The 12th Player Online : Second Screen Usage and Social TV Behavior during the 2014 FIFA Word Cup

Abstract

Traditionally, international football events were received by the audience exclusively via radio and TV. Recent developments in technology, however, resulted in fundamental changes of the media landscape. With the advent of cheap broadband internet connections and live streaming services, today, viewers have a wide diversity of devices to choose from, when watching football. In 2010 TV stations in some countries started to livestream games of international football tournaments like the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA EURO officially over the internet as an additional service for their audience.
One recent innovation in media usage is currently discussed under the catchword second screen. Second Screen behavior refers to the usage of an internet enabled device, such as a PC, a laptop, a tablet PC or a smartphone parallel to watching a program on TV. The use of social media and communication services on second screens is also referred to as social TV.
International football tournaments like World Cups, are events with a constantly high amount of interest among viewers and intensive media coverage over the weeks of its lasting. Yet, little research has been done on the topic so far. Therefore we conducted an exploratory case study on usage of second screens and social TV behavior during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.