USC Center for the Digital Future and ThePostGame Announce Next-Generation Sports Fan Research
Behavioral Study of Sports Fans Will Reveal Media Consumption, Spending, and Digital Preferences
First-Ever Comprehensive Look at Gen Z, Millennials, Older Audiences
Exclusive findings will chart current and intended behavior around live sports, fantasy sports, e-games, and all forms of media
NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The first-ever behavioral study of sports fans to include the full impact of Generation Z (digital natives born since 1995) is underway from the highly respected USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future and ThePostGame. The organizations are partnering to measure current and planned spending, media preferences, attendance, the use of digital platforms, and other activities.
The study will be announced here today at Advertising Week XII at 4:00pm in Manhattan's Liberty Theater during "How Sports Fans' New Behaviors Will Disrupt Every Aspect of Marketing & Advertising". The session will take an initial look at how changing behaviors of sports fans are already impacting everything marketers and advertisers measure.
"Sports fans are the most intense and engaged consumer fan group and drive billions of dollars in commerce each year, yet insights into how their behavior is shifting as a community do not yet exist," said Jeffrey Cole, Founder and Director of the Center. "As the options available to them change dramatically, this is the perfect time to take the pulse of permanent changes occurring now as well as to gauge concrete plans this group is making for the future."
USC Annenberg's Center for the Digital Future is the leading research entity focusing on digital consumer behavior, having conducted the only longitudinal study of Internet usage over the past 15 years. Cole has been at the forefront of media and communication technology issues in the United States and internationally for more than three decades. The Center for the Digital Future has been studying consumers' digital behavior for more than 15 years and has predicted significant shifts in both consumer behavior and business climate, including the demise of home-based land lines and the current difficulties being experienced by once-dominant sports media entities.
"From shifts in media consumption, to the rise of fantasy sports and e-gaming, to the explosion in sports-content creators, digital's impact on sports fan behavior is accelerating with unprecedented speed," says David Katz, ThePostGame Founder and CEO. "Quantifying these changes and measuring their impact on traditional live, televised and digital sports behavior is vital to rights holders, media organizations, brands, facilities owners, and local and state governments."
ThePostGame is the leading digital media property for sports culture and lifestyle, whose content reaches more than 40 million people each month.
Findings will be presented publicly in early 2016, with private disclosures available by appointment for media companies, sports leagues, teams and other rights holders, and advertisers beginning in January.
USC Annenberg's Center for the Digital Future provides the management of global companies, government leadership, and NGOs with perspective and guidance to keep ahead of trends in the digital realm. The Center is a research and policy institute within the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Its innovative techniques for collecting and analyzing social science employ digital experts, researchers, and strategists who continue to build the definitive body of data and insights on the changing role of online technology and media in our lives. The Center's work includes the Digital Future Project, the World Internet Project, and customized and proprietary studies, consulting and market research.
ThePostGame's lifestyle and culture content reaches more than 40 million people each month across ThePostGame.com, YouTube, email subscribers, social media fans and followers, and content-distribution partners. That reach is up 25% year-over-year. As a top sports-focused multi-channel video network (MCN) on YouTube, ThePostGame content has generated more than 1 billion video views, now topping 1 billion, and is up 36% year-over-year. Ad click-through rates on ThePostGame.com are four (4) times better than the industry average. The digital media property's original journalism has won two Associated Press Sports Editors awards and it has consistently been one of ShareThis' Most Shared Sports/Lifestyle Sites since its debut. For more information on TPG Studios, visit ThePostGameStudios.com.
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SOURCE ThePostGame
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