Sport e televisione in Italia: dal "matrimonio d'interesse" a nuove prospettive di ricerca

[Autom. eng. transl.] The relationship between sport and television is a topic that, in the course of studies on the television medium, has represented on more than one occasion an interesting field of historical and linguistic research; however, the relationship that has been established between the two areas has been configured as a "marriage of convenience" rather than as an autonomous field of reflection. Sport, present since the beginning in the schedules of Italian television with live broadcasts, in-depth analyses and columns, is a privileged content for observing the dynamics and transformations of the television system, which originates outside the medium but by which it is profoundly influenced. The aim of the article is to investigate the intuitions, limits and opportunities of studies on the relationship between sport and television in Italy over the course of its seventy years of history, focusing in particular on the issue of sports rights and their evolution with a focus on their application to the Serie A football championship and highlighting possible and future research perspectives.