Formatting Cross-Media Circulation
On the Epistemology and Economy of Sports Highlights

"Formatting Cross-Media Circulation” takes sports highlights as an example to discuss how formats and formatting enable the circulation of content across different media. This chapter argues that the “spreadability” of selected moments from sports events, one of the most consistent elements of cross-media culture since more than 100 years, results from the modularity and scalability of the highlight format. Sport allows for and even systematically triggers various representations of the original event. While being highly constraint through copyright claims and regulation policy, highlights thus still offer flexible adaptability to different technical infrastructures, a number of industrial strategies and, of curse, fan activities. Conceptually, the sports highlights is used to question a too rigid, materialist understanding of format and formatting. Taking its lead from the television industry’s trade of formats for the global adaptation of productions processes and content, the chapter argues that formats matter because of the ongoing formatting processes that manage the changing intersection of technical, economic, and aesthetic dynamics.