Demand and search glossary

The terms used across this site, defined in a few sentences. Each definition stands on its own, with nothing else to read first.

Fan demand intelligence: Fan demand intelligence is the practice of measuring sports audiences’ interest before it becomes a transaction, from observed behaviour rather than stated intentions. It differs from audience measurement, which describes what was consumed after broadcast.
Demand signal: A demand signal is a voluntary action preceding a purchase: searching where to watch a match, comparing subscriptions, looking into ticketing. It is dated, located and addressed to no one, which makes it less prone to stated-preference bias.
Stated demand: Stated demand is what a person says they will do, in answer to a survey or panel question. It systematically overstates actual purchasing behaviour, because the wording steers the answer and respondents present a coherent version of themselves.
Measured demand: Measured demand is interest established from observed behaviour, without prompting. In sport it rests mainly on searches made ahead of a transaction. It does not cover audiences who decide offline or by habit.
Intent volume: Intent volume is the number of qualified searches observed across a given perimeter (discipline, club, athlete or territory) over a dated window. On its own it describes awareness rather than buying intent.
Territorial density: Territorial density is intent volume relative to a territory’s population. It reveals strong interest in a small market, which gross volume always ranks behind larger ones.
Intent depth: Intent depth is the share of searches close to the decision (access, price, purchase) within total volume. It separates curiosity from buying intent: two perimeters with identical volume can differ sharply in depth.
Ripe territory: A ripe territory is one where demand is strong and offer absent or hard to access. It gives the best ratio between activation effort and effect, and usually stays invisible in dashboards, which only count what has already been monetised.
Underserved demand: Underserved demand is measurable interest that no accessible offer meets in the territory concerned. It appears in no commercial data, since it produces neither audience nor transaction, and can only be detected through upstream signals.
Captured audience: A captured audience is one obtained without prior intent from the viewer: programme carry-over, passive exposure, presence by default. It counts the same as a chosen audience in conventional measurement, but behaves differently afterwards.
Chosen audience: A chosen audience is one preceded by an active search from the viewer: the fixture, the time, the channel. It costs more to acquire and is markedly more loyal than a captured audience.
Event churn: Event churn is the subscriber loss that follows the end of a competition they subscribed for. It differs from structural churn in origin: the subscriber bought a dated event, not a service. The two do not respond to the same retention levers.
Activation: An activation is everything that turns an acquired right (sponsorship, partnership, broadcast) into contact with an audience: media campaigns, on-site experiences, content, and commercial offers attached to the right.
Sponsorship asset: A sponsorship asset is a sellable right held by a sports organisation: shirt, venue naming, perimeter boards, digital content, event presence. Its value is usually negotiated on reach, rarely on the demand of the sponsor’s target audience.
Share of voice: Share of voice is the proportion of available attention a brand obtains in a given territory and period, against other advertisers present. It costs more the more saturated the territory already is.
Intent curve: The intent curve is how search volume around an event evolves over time. It rises before the event, dips during it, and rebounds afterwards for follow-up content, a shape that does not match the usual communications calendar.
Access window: The access window is the period, generally the 72 hours before an event, when searches about how to watch concentrate: channel, time, platform. It is the last moment at which a broadcast or promotional decision can still act.
Affiliation signal: An affiliation signal is a search about an athlete, a club or a kit supplier rather than an event. It measures durable attachment, often present in territories far from the entity’s historical market.
Sports business: Sports business covers the economic activity built around sport: media rights, sponsorship, ticketing, merchandising, hospitality and club services. It concerns sports organisations as much as the brands that associate with them.
Media rights: Media rights are the broadcast rights to a competition, sold by territory, platform and duration. They are negotiated on past audiences and coverage projections, data that says nothing about demand left without an offer.
OTT: OTT refers to video delivered directly over the internet, without a television operator in between. In sport this model is more exposed to churn than traditional subscription, since a subscriber can cancel in a few clicks once a competition ends.
Sponsorship ROI: Sponsorship ROI is the ratio between commercial effect obtained and the total cost of a partnership, activation included. It is hard to establish because the usual measure covers exposure (how many people saw) rather than demand created.
Exposure: Exposure is the quantity of visual contacts obtained by a brand or a piece of content: time on screen, viewers reached, impressions. It is a supply-side measure: it describes what was broadcast, not what was sought.
Supporter segmentation: Supporter segmentation divides a fan base into homogeneous groups. Built on stated profiles it describes