Examining the Role of Video in Sports Media Viewing

As virtual reality becomes more prevalent in society, there has been a renewed focus on developing experiences for consumers to enjoy (Hartl and Berger, 2017). The current research project explores the relationship between presence, game attractiveness, suspense, and enjoyment in watching mediated sports content and exploring the differences between these constructs in 2D presentation versus 360 video presentation. Participants were asked to provide demographic information, watch a video presented either on a traditional monitor screen or in 360-degree video on the Oculus Rift and then complete surveys to assess their experience watching the clip. This data will be analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis to determine if presence, game attractiveness, suspense, and enjoyment are linked. Furthermore, 2D and 360 video conditions were also compared through MANOVA to determine if there are differences between conditions in regard to presence, suspense, and enjoyment.