Comparing events attendees and their telecast audiences: a case study of a commemorative event

Attendees who are physically present at events are not the only consumers of events. Indeed, in many cases, the number of people who watch an event via its telecast far exceeds the number of people attending the event. In this context, gaining information about event telecast audiences is as critical as gaining information about event attendees. However, most of the research undertaken on understanding event consumers has focused on attendees who are physically present at events. Very little is known about how consumers of the telecasts of events compare with attendees at events. This research aimed to address this knowledge gap and identify whether consumers of a telecast event were similar to, or different from, those consumers who attend events in person in terms of their demographics, psychographics, and behavioral intentions. The focal event for this study was a large-scale national commemorative event in Australia and New Zealand. Data were collected using an online questionnaire from a purposive sample (n=1,152) comprising both Australian (58%) and New Zealand (42%) residents, of which 580 of the entire sample were attendees at the event and 572 participated in the event via their telecasts. The results show that the two cohorts (1: event attendees and 2: event telecast participants) with an interest in the event show significant differences. Event attendees and event telecast participants are different in terms of gender, experience with the event/telecast (first-time participation, number of prior events, and number in party), motivations, emotions experienced, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions regarding the event/telecast. However, the two cohorts did not differ on age, education, household income, or their levels of patriotism. This study contributes to the event management literature as it extends our knowledge of consumers of events and provides a comparative analysis of event attendees and event telecast participants of a large-scale event. These findings provide valuable insights for event and telecast planners as well as other stakeholders about the two cohorts of event participants. The study is novel because it reports on data collected from both Australians and New Zealanders about this event rather than focusing on just one country, as previous research has tended to do