The host broadcaster is a peculiar, temporary but complex media institution which takes its most developed form in the case of the Olympic Games. The Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (SOBO) was the host broadcaster for the Sydney Olympics, providing vision for world television networks. Its political economy is examined from the point of view of the changing dynamics of television technologies and the Olympic Movement's assignment of intellectual property, including broadcast rights. The concept of a host broadcaster is shown to be a product of a particular moment in television history and in this respect it is compared to other hosting functions that the media provide for such an event.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BurtonTom1999, ‘Site-seeing at the Games’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 September, pp. 6–7.
2.
CashmanRichard1999a, ‘The Greatest Peacetime Event’, in CashmanR.HughesA. (eds), Staging the Olympics: The Event and its Impact, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 3–17.
3.
CashmanRichard1999b, ‘Legacy’, in CashmanR.HughesA. (eds), Staging the Olympics: The Event and its Impact, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 183–94.
4.
CorrisPeter2000, ‘Hello Boys’, The Courier-Mail, 30 September, BAM, pp. 1, 4.
5.
DayanDanielKatzElihu1992, Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
6.
DelbridgeA. (eds) 1991, The Macquarie Dictionary. 2nd edn, The Macquarie Library, Sydney.
7.
GrattonReg1999, ‘The Media’, in CashmanR.HughesA. (eds), Staging the Olympics: The Event and its Impact, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 121–31.
8.
International Olympic Committee1998, Olympic Charter.
9.
MooreMatthew1999, ‘It's This Big So SOBO Can Put the World in the Picture’, Sydney Morning Herald 21 May, p. 14.
10.
De Moragas SpaMiquel1995, Television in the Olympic Games, John Libbey, London.
11.
PuijkRoel (ed.) 1997, Global Spotlights on Lillehammer: How the World Viewed Norway During the 1994 Winter Olympics, University of Luton Press, Luton.
12.
RoweDavid1999, Sport, Culture and the Media, Open University Press, Buckingham.
13.
Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (SOGO)2000, IBC (brochure).
14.
WilsonHelen1996, ‘What is an Olympic City? Visions of Sydney 2000’, Media Culture and Society, vol. 18, no. 4, October, pp. 603–18.
15.
WilsonHelen1998, ‘Television's Tour de Force: The Nation Watches the Olympic Games’, in RoweD.LawrenceG. (eds), Tourism, Sport, Leisure, Critical Perspectives, Hodder Education, Sydney, pp. 135–45.
