From Viewers to Participants: Analyzing the Mediating Effect of Women Viewers’ Satisfaction between Sportainment Show Team Identification and Intention to Participate in Sports

Abstract

A recent sports show named Kick a Goal is gaining massive popularity from the Korean public as it provides different sports drama that includes fair competition and unification of women via sports. While the program’s effect has been widely mentioned in the mass media, a scarcity of research has been conducted in academia regarding its effect on women’s actual participation in soccer. Hence, this study established a statistical model that analyzes whether being fans of a starring team in a women’s soccer sportainment show affects women’s actual participation in playing soccer. Samples were recruited from women who identified themselves as either fan of the Kick a Goal program or those who play soccer(futsal), utilizing an online survey. A total of 237 responses were received, with 162 valid responses utilized to analyze the model. As a result, the model showed team identification had a direct effect on viewer satisfaction and an indirect effect on the intention to participate in soccer(futsal). In addition, viewer’s satisfaction led to the intention to participate in soccer(futsal), when the intention led to the action to participate in soccer(futsal). Discussions were provided mainly on how televised sports show may contribute to women’s participation in sports. Practical implications included suggestions to make the teams starring in sportainment show more attractive to grow the team’s fanbase. Based on this study’s results, the increased fanbase will eventually lead to an increased population who actually participate in sports.