Today’s fan: The medium and the messenger

McLuhan proposed that a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered, but also by the characteristics of the medium. I left my Ph.D. at home, but I do know that the sports communication continuum has progressed from cave drawings to smoke signals, to town criers, ink on paper, radio and television, morphing from there into 24/7/365 cable, which then went streaming, mobile with a dash of HD, and 3-D — with virtual reality to come. The 24-hour sports news cycle squeezed into 24 minutes and now has no cycle at all. The day we followed our favorite beat writer, columnist, electronic talking head or sports-addicted water cooler colleague is fast coming to an end.

There is a kaleidoscope of communication choices that gives today’s sports fan a customizable engine that is adding more information horsepower every day. As a result, fans are changing the sports world by utilizing their own views of what’s going on.

■ Blog this!

The growth of the Blogosphere and Twitterverse populated by Diggers, Flipboarders, YouTubers, Instagrammers and Yammerers with hundreds of other media forms is changing the communication dynamic. Look at the shrinkage of local sports reports on the nightly news. When is the last time you saw someone younger than 30 reading an actual newspaper sports section? In many instances, we have people with no technical ability writing columns about their favorite teams. They believe they know more about the game and their team than the coach, general manager, players or reporters that work the team beat every day. Think about what you read and what sources you were following leading up to this spring’s NFL draft. These days, TMZ is competing with ESPN in breaking sports stories.

■ Customization

Fans have the opportunity not just to rewind or slo-mo, but also to zoom in on certain plays without being beholden to the directors of game broadcasts. They can watch the game from a player’s first-person perspective. Advances in camera and video technology are allowing for previously unseen perspectives. Prepare for drones coming to a stadium near you. Maybe there will be cameras on every player similar to the NHL experimenting during this year’s All-Star Game.

■ I’m there without being there

We are probably a few years away from seeing virtual reality broadcasts’ impact on sports. Fans will take to the VR platform because it can become a universal hub for Twitter, fantasy leagues, video and stats all in a way that can be totally immersive. I think a secondary market is going to crop up for virtual live streaming of events where fans can experience the thrill of going to the Super Bowl or The Fight of the Century without being physically present.

■ Gamification

Take any popular sports social media storyline one step further in the realm of gamification. We might see the fan base not just controlling storylines but also the game: deciding plays, which players to play, draft picks, and encroaching on all facets of the game up to and including business and administration. It would be like the “American Idol”-ization of sports.

McLuhan spoke of how society’s values, norms and ways of doing things change because of technology. He wasn’t a sports fan, but his prediction is coming true. The divining rods used by those who control the business world of sports are constantly searching for new sources of revenue. The growing army of customized consumers is focused on my sports, my media, my time, my money, my manipulation and my thoughts.

Can the industry generate large piles of new money without cannibalizing the existing piles of broadcast and media cash?

Andy Dolich (andy.dolich@gmail.com) is managing director of the U.S. sports practice for Odgers Berndtson.