Watching football highlights on YouTube: the determinants of demand for short videos

Research Questions: Digital transformations have brought changes to the consumption of football. Traditionally live televised football matches commanded total attention of viewers. With the proliferation of new media channels fans are now afforded to consume games anytime and anywhere, specifically by watching short highlights on-demand videos. Research Methods: We employ a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model to address endogeneity and estimate the determinants of viewership and engagement. The analysis, based on 2,268 observations, explores engagement metrics, video characteristics, and sports elements influencing demand. Additionally, we incorporate match attendance and comment volume as instruments for the number of likes on each video. Research and Findings: The model explains about 89% of the variance of the demand. The results indicate a significant positive association between views and likes, length of the videos, total number of red cards, total number of own goals, and uncertainty of outcome level, as well as the number of goals scored and the goal differences. A significant quadratic relationship between views, goals scored, and goals difference was observed, suggesting that the positive impact from both variables diminishes and, beyond a certain point, turns negative. Implications: We hold that YouTube highlights are an important aspect of the consumption of football. On-demand highlight clips have both continuations and transformations to traditional demand models. Its free availability on YouTube and the data affordances constitute a potential change in the mediatisation of sports, having deeper implications for monetisation and financial models.