Media Management and Live Experience

Global and authoritative, this textbook maps modern, live experience media, the categories that thrive on real-time engagement and human connection – even in the age of synthetic content, AI and the Metaverse. Sports and sports betting, festivals, comedy, concerts, tours and theme parks are covered – plus theatre, trade events, conventions, museums and galleries, and immersive media.

Live media events included are Burning Man, Glastonbury, the Indian Premier League, the English Premier League, Olympics, NBA and Bundesliga – plus sell-out Taylor Swift tours, the World Cup, Super Bowl, Ryder Cup and Formula One. Business models in this media category start with ticketing and advertising – now amplified with ecommerce, affiliate marketing, subscription and gambling transactions. Deep dives ask: Why is Saudi Arabia investing billions into golf and football? Why is standup comedy big in Nigeria? How are Broadway and the West End evolving? What do immersive technologies like Abba Voyage and the MSG Sphere offer for the future?

With class questions, a quiz, summaries and slides for each chapter, this is a guide and course structure for anyone at university level or in industry studying the media, music, entertainment, events, exhibitions, sports, social media or gambling industries.

Alex Connock is Senior Fellow at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, and Lecturer at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. He teaches Media, Marketing and Management courses at BA, MBA and Executive Education levels. At Exeter University he is Professor in Practice in Media & AI. He has degrees from Oxford University, Columbia University, Salford University and INSEAD. Alex has also worked extensively in the media industry in the UK and US – in TV production, digital/social content marketing, magazine writing, and music and advertising production. In the charity sector, he is a voting member of BAFTA, Vice Chair of UNICEF UK, and a board director of the Halle Orchestra. He has been shortlisted six times in Entrepreneur of the Year awards in the UK. His prior book, Media Management and Artificial Intelligence: Understanding Media Businesss Models in the Digital Age, was also published by Routledge, in late 2022.