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15ON COMMERCIALIZATION OF OLYMPIC MOVEMENT VIA TELEVISION V.N. Zuev, professor, Dr.Hab. Tyumen State University, Tyumen P.G. Smirnov, professor, Ph.D.
Tyumen State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Tyumen
Keywords: Olympic movement, Olympic Games, International Olympic Committee, commercialization, evolution, TV, stages of development.
Introduction. The development of Olympic sport in recent years shows that an extensive search for the ways of modernization of the Olympic movement (OM) at the global, continental and national levels was noted in this historical period. It was an adequate response to new challenges of society stipulated by political and economic globalization processes, active and aggressive invasion of high-tech projects in the field of sports in the services market. And it is absolutely obvious that the recently ended Olympic Games "Sochi-2014" have broken the records of all previous Olympic Games (OG) by the number of viewers (about 4 billion), as stated by head of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach at the meeting with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
At the present stage OG are the major international brand, which has become, obviously, thanks to television, a stimulus to progress: political, spiritual, technical, sports, educational, economic, as it is one of the leading international business projects. At the same time, we believe that little attention has been paid to the study of this business industry, especially in such a segment as the involvement of television in the commercialization of the Olympic movement.
As one of components of the market economy, OG must comply with the laws of the marketing policy with television and direct advertising during broadcasts of Olympic competitions being the most important parts of it.
It should be noted that the relationship between sport and economy and the effects of their interaction have been considered by researchers [2, 3, 5]. However, most of the authors mainly analyze the economics of the OM and OG, based on general concepts, and only indirectly address the issues of influence of television on the commercialization of sport.
Particularly, scientific literature lacks special studies of the effect of television on the commercialization of sport, although it is thanks to TV that sport has turned into a business industry. We believe, the basis of the commercialization of sport is formed by the process of establishment of steady-state contacts between the IOC and television, as well as the representatives of the world business structures. Domestic pedagogical researches have not covered this problem properly yet. This is what makes this article so relevant.
The purpose of the study was to estimate the impact of the role and place of television in the economic evolution of Olympic Games in the trend of their commercialization.
As seen from historiographic analysis, many research papers in the Russian history and pedagogical science are dedicated to the history of international OM, OG and Olympic education in Russia, which make up a large actual data level covering the specifics of formation of the state educational policy in the sphere of physical culture and sport. However, the economic componeny of the OM, as exemplified by the commercialization of television as an integrated phenomenon, has not been the object of pedagogical studies yet.
Research methods. The method of retrospective analysis was applied during systematization. The commercialization of the OG and OM was conditionally divided into 4 stages.
First stage - the IOC seeks innovations that would attract financing (1936-1948). Based on the initial business idea to hold the OG, the perspectives for the commercialization of the scientific and technological progress are defined, so are the specific products (technologies, commodities, services). Pursuits and formation of the financial support mechanisms, including pilot projects of TV broadcasts from Olympic arenas, are regulated. This stage, which, in terms of launching and implementation of advanced marketing technologies in the OM, is certainly of ground-breaking nature, was highlighted by such a breakthrough event as the first TV broadcasts of the OG (Berlin, 1936). These years, the hosts of the Games come to realize that simply budgetary financing of the OG by the city [2,4] is not enough to develop the OM further, and that a long-term strategy of the marketing policy is required, that would contribute to the replenishment of the city revenues and the budget of the IOC. It should be noted that the social effect of the TV broadcast of the Berlin Olympics resulted in the sharp increase of attention to the TV broadcasting phenomenon in most developed countries (the USA, the USSR, Japan, UK). We may close the first stage with the first payment for the TV broadcast of the Games, which was effected by BBC during the XIV OG (London, 1948) [5].
Second stage - management activity during regulation of the broadcasting rights (19601980). The TV-companies did not get seriously involved in the Olympic Games (1952, 1956), as on technical grounds (considerable distance) the USA were unable to receive the broadcasts. Yet, taking long strategic views, in 1958 the IOC brought the rule in the Olympic Charter, according to which all the rights in entering into contracts with the TV-companies were within the jurisdiction of the IOC. This stage involves developing of a TV technology package which would serve as a product of the technology market. In the Olympic movement the practices of attraction of partners and investors' financial resources were formed with the due regard to their requirements at the following stages. This stage of the IOC activity is characterized by the intensive implementation of marketing technologies for the purpose of involvement of television, advertisers, supplier companies, and sponsors in the OM.
The geography of the countries, which receive the broadcasts of the Olympic competitions, including stable color broadcasts, is being expanded at a quickened pace (Mexico, 1968).
Over a few Olympic cycles, the income of the IOC from all the kinds of business activities increased in tens of times [1]. The dynamics of implementation of TV in economics of the Olympic Games is presented in Table 1.
Olympic OG venue TV- company Amount of Increment in
year Olympic contracts the amount of contracts compared with previous OG, %
1960 Squaw Valley (USA) Rome (Italy) ABC 445 thous. dol.
1964 Innsbruck (Austria) Tokyo (Japan) ABC 2,1 mln. dol. 450
1968 Grenoble (France) Mexico City (Mexico) ABC 7 mln. dol 350
1972 Sapporo (Japan) Munich (Germany) ABC 13,9 mln. dol. 200
1976 Innsbruck (Austria) Montreal (Canada) ABC 35 mln. dol. 250
1980 Lake Placid (USA) Moscow (USSR) ABC 102,5 mln. dol. 300
1984 Sarajevo (Yugoslavia) Los Angeles (USA) ABC 316,5 mln. dol. 300
The factor analysis of the data from the table suggests that the income from the TV-companies has increased by 75 times over the quarter of a century, and that enabled the IOC to include the National Olympic Committees into the revenue distribution scheme as long ago as in 1972. This project was named the "Olympic solidarity" and consisted in the financial capital accumulation [3], which was intended for the NOC's of the underdeveloped and developing countries.
