The evolution of sports broadcasting in Turkey: Attention levels and expectations of Turkish university youth and broadcasters approach

With the television gaining a wide currency and further developments in the broadcasting technology, sports broadcasting has drawn more interest, particularly by youth. Sports broadcasting has become a valuable type of broadcasting thanks to technological developments and wider currency of thematic channels. The archetypes of sports broadcasting in Turkey date back to early 1890s with the articles on fencing. With regards to the socioeconomic structure of the given time, the society was introduced to various sports including soccer, cricket, tennis and rugby particularly in İstanbul mainly by Latins (also known as Levanter or Levantine). Early 1900s a rise in soccer's popularity was observed, and the foundation of several clubs led to a process of establishing the organizations in soccer. Both factors caused a shift towards soccer in sports broadcasting too. The newspaper Futbol, executive of which was Burhan Felek, represents the first sports newspaper in the Ottoman records. The newspaper had a short lifetime due to the fact that the society had a strict stance towards sports broadcasting, and they were not used to it. Terbiye ve Oyun (Nurture and Game, in English) and Spor Âlemi (Sports Community, in English) had much longer time in the business having begun their broadcasting lives following this first attempt in sports broadcasting. Among them, particularly Spor Âlemi introduced sports events from abroad to the Turkish audience and led the way in this sense. The increase in radio's popularity brought on a sudden and immediate shift in sports broadcasting towards the radio. It would be accurate to state that Turkey has caught up with Europe in the field of sports broadcasting in radio. One of the most significant innovations occurring thanks to sports broadcasting in radio was the emergence of the term "sports announcer" in Turkey. One of the first important live broadcasting attempts was Greco-Roman wrestling game between Turkish and Italian national teams in 1933. The first live broadcasting of a soccer game on radio dates back to July 20, 1934, when WAC played against Fenerbahçe. The most broadcasted sports branches were soccer, wrestling and boxing, and the main content in sports broadcasting was live broadcastings and gym programmes. Soccer was in the forefront of live sports broadcastings in radio between 1950 and 1964. Other than soccer, boxing, wrestling and basketball made their ways to being broadcasted in the radio. The İTÜ TV's (Istanbul Technical University Television) emergence in the broadcasting world pointed sports broadcasting the way to the television in 1952. While the most broadcasted sports branches were soccer and boxing on İTÜ TV, both the national team games and derbies were provided for the audience starting from early 1960s. TRT's (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) introduction to the television broadcasting made it possible for the sports broadcasting to reach a greater audience. Sports broadcasting in Turkey saw an important remark on April 25, 1971, when the soccer game between Turkey and Western Germany was broadcasted under the partnership of İTÜ TV and TRT. Live broadcasting of 1971 Mediterranean Games in İzmir was the longest sports broadcasting attempt by TRT until that time. Along with the first participation to the Eurovision in 1972, the Olympics were broadcasted live on television for the first time in Turkey. TRT proved the importance attached to the sports broadcasting by extending broadcasting hours during 1972 Munich Olympics. In 1970s, TRT gave place to many branches of sports on their broadcasting stream, particularly under the leadership of general directorate İsmail Cem. Throughout those years, figure skating and tennis were covered on TRT broadcasts, as well as Muhammed Ali's boxing games, and these sports were identified with the TRT. Not losing the habits from 1970s, TRT kept broadcasting figure skating, tennis and boxing, as well as soccer and it kept providing the broadcasts of the Olympics for the audience too. Television series Beyaz Gölge's (The White Shadow) broadcasting on TRT in 1980 increased basketball's popularity in Turkey, while the TRT brought important basketball organizations, the NBA and the NCAA, to the audience in Turkey in late 1980s. In 1990, introduction of Magic Box to the broadcasting world ended the single channel period on Turkish televisions practically, and this affected the sports broadcasting the most. Magic Box's remarkable attention on sports broadcasted was followed by several private channels', such as Show TV and Cine5, emergence. Subsequently, TRT lost its rights of broadcasting for many important sports events including Turkish First Football League. Regulation in 1993 allowed private television channels to gain a legal status (deregulation), and this paved the way for the TRT to change its sports broadcasting policy to a mainly based on Olympic sports one. Soccer broadcasting rights were divided among Magic Box, Show TV and Cine5, while Cine5 made important moves regarding basketball broadcasting in those years. Selling of broadcasting rights of Turkish First Football Leauge by pooling in 1996 made sports broadcasting a commercial element in Turkey. Today, broadcasting value of the top soccer competition in Turkey, Turkish Football Super League, is approximately 500 Million United States dollars. On the global scale, Olympics has left a mark as the first sports organization to be commercialized. With technological developments and increasing number of opportunities in broadcasting, Ödemeli televizyon was introduced, and sports broadcasting became a paid product. Increase in the value of rights of sports broadcasting brought global actors of sports broadcasting into daylight. Within this study, on global scale, ESPN, Eurosport and Sky Sports have been analysed. The development of internet technologies and transformation of the sports audience into users have been addressed in the social media context. In this regard, it has been attempted to examine the supply/demand status quo of young sports fans in sports broadcasting by examining their social media use in major sports events within Twitter context by analysing the content. In the final part of the study, the survey and online surveys was conducted with students of İstanbul University, Faculty of Communication so as to identify the supply/demand equilibrium in sports broadcasting in Turkey, mainly for the youth. Furthermore, Eurosport's chief editor Bağış Erten; due to its public broadcasting role, TRT Spor's General Coordinator Mehmet Buğra Şahin and NTV Spor's chief editor Fuat Akdağ were contacted through in-depth interviews in order to identify the supply/demand equilibrium among the youth and policy choices of sports broadcasters. Moreover, the rating levels and social media attention were analysed with the data collected from Twitter of sports branches with a history of being broadcasted in the past when broadcasted in mainstream television channels during 2019 and 2020. Twitter sample was also used to identify the attention sports events broadcasted by digital broadcasters drew. The surveys and online surveys have revealed that the participants think that sports supply on mainstream television channels are insufficient and sports branches other than soccer cannot find enough place on these channels. It is concluded that the youth use the social media to reach sports broadcasts and they consider global sports broadcasters more successful. It is detected that one of the most significant problems in sports broadcasting is the fact that the sports branches other than soccer cannot find place on television broadcastings. Public broadcaster TRT's soccer-based broadcasting policy plays an important role in this situation. The public broadcaster TRT's policy is influenced by the idea that demand for the other branches is lacking. Eurosport and NTV Spor officials, on the other hand, mentioned that there is demand for every branch, but the important part is how you present them to the audience. Rating and social media evaluations have showed that branches other than soccer are also demanded when broadcasted on mainstream channels. Furthermore, it is determined that sports events, which are broadcasted on digital broadcasters, are also demanded by the youth as long as they have continuity. In addition, social media analysis has showed that despite the fact that soccer is still the most popular branch, the youth does not have a soccer-based approach, and they do not tend to look for the most popular but for the most quality one. The interest in institutionalised sports events such as MMA, NBA, Formula 1 and Tour de France has an evidential value in this sense. Ultimately, it is concluded that the main problem in Turkey is not lack of demand for branches other than soccer, but lack of supply for them. Within this work, the changing expectations of university youth from sports broadcasting and first steps of the change in the "sports-is-only-soccer" approach among university youth have been analysed in three different field researches. Key Words: Sports broadcasting, Youth, Sports, Social Media, Olympics, Twitter