The Impact of Social Media on the Sports Industry

Over the past decade, there has been a noticeable leap in the development of social media. Today the majority of the world’s population has a Facebook page, Instagram or Twitter, including famous athletes and sports clubs.

Social media has a huge impact on the sports industry. In this article, Meta.reviews will tell you how exactly this happens, what has already changed and what transformations await us.

At all times, the development of technology has contributed to the development of sports. Thus, the construction of large stadiums in Ancient Greece made it a mass spectacle, and with the advent of newspapers, sports took over the whole world.

We are now seeing the merging of three industries (sports, entertainment and media) into one super-industry called media entertainment sport (MES). Let’s dwell on three main trends that are currently being noted in MES.

Athletes and clubs are becoming independent media

The speed of the Internet is growing, data is transmitted instantly, smartphones and social networks provide access to information anywhere and anytime. All this only contributes to the growth of the popularity of sports and individual athletes. So, the soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has 273.3 million followers on Instagram. Popular sports clubs keep up with the players. Thus, 103.4 million users have subscribed to Barcelona on Facebook and 73.3 million to Manchester United.

Thus, clubs and athletes through their social media pages gain access to a multi-million audience, becoming independent media. They can influence the opinion of a huge number of people by broadcasting their beliefs, advertising something and attracting even more fans.

The stars are closer

Sports clubs and athletes can communicate directly with their fans. For fans, their icons have ceased to be unattainable idols. With the advent of social media, fans have realized that star athletes are just like them. They also have fun, relax with family and friends, and experience difficulties. Now everyone can ask a question to their favorite soccer or hockey player and leave a comment under his photo.

This is not always a good thing for the athletes themselves. Today, many of them are subjected to insults, unfounded criticism, and racist remarks about them, taking advantage of the anonymity of social networks. This has become a real problem that is being talked about more and more often. The constant emotional pressure is causing some athletes to experience depressive states (read more about mental health on Centreforum.org) and to perform poorly on the field.

Content and streaming take it to the next level

On their social media pages, clubs often post unique content (photos, videos, interviews and various news about the life of the team) almost in real-time. Now the fan does not have to wait for the latest issue of the newspaper to find out how his favorite club played. Information is distributed instantly.

This also has its drawback. Hashtags and GIFs make it easier to find the data and information about events, but the information is becoming more and more the same. Different users repost, cut matches into separate fragments and share. In such a flow, creating something unique is very difficult and often pointless.

With the advent of social media, it has become easier for fans to access match broadcasts. For example, through the app Periscope, owned by Twitter, some viewers managed to broadcast live from a popular boxing match using their smartphones. Top sports clubs decided to keep up with current trends. Arsenal have 1.7 million subscribers on Periscope, Liverpool - 7.5 million. All this suggests that the traditional broadcasting of matches on television (read more about TV broadcasting on Telecomasia.net) will lose viewership, and the companies that provide them will lose money. However, it will be easier for fans to watch the games of their favorite teams thanks to social networks.