Third stage - effective management in the TV commercialization of the Olympic movement (1980 - 2000).
It stands to reason that this stage is considered to have begun in 1980, i.e. the year when J.A. Samaranch was elected IOC President, since for him the commercialization of the OM prevailed. The wise politician and economist seized the point: the Olympic movement should be controlled by commercial mechanisms rather than socio-political ones [1, 4]. His motto: "Not to sail through
political waves, but to control from the position of financial strength". The commercialization of the Olympic sport is materializing.
Having taken over the IOC presidency, Samaranch established communication with the International Association for Sport Information (IASI), successfully managed to have the TV broadcasts of the OG realized by the affluent world TV-companies. As a result, the scale of the TV broadcasts using the high-tech mass media increased, thus enabling the major part of the global population to watch the TV broadcasts of the Olympic competitions.
He proposes the innovative formula of organization and staging of the OG, and economy and market relations start to prevail. The same year, the Moscow Olympic Games were held, and it is quite reasonable to mention here that, according to some specialists, they were the culmination of development of the domestic television. Suffice it to recall that construction of the television and radio complex (DTRC) was dedicated to these Games, and its resources contributed to preparation and broadcasting of 20 TV programs and 100 real-time comments to them. The total daily viewership of the Olympics-80 exceeded 1.5 milliard people. The goal-oriented activity in the specified direction (Table 1) enabled the IOC to develop and implement the TOP program in 1984, which significantly diversified commercial relations not only within the Olympic, but also other segments of the world sport movement. According to the mentioned program (in which most NOC's participate), restriction on the number of partners of the OG was ensured, since reduction in their number resulted in the increase of their value.
Fourth stage - diversification in the commercialization of television during the OG (from 2003 to the present day).
The specifics of the market for TV services consists in the absence of the bulk user, due to which the IOC is to work with each potential customer face-to-face, with corresponding adaptation of the initial technology package to the commercialization of television. The hosts of the Games keep paying special attention to working with sponsors: during the Salt-Lake-City 2002 Olympics the national sponsored program alone replenished the budget of the organizing committee and the USA NOC for 876 million dollars. During the same Games, a new standard for the future hosts of the Olympic competitions was set, as they stroke a balance between the interests of the business industry and the OM. The operating 1.4 milliard dollar budget was totally replenished owing to the marketing programs and sale of the TV-broadcasting rights. There was intensification of the sponsors' integration for the purpose of improvement of visual presentation of the maximum number of additional entertainments to the TV viewers and spectators of the Games.
Results and discussion. The OG are not only the most outstanding sport competitions in the world, but also the most top-rated TV broadcasts. The total number of TV viewers of the OG is increasing fast and steadily with each Olympic cycle: in Sydney-2000 it amounted to 3.6 milliard
people, in Africa-2004 - 3.9 milliard, in Beijing-2008 - 4.4 milliard. The income from the sale of the rights for the TV broadcasts, which are equally divided between the IOC and the hosts of the OG, is growing much faster. The contracts with the TV-companies brought the IOC the $3.9 milliard income over the 2010-2012 cycle, including the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and the Summer Olympics in London. Exercise of the TV broadcasting rights during the Sochi 2014 Olympics and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro earned $3.6 milliard. "However, the total income should exceed $4 milliard," said the eights IOC President. With that, he recalled that over the 2002-2004 cycle the IOC gained "only" $2.2 billion. Jacques Rogge backed his estimates with reference to the contract signed with NBC, who bought the rights to broadcast the competitions on the US territory up to and including 2020 for the record $4.38 milliard. Herewith, the enforcement of the broadcasting rights in other countries is still in progress.
There has been a soul-searching evolution in the minds of the leaders of the Olympic movement and international community. A challenging field of endeavor was covered from the idealistic perception, based on the Pierre de Coubertin's dream about "pure", free from commercial influence Olympism as an ideal of the luminous minority, to understanding that the Olympic sport, as a patrimony of millions of people, is developing in real socio-economic environment with its strict rules and conventionalities and to a greater extent depends on such segments of the OM as television.
Conclusion. Thanks to the use of ultra-modern television technologies the Sochi-2014 project was the Games which initiated the fifth stage of the interaction of the OM with TV companies. There is a number of facts to validate the supposition which are as follows: extensive spread of breakthrough television technologies; a significant increase in the audience on a global scale; long-term (3-5 Olympic cycles) multibillion-dollar contracts between the IOC and TV companies.
References
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2. Gus'kov, S.I. TV and sport / S.I. Gus'kov. - Moscow: Poligrafservis, 2003. - 197 P. (In Russian)
3. Zaydie, M.V. Major trends of commercialization of modern Olympic sport: Ph.D. thesis / M. Zaydie. - Kiev, 1999. -188 P. (In Russian)
4. Zuev, V.N. Olympic Education and Olympians of the Tyumen region: study guide / V.N. Zuev. - Moscow: Fizicheskaya kul'tura, 2013. - 228 P. (In Russian)
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Corresponding author: [email protected]
