*Results* Streaming SC2 Survey

R1. What are people watching?
R2. How are people streaming content?

H1. The most common type of streaming being watched are first person streams.
H2. Respondents are more likely to watch a heavy amount of content each week.
H3. Respondents are more likely to watch the better resolutions.
H4. Respondents require HD quality resolution in order to pay for content.
H5. Respondents are more likely to multi-task with first person streams and less with tournament broadcasts.
H6. Players spend more time watching than playing Starcraft II the more engaged with the community they are.

The data for this research was collected through an online survey and represents a cross-sectional non-probability study. A total of 113 responses were filed but 24 of those were either incomplete or from respondents which were under the age of 18. That left 89 valid responses for most questions. The survey consisted of 25 questions and took less than 5 minutes to complete. The questions were a combination of closed-ended questions, likert-scale responses, and two open ended questions about playing time and viewing time. These questions were related to several hypotheses about viewer habits when watching StarCraft II.

In order to measure the first hypothesis, respondents were asked to choose which type of broadcast they spent the most amount of time watching. This question included an “other” category and asked respondents to fill in an option if they selected the other option. All of the responses for the other category were combinations of other responses. For these responses I recoded the response to be whichever of the sources they wrote first.

For the second hypothesis, participants were given an open-ended question and asked how many hours in the previous 7 days they spent watching StarCraft II content. The third hypothesis relates to resolution. Resolutions above 480p, 720 thru 1080p+, were considered high definition (HD) quality. Four respondents did not respond and those were recoded as missing.

In order to understand how much people multi-task while watching StarCraft II, participants were asked on a 5-point scale how much they agreed with the statement they perform other activities while watching. These responses were recoded into a dichotomous variable with responses agree and strongly agree coded as a 1 while neutral, disagree and strongly disagree are recoded as 0.

This survey identified a trend of monetary, or community, engagement within the community. This allowed us to examine the sixth hypothesis. Three questions made up this index with an alpha of 0.7 and a factor analysis yielded one eigenvalue of 1.9 that accounted for 63% of the variance. The three questions asked whether the participants would pay for streaming content, if they had attended a community viewing experience, and whether they had paid for content in the past.

The Results from Figure 1 show absolute viewing numbers of respondents for what they watched the most by whether they watch a low, less than 8 hours of content a week, or high, more than 8 hours a week, . Throughout this survey a distinction was made between daily tournaments such as NASL and IGN and non-daily tournaments such as MLG and Dreamhack. However, in this chart we see the distribution for these two categories to be nearly identical in their split between low and high respondents. The mode for this question is First Person Streams, which accounted for 37% (n=89). 15 of the 89, 17%, respondents selected responses such as strategy videos, talk shows, YouTube, or VODs which were all recoded into a single Other category.

Figure 2 shows a breakdown of what respondents recorded as their viewing resolution and whether they had paid at some point in the past. 44% (n=84) of respondents watch content in 720p, the most of any resolution. 27% (n=84) watch in non-HD resolutions of either 360p or 480p. While most respondents who watch do so in 720p, only half of them, 51%, reported they had paid for content at some point in the past compared to 77% for respondents who watch primarily in 1080p+. Interestingly, 5 of the 20 respondents who watch in 480p reported having paid for content and of those who report watching in 1080p, only 3 of the 11 (27%) report having paid for content in the past.

Figure 3 illustrates the percentage of respondents for each type of broadcast that multi-task while watching the stream. For both the Daily (n = 19) and Non-Daily (n = 20) Tournament groups, approximately 60% of respondents admit to multi-tasking while watching content. This percentage increases to 80% (n = 15) for the Other category, and furthermore to 91% (n = 33) for the First Person Stream broadcasts.

Figure 4 observes the data on our final hypothesis. This is an analysis of variance model of community engagement by the average hours played and hours watched. We see that for every category except for the 1 on the community engagement scale the average amount of time spent watching is greater than the amount of time spent playing. Overall the difference is nearly 2.5 hours. The 2 category in the index has the highest average number of hours watched at 17.26 per week while the 1 category has the highest mean play time of 15.92 hours.

It appears that for the purposes of this survey the distinction between Daily and Non-Daily Tournaments is artificial and unnecessary. The distribution for both between low and high viewers was nearly identical as well as the percentage who multitask during broadcasts. Many people are either watching the tournaments or a first person stream which is understandable. We should note, however, there are a significant number of respondents whose primary content consumption isn’t through either of those channels. Figure 1 also seems to indicate that for the tournaments and first person streams, respondents are more likely to watch a high amount of content a week. The Other category does not conform to this relationship and that is understandable given the generally shorter nature and less availability of this type of content.

Most of the results regarding resolutions that people use to watch streaming are expected. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these results is the number of respondents who not only watch in non-HD streams but also who have paid for content in the past. One possible reason for this might be technical limitations related to bandwidth or computer hardware. Another possibility might be an increased prevalence in the use of mobile devices and tablet computers to watch content. These questions are beyond the scope of this survey but might shine some light into this question. In addition, the mode is 720p which indicates that many people are not fully utilizing the full graphics available that is used as a selling point for many streaming service. The reasons for this however, are beyond the scope of this survey.

The definition of multi-tasking in this survey is fairly broad. This might help explain the high rate of multi-tasking seen. Future surveys should define what this means and how streaming StarCraft II compares to other forms of media consumption such as television or radio. There are several advantages and disadvantages to a viewing base with a high rate of multi-tasking. To understand what these are however, would require a more in-depth investigation than this survey attempts to do.

The last figure would seem to help bolster the idea that a player who is more engaged monetarily with the community is spending more time watching than playing. There are a few issues with this. First, time watching and time playing are not necessarily distinct events. Indeed, with the amount of multi-tasking indicated by other questions we can presume for a significant amount of time the two activities are occurring simultaneously. Second, these are averages and therefore may not be the best indicator of the data. Additionally, we have to consider that selection bias is at play for this question. Those who watch streaming content are the ones who are likely to respond to this survey which could artificially inflate the watched numbers by some amount. Finally, this question asked about time spent watching over the last 7 days and there may be differences between this time period and general viewing or playing amounts.