Evolving sports viewership : social media influence on viewing behaviour.
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Social media can act as a catalyst for shifting the way that consumers view and consume sports games and content. Social media is quickly becoming a popular method for doing so, due to its accessibility and engaging content. This research is important, because with both social media evolving and the sporting industry changing, the viewership patterns for consumers have also changed. In addition, there is a research gap in the New Zealand context, with limited research conducted on sports viewership patterns on social media, along with the types of social media platforms used by consumers. To fulfil the research gap, the method of exploratory research will be applied. Using a qualitative, interpretivist approach, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted, and thematic analysis was used to interpret consumer behaviour and experiences. The goal of this thesis is to better understand why consumers use social media to view sports games and to explore viewership changes through social media. The key findings from this research are a change in social media content consumers use to view sports games, especially highlights, resulting in snack-sized sports video clips being viewed instead of the full-length sports game. The social media algorithms also influence the type of sporting content consumers view, by providing recommendations on their social media feeds. The implications from this research contribute to sports marketing and social media literature, along with implications for the sporting industry to generate favourable sporting content for fans and consumers.