Sport, Media, and Consumption in Asia: A Merchandised Milieu

Abstract

The saturation of Western media sport markets has prompted a turn to the predominantly youthful, increasingly urbanized cultural milieu associated with forms of “aspirational” middle-class consumption of globalized Western sport. Asia has become a prime target for the expansionary strategies of some of the world’s most powerful professional sports leagues, teams, and media conglomerates. Although other media and cultural industry sectors in Asia, such as film and television drama, enjoy increasing content localization and intraregional exchange, media sport remains decidedly Western dominated. The influence of transnational broadcasters in Asia and the intensive marketing efforts of Western sports interests are combining to privilege European- and American-based sports leagues, such as the English Premier League and the National Basketball Association, which tend to “crowd out” domestic Asian professional sport. Sport fan engagement within the “media sports cultural complex” in Asia tends to produce a form of consumption predisposed to advantage globally marketed Western sports competitions and their celebrities (some of whom are “migrant” Asian sport stars) and so hampers the development of “indigenous” Asian sport and media. This article critically analyzes sport and consumption in Asia with reference to a range of sports, especially, soccer and basketball, and various Asian nations, particularly, China.