At the same time, newer and originally alternative physical practices became
increasingly ‘sportised’, mediated and linked to productive and consumptive
practices within these new sport forms. As Rinehart argues, the US-based ESPN
sports network constructed an audience through its production of the eXtreme
Games, begun in 1995, which subsequently developed a global following.
Rinehart argues that ESPN drew on accepted television sport coverage practices
in constructing a ‘sport-familiar terrain for viewers’.37 Several new sportised
forms have been included in the Winter Olympics in efforts to attract new
audiences, and skateboarding has followed surfing and snowboarding into
structured national and international competitions.