Is media obesity tempering our enjoyment of sports?

Today, sport is everywhere. With satellite communications becoming the norm rather then the exception in the 1990s, the Oozies (2000s) have seen satellite television coverage, especially that of sport, mushroom in a fashion comparable to that of the daisies in the Namaqualand spring.

SuperSport is one of the world’s largest and most successful broadcasters of sports entertainment (save for the SuperSport Series, with a nod to Michael de Vries’ post earlier this week, which does get me a little gloomy). ESPN (US) and Sky Sports (UK) are bigger perhaps, but in relation to sheer quantity of media broadcast, SuperSport are up there with the best.

Though I am proud to say that a South African company is turning heads in the sports broadcasting world, sometimes my mind is awash with a feeling of grogginess when my thoughts turn to what I actually feel like watching.

I don’t have DStv but I always know what’s going on via the web, friend’s TV sets, radio and other forms of media. Now, with the Springboks touring Europe, the English Premier League, Absa Premiership plus the Uefa Champions League in full flow and cricket season having just gotten under way, I’m spoiled for choice to the point I can pick and choose what I want to watch.

Turn the clock back 15 years and the picture was a bit different. M-Net would carry the one Premier League game on the Saturday, one for Sunday, with rugby slotted in between or broadcast later in the evening. CSN was used for cricket and other sporting overflow. In those days, you didn’t miss the “game” because that was all you were going to see. Everyone you know would be watching it, making conversation at school (for me anyway) or the workplace a done deal for Monday. We all know that feeling of being the guy who didn’t watch the game. It isn’t lekker in the least.

Today, I feel overwhelmed by how much sport there is out there, to the point that I actually forgot Australia and New Zealand played each other in Tokyo this last weekend. For a sports-mad person such as me, whose profession is linked to knowing what is happening all the time, I found that disconcerting. Even cricket, my favourite pastime, is getting to the point of “well, I can watch some next week so I don’t care”.

The question is this: are we as media consumers being slowly stripped of the enjoyment of sports we love to watch (because they serve as a refreshing distraction from all of the bull-dust life throws our way) due to viewing obesity?

I don’t know about you, but that unpleasant and downright obnoxious feeling I can taste in my spit sure is making me dizzy, but mind you, I only taste the sweet vinegar of sports indigestion on the weekends. I’m safe for now, but for how long? I better make a trip down to the local pharmacy, because those indigestion tablets are definitely going to get abused in the future.