Football as format

Sport entertainment between rite, television and seriality.

Abstract

We use to identify football as a game who was killed by the television, as a lot of fans worldwide say to criticize the inteference of mass media. In this work we will analyze for first the ritual dimension of football, then the relationship between football and television, and at last the serial dimensions of football: our attempt is to demonstrate how television doesn’t kill football ‘cause it’s a format prototype. This game was born in élite Colleges during the time of affirmation of industrialization and seriality in mass cultural productions: in this way, we will say that television is the natural complement of football ‘cause it is in the forms of serial narratives typical of the contemporary that football finds a way to unfold its nature born as an entertainment complex serial product.