Exploring Multi-Screen and Second-Screen Viewing During Sports Mega Events: A Lens of Channel Complementarity Theory

Although regarded as less influential than the Olympic Summer Games, the Olympic Winter Games remain a globally anticipated and widely viewed event. This study employs semi-structured interviews to examine multi-screen and second-screen viewing behaviours among Chinese viewers during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in the context of media convergence. Grounded in channel complementarity theory, our findings reveal that television remains the dominant platform for Olympic content consumption, while mobile devices and streaming platforms serve as crucial complements, enhancing the viewing experience in diverse temporal and spatial contexts. Social media acts as a secondary screen, enriching the primary viewing experience through social interaction, public discourse participation, and deeper engagement with event narratives. This study highlights that media channels do not operate in isolation but instead function synergistically, leveraging their distinct affordances to foster a more integrated and participatory viewing experience within the polymedia ecology.