An Examination of Constraints and Motivators as Predictors of Sport Media Consumption Substitution Intention

The academic literature in recent years has highlighted escalating levels of sport media consumption (hereafter SMC; Pritchard & Funk, 2006 ). In addition, fans’ preferences to watch sport events at home has been identified as one of the most prominent concerns facing sport industry practitioners ( Luker, 2012 ). Nevertheless, while constraints to sport event attendance have begun to gain traction in the spectator sport literature in recent years, it has not been explored how constraints may prompt consumers to substitute SMC for attendance. Moreover, the motivators behind SMC have yet to be explored. As such, the current study aimed to determine the effect of both constraints to attendance and motivators for SMC on individuals’ SMC substitution intentions. It was found that Motivators had a significant relationship with SMC Substitution Intention; however, the only constraint of any significance was Cost. In addition, Team Identification did not moderate the relationships in the study.