having to get a ticket. However the T.V media make a lot of money from football especially the Premiership but football also makes a lot out of T.V.
For example sky TV owns all the rights to Premiership football and has recently bought the rights for Division 1 football. However Sky only show key games that have the larger clubs in such as Man United and Liverpool. To see all the others you have to pay per game of get a season ticket to watch it. The average cost is about £7 to £8. I think this is wrong because people don’t want to pay to watch the T.V. but at least it gives people the opportunity to watch all the football games.
Sky has bought the rights to show Division 1 football, I think this is really good because there are many Division 1 fans that can’t get to the game but now they can watch them. I think its is good for the higher teams in the division because it raises the profile of the club, and also for the smaller club in the division to get noticed and make a name for themselves. Before you could only watch Division 1 football on, ‘On digital’. However the channel went bust but because there was such high demand for division 1 football Sky bought the rights. However the Premiership sides still get the priority of T.V time over division 1. I understand this because there is more interest in Premiership sides. I also agree because if there was a match between Man-United v Liverpool or Nottingham Forest v Watford more people would be disappointed if the division 1 match was shown rather than the Premiership match.
Some of the Premiership sides have their own channel on Sky. For example Man-United have a channel called MUTV. It fills you in on all the latest club news from Junior to the full squad. It is a great channel for any Man-United fan. The club is able to run the channel because of the money they make in turn the channel raises the profile and at the same time makes money from the £5 a month fee. This is important because the more money the club makes the better the players they can buy, and therefor they continue to be a successful team. You could say that T.V coverage is one of the main drives of the clubs successfulness. No Division 1 teams have there own channel because they don’t have enough money. However they do not need the extra money because the players are not nearly as expensive in the league and the clubs don’t need as much money to run.
There is also lots of coverage of football on normal channels. However it tends to only be Premiership football. This is because players that are in the Premiership tend to be more famous. There are shows such as ‘The Saturday Show’ and ‘SMTV’ which tend to focus on famous players in teams such as Michael Owen and David Beckham. Such T.V coverage creates great hype around the players causing kid’s all around the world to idolise these players and take a keen interest in football. I think it is good that these key players in football take part in such shows because they can express there feeling of the game and influence younger kids to get involved.
Also chat shows such as ‘Parkinson’ are also a great way to find out about the history of football from older players who have seen how it as developed. For example I remember an interview he did with George Best. He explained all his passion for football but because there was such hype around him it went to his head and he became an alcoholic. This shows that attention from the media isn’t always good and can cause tragic consequences. However through television coverage he is warning people as well as promoting the history of football. I find this very influential because he has so much experience and can teach people many things but also he has never lost his love for the game.
There is also normal T.V coverage of international football including Champions League, UEFA cup and the World cup. The Champions league includes the top clubs from around the world including, this year, the English teams Man-United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle. I think that international football coverage is essential because it shows you a range of football styles from so many players filled with amazing skill.
One of the biggest events of international football is the World Cup. This year I think the coverage was great. Even though games were being played at 3am British time they were still shown and the highlights were repeated at a more suitable time. I think it was good that all games were shown even if they didn’t involve England as it enabled you to follow the world cup so you knew exactly where England stood. This year (2002) the World cup was shown on 3 T V channels, BCC1, BBC2 and ITV. I don’t think a lot of people minded 3 channels being taken up because most take an interest in the World cup even if they aren’t big football fans. I would say that International football is a must for T.V media to cover because there is so much interest in it.
T.V companies spend a large amount of time making sure they get the football because they know people will want to watch it and it is better on there channel. This shows the importance of T.V coverage.
My conclusion of T.V media is that it promotes football and football makes money out of it, but also, T.V makes money out of football and promotes its channel. This shows T.V coverage is very important as they both take advantages of each other. It is definitely a must for football fans because they can’t possible get to every game.
One media type both the Premiership and larger teams in Division 1 football have is Radio coverage. A local team called Wolves has a station called the wolf on the frequency 107.7fm. The radio station gives live coverage of all Wolves matches and at the end of the game allows fans to discuss their view of the match. The Wolf keeps its listeners and Wolves fans up to date with all division1 football news throughout the week. I think radio coverage is useful for people who do a lot of travelling or don’t have assess to a T.V.
There is a problem with radio stations as you can only pick them up if you are around the certain area of the/ your football club. For example you cannot pick the Man-United radio station up in Shropshire and you can’t pick the wolf up in Manchester.
I think that Radio Media is more important in Division 1football because most supporters/fans live locally to their team and can therefore make use of the radio station. Also because the Radio station is able to promote the team throughout the week it helps to get more interest in the club.
Over the past couple of years media has started to take more notice of Division 1 football. It has helped to promote lower division football through local newspaper support, T.V (especially Sky) coverage and the use of a localised radio station. Through media the image of lower division football has been lifted and has gained more fans and more support. It has also gained a more professional profile.
Premiership football has always had large coverage of all media types. Sometimes it seems to isolate single players of teams. This creates great hype around players that may have a positive effect (David Beckham) or a negative effect (George Best). Sometimes newspaper coverage drifts off the game of football and instead reports on the personal lives of players. I think if they are going to report on their lives it shouldn’t be put on the sports pages. T.V media is the largest source for covering Premiership football and uses it to its advantage by making money. However football makes money out of The T.V media so they both gain advantages from each other.
With regards to the amount of coverage Division 1 gets compared to the Premiership I think it is correct, because Division 1 should get less than the Premiership as there is less interest, but Division 1 should have enough so that there club gets noticed and is taken more seriously. I think all the types of media accomplish this balance.
