Radio and the press are continually expanding and looking for new angles to their coverage of sport. The Daily Telegraph, for example, sees its circulation rise by around 30,000 when it publishes its weekly Fantasy Football League tables. Commercial sponsors are putting ever more money into sport. The growing interface with the commercial sector is helping to drive the professionalisation of sport. The commercial sector invests in sport because it reaches customers and partners.
Sports programming is at the cutting edge of the expansion of satellite and digital television.
Corporate hospitality at major sporting events has become an industry in its own right. There is no reason why the Council cannot make use of sport in the same way - indeed, countries such as Germany, France, Australia and others have been integrating sport into public diplomacy for years. Britain is well placed to follow this example, people worldwide are interested in British sport. The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organisation for educational and cultural relations. Registered in England as a Charity.