arbiter
JournalsAccount

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

Renan Petersen‐Wagner et al.

European Sport Management Quarterly2025https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2025.2537653article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.41

Abstract

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.

2 citations

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2025.2537653

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{renan2025,
  title        = {{Watching football highlights on YouTube: the determinants of demand for short videos}},
  author       = {Renan Petersen‐Wagner et al.},
  journal      = {European Sport Management Quarterly},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2025.2537653},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

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

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.41

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10
M · momentum0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.