The purpose of this study is to identify the attributes of sports content, focusing on the sports consumed by smart consumers (smartsumers), in the era leading up to the 6G mobile communications era, and to clarify how to develop production strategies...
The purpose of this study is to identify the attributes of sports content, focusing on the sports consumed by smart consumers (smartsumers), in the era leading up to the 6G mobile communications era, and to clarify how to develop production strategies accordingly. To this end, this research categorizes the types of sports content and verifies the experience realms provided by each type according to the theory of experience economy. The study achieves this goal through qualitative research methods, including a Delphi survey of 16 experts in sports content production related profession and in-depth interviews with 12 experts. The study concludes the following:
First, the types of sports content consumed by each mobile communication generation, from 1G to 6G, were classified based on technological advances. Smart consumers emerged in the 4G era, and mobile devices became established as main media for consuming sports content in the 5G era. Accordingly, the types of content have diversified and subdivided into live broadcasts, highlights, game analysis, social media, and communities, among others.
Second, 17 types of spectator sports content, consumed by smart consumers since the 5G era, were identified. These include live game broadcasts, full game replays, full highlights, news and articles, game analysis, major highlight scenes, behind-the-scenes videos, talk and interviews, podcasts, vlogs, data, graphic broadcasts, text broadcasts, social media posts, social media comments, real-time supporting and cheering, and online communities and fan forums. Also the 17 types of sports content were categorized into three major categories based on the purpose of consumption: spectating, informational, and participatory. These were further subdivided into six mid-categories: live game content, highlight content, off-game content, analysis&news content, social content, and social participatory content. This categorization completes the spectator sports contents categorization model of this study.
Third, the attributes of the categorized spectator sports content were concluded to include 30 attributes: Liveness, Attractability, Derivational, Perishability, Hedonic, Predictability, Story-tellable, Time sensitive, Additional creation, Simplicity, Sport specified (highlight), Accidental, Openness, Original, Emotional attachment, Non-performant, Economical, Non-seasonal, Reliability, Tech-related, Supplementary, Accumulative, Sport specified (analysis & news), Promotable, Communicatable, Timeliness, Anonymity, Negativity, Unreliability, and Scoreboard-like.
Fourth, a total of 26 development strategies were derived for categorized spectator sports content, including multitasking, real-time supporting services, data provision, time spot functionality, providing a sense of realism, consumer segmentation, quick production, elimination of game or play result spoilers, simplicity, reducing full-game replay, providing subtitles·graphics, careful selection of show quests, conveying authentic storytelling, discovering unique stories, adding emotional elements, interaction with fans, specialization by sport, storytelling, customized production by each platform, adding appropriate narratives, considering interaction, providing reliability, crisis management, post-operation and management of new channels, and platform-customized strategies, as well as autonomous operation policy.
Fifth, categorized spectator sports content provides four types of experiences according to the theory of the experience economy: entertainment, educational, escapist, and esthetic. Spectating spectator sports content mainly provides entertainment and educational experiences, while informational spectator sports content mainly provides educational experiences. Participatory spectator sports content mainly provides entertainment and escapism experiences. Esthetic experiences are found in highlights, behind-the-scenes stories, and SNS posting content.
This research provides a model that categorizes spectator sports content based on the consumption purposes of smart consumers, and provides not only the attributes of the content but also development strategies, thus having practical and realistic implications for research by presenting them to actual content producers.
Key words: Sports Contents, Experience Economy, Content Attribute, Development Strategy, Smart Consumer