The impact of engagement motives for social TV on social presence and sports channel commitment

• Social TV motives are factored into predict sports channel commitment and social presence.
• We confirmed three factors of social TV motives: information, excitement, and convenience.
• The excitement motives are the most important needs for social TV.
• Information and excitement motives of social TV positively predict social presence.
• Convenience and information motives predict sports channel commitment.

Grounded in the uses and gratifications framework and the existing body of research on mediated sports consumption, we examined young television viewers’ motives for communicating with others while watching the televised Olympics and their feelings of social presence and sports channel commitment. To fulfill the goal, we conducted a survey of Korean college students who engaged in social TV experiences during the 2012 London Olympic Games. Employing structural equation modeling, each motivational factor of backchannel communication was used to predict respondents’ social presence and sports channel commitment. The results showed that information and excitement motives of social TV positively related to social presence, while convenience and information motives positively predicted sports channel commitment.