Many sports fans around the globe will never attend a live event to watch their favorite teams or players in person. For them, the only way to experience a sports event is by watching it on a television, computer or mobile device screen or listening to it on the radio.

While sports venues catered to fans who attended a sports event, the advent of sports media brought a new dimension to the world of sports. Now fans can experience a sports event from their own living room.

By the late 1800s, newspapers had begun to include a sports section. The 1921 baseball World Series was broadcast on the radio. The first sports magazine appeared in 1946, and small-screen black-and-white TV broadcasts brought sports to homes by 1950.

The advent of color television in the 1960s, cable TV in the 1970s, and satellite television broadcasts in the late 1980s transformed the reach of sports media and access to sports events. In the early 2000s, Internet streams beamed sports through our computers. Today sports streaming channels and apps allow for 24/7 access to almost every sport.