The mass media, particularly television, heavily influences the way in which sports are experienced in American society. For every person who is physically present at a major professional sporting event for example, as many as a thousand may be watching it at home. However, television is only the most recent medium of mass communication that has influenced sports. By the mid-19th century, Americans were already experiencing sporting events indirectly. At least since 1850, Americans could get accounts of some events, particularly boxing and horse racing, through the growing telegraph system, and they could get journalistic knowledge through magazines. Today, television not only give audiences the opportunity to view a sporting event, it also allow audiences to feel as if they are physically present through the use special effects with television cameras.

Similar to other tight relationships, however, television and sports has sometimes become unbalanced. During its early years, sports had the control and the media had to adapt to sport's concerns. Now, with the enormous growth of televised sport, the balance of power shifted. Television has played a major part in cha

American sports are becoming part of the global entertainment industry as NFL (Nation Football League) football is gaining popularity in Europe and Latin America and baseball is being marketed in Asia and Latin America. Also, basketball has been long established in Europe. Foreign audiences for the World Series and Super Bowl are already more than double the size of the American audience, inspiring broadcasters to see the world market as growing even as U.S. ratings sag (Flanigan, 1989). Like advertisers, network executives argue that sports telecasting is prestigious and satisfies the demands and desires of the affiliated stations. As a last resort, network executives can view the sporting event as "news" and justify paying a lot of money for broadcast rights, being that they are providing a public service.

Agency sources said the XFL was shopping sponsorships in the range of $2 million and up. Those sources estimate that a single 30-second spot in NBC's Saturday night game might cost between $17,000 and $20,000, if the games reach the ratings targets (Broadcasting Cable).

Sports have played a big part in bringing dramatic attention to new forms of mass media, particularly television. With this in mind, those forms have brought new sporting experiences to the public. The tight relationship of sport and television has allowed each of the two to flourish.

The XFL has told advertisers it expects to average a 5.5 household rating for NBC Saturday-night games, with about 2.7 million men 18-49 tuning in (Broadcasting Cable).

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