MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication research

Sport and sport events are in many ways among the most popular media phenomena today. Television broadcasters continue to invest heavily to secure exclusive live coverage rights for both their broadcasting and streaming platforms, while global tech platforms and live sports streaming platforms, like Amazon Prime, Facebook, DAZN and Tencent, have started intervening in the rights coverage markets (Hutchins et al. 2019). As television continues to have a primary anchoring role for both organizers and audiences of big traditional sports events (Hutchins & Sanderson 2017), social networking services extend the narration and experience of sports and events, making sport one of the most discussed topics on social network platforms, which in turn informs content in television programming. However traditional sports events are now accompanied by the proliferation of e-sport events like the League of Legends World Championship and the Fortnite World Cup which also encompass distinct fan cultures and production and distribution strategies across many platforms.