ABSTRACT

Research question

In this study, we add to the slowly emerging literature on modeling the demand for women's sports by exploring the robustness of the determinants for women's volleyball – previously a largely neglected team sport – across three different distribution channels, i.e. online streaming, TV broadcasts, and the stadium experience.

Research methods

We exploit a data set containing information on consumer interest in the German Women's Volleyball League (VBL) in 2019. In line with the literature on modeling consumer interest in sports, we estimate on-/offline audiences and spectator demand, in terms of semi-elasticity, by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions.

Results

We find that volleyball demand is relatively stable across two of the three distribution channels (i.e. online streaming and TV broadcasts) and, to a lesser degree, the stadium experience. This pattern is particularly problematic for a niche sport's online streaming offerings that, often initiated with high hopes, seem to attract only a fraction of the otherwise relatively strong consumer interest in the sport's TV offerings.

Implications

While we believe that future research is well-advised to add nuance to the analysis of (women’s) sports demand across different distribution channels, our results also suggest that sporting bodies should carefully weigh the pros and cons of an exclusively online distribution strategy.

中文翻译：

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不同分销渠道的女排需求

摘要

研究问题

在这项研究中，我们通过探索女排（以前是一项很大程度上被忽视的团队运动）的决定因素的稳健性，通过三个不同的分发渠道（即在线流媒体、电视广播和媒体），对慢慢出现的关于女子运动需求建模的文献进行了补充。体育场体验。

研究方法

我们利用包含 2019 年德国女排联赛 (VBL) 消费者兴趣信息的数据集。根据对消费者对体育运动的兴趣进行建模的文献，我们以半百分比的形式估计了线上/线下观众和观众需求。弹性，通过普通最小二乘法 (OLS) 回归。

结果

我们发现三个分销渠道中的两个（即在线流媒体和电视广播）的排球需求相对稳定，体育场体验也相对稳定。这种模式对于小众体育赛事的在线流媒体产品来说尤其成问题，这些体育赛事通常是抱着很高的期望而发起的，但似乎只吸引了一小部分消费者对体育电视节目的兴趣。

影响

虽然我们认为未来的研究建议对不同分销渠道的（女子）体育需求进行细致入微的分析，但我们的研究结果还表明，体育机构应仔细权衡完全在线分销策略的利弊。