An Examination of Predictors of Watching Televised Sport Programming

With the popularity of sport television and the large sums of money at stake in terms of advertisement sales (e.g., a single commercial spot for the 2011 Super Bowl cost as much as $3 million), it is not surprising that sport science and marketing professionals have attempted to better understand sport television viewing patterns and motivations (Raney, 2006). For instance, Mahony and Howard (1998) examined sport television viewing preferences as a function of the teams involved. They found (perhaps not surprisingly) that fans reported a greater desire to watch a game involving a favorite team relative to a contest involving teams they did not follow. Wann, Friedman, McHale and Jaffe (2003) revealed that the majority of fans view sport television viewing as a social activity, preferring to watch sport programming with others. In this investigation, our aim was to extend previous research by further investigating the televised sport viewing habits of fans. The current work had two main purposes. The initial focus examined the percentage of time individuals watch various forms of televised sport programming. We chose to examine percentages of sport viewing time dedicated to six different forms: events involving a favorite team, events involving a moderately supported team, events involving a rival of a favorite team (i.e., a rival team playing a non-preferred team), events involving neither a rival nor a preferred team (i.e., non-involved games), sport news shows (e.g., SportsCenter), and sport documentaries. Participants reported viewing behaviors separately for the forms of live competitions because research indicates that motivational patterns and viewing preferences can be different for games involving different teams (Fink & Parker, 2009; Lee & Armstrong, 2008; Mahony & Howard, 1998; Mahony & Moorman, 1999). Hence, it was necessary to get independent percentages for the different types of games. The second focus examined several predictors of percentage of time spent viewing the sport programs. We examined the impact of four predictors: sex, level of team identification, level of sport fandom, and level of involvement in fantasy sports. As for sex, studies have found that men are more likely to be deeply involved in sport than women (Dietz-Uhler, Harrick, End, & Jacquemotte, 2000; Wann, 2002) and men typically report more frequent viewing than women of many forms of televised sporting events (Lee & Armstrong, 2008). The second predictor variable, team identification, concerns the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection with a team (Wann & Branscombe, 1993; Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). Level of identification is a predictor of many fan behaviors, including aggression (Wann, Carlson, & Schrader, 1999), belief in sport curses (Wann & Zaichkowsky, 2009), and attendance (Fisher & Wakefield, 1998). Team identification is also a significant predictor of sport television viewing (Bernache-Assollant, Bouchet, & Lacassagne, 2007; Fisher, 1998) and sport television viewing preferences (Mahony & Moorman, 1999). The third predictor was level of sport fandom. Sport fandom concerns the extent to which an individual considers him/herself a fan and identifies with the role of sport fan (Wann, 2002). Although team identification and sport fandom are positively correlated (Wann, 2002; Wann & Weaver, 2009; Wann & Zaichkowsky, 2009), they are separate constructs. Specifically, team identification involves how much a fan identifies with a specific team and sport fandom involves a fan's interest in a sport. One can be a highly involved sport fan without necessarily having a favorite team, and vice versa. It is possible that team identification and fandom will predict viewing for different events. That is, although team identification might predict percentage of time watching a favorite team (and perhaps a rival team), level of fandom may predict viewing of other programs such as sport news shows and documentaries. …