Figure 1: Broadcast is still fragmented among broadcast TV and digital users
- Urban male sports fan 1: Born into the digital age, there is an inclination to consume online content. However, family viewing is still through traditional broadcast in India. This sports fan finds the Hotstar VIP chat during the IPL to be a negative experience, and they prefer to chat with friends and communities on Discord. This fan would like to see more interviews with players during the game, even though he understands it disrupts the players focus.
Urban male sports fan 2: Their interest in the sport came from video games and playing sports at school and university level. They use Disney+Hotstar to engage with sports in the background, but they will always watch important games on the TV with family or friends. They prefer to watch Chelsea games alone.
Urban male sports fan 3: Their Interest in football came from playing FIFA online with friends. They specifically enjoy career mode and applying strategies and tactics to build a great team. They are a bigger fan of managers than players, and they try to incorporate what they learn from football into their careers. Their fandom towards the club arises from their never-give-up spirit and a community that assets group solidarity. This fan spent his university education in England and believes that his fandom results in 80% sorrow and 20% happiness, with those happy moments, i.e., club wins, being something that he will cherish for life. They want broadcasters to bring in an option for fans to access different camera angles during games.
Urban male fan 4: This fan prefers watching sports on TV now, but will shift to OTT platforms when they buy a smart TV. He is very proud of Mumbai Indians being owned by Reliance, and loves to see authentic Marathi representation and culture in the team. He feels like the team is an extension of who he is. He hopes IPL teams make better quality jerseys.
Urban male fan 5: This fan remembers growing up in Kolkata, observing second division clubs practise in parks and watching Maradona in the 1986 world cup on TV. He believes that these are his most important memories from his childhood. Eventually, he became a Manchester United fan because of David Beckham, however, he lost respect for Alex Ferguson after the hair dryer incident, and chose to follow Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba to become a Chelsea fan. His passion for club football has become much bigger than the World Cup or the Euros. He supports the teams that play most Chelsea players in international FIFA and UEFA tournaments. He is superstitious about games. As a result, he records all the games and watches them only if Chelsea wins. He deletes the recording if Chelsea loses.
Figure 2: Analysis-based content and communities engage female sports consumers broadcast TV and digital users
Urban female fan 1: This fan observed her father and brother watching cricket but never found it engaging until the IPL took off. She does not enjoy Hindi commentary of the coverage, with its catchy one liners and entertainment focus, but she does enjoy English commentary that explains and analyses the game. Her RCB jersey was a gift to her on her birthday and is her most prized possession. She does not believe in engaging with chat groups or communities, and feels like her fandom should be her own and is not meant to be shared with others.
Urban female fan 2: She wants to visit as many football stadiums as she can around the world. She feels that Manchester United is losing the culture that it imparted to her when she was a child, with its new, flamboyant players compared to the previous loyal, grounded players. In contrast, Chennai Super Kings, for her, embodies Tamil culture and aspires to nurture more home-grown talent. Her fandom for Mahendra Singh Dhoni comes from his continued loyalty to Chennai, dating from the start of the IPL. She misses analysis shows, like Football Locker Room, and tries to catch some of Sky Sport’s programs on YouTube.
Urban female fan 3: She grew up in a small, underdeveloped town in the Northeast of India. She was exposed to EPL when she went to study in Delhi. She instantly became a fan of Steven Gerrard and made friends in the new city through her Liverpool fandom. She believes that Liverpool needs to partner with a football kit provider in India, as New Balance is not a popular store and is impossible to find in the Northeast.
Urban female fan 4: Her dream is for her and her father to watch Messi play live. She is waiting for Barcelona to nurture the next set of new talent, and does not want Barcelona to go through the same fate as Real Madrid upon losing Ronaldo.
Urban female fan 5: She wants to see the top EPL clubs play in India. She is also a passionate follower of local football, after having been to many Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal matches, but has noticed a significant drop in the quality of the game. She would love to see Indian clubs becoming bigger and better. She enjoys interesting broadcast graphics in different sports that make it more engaging, and, for her, F1 is one sport where she believes the graphics enhance the viewing experience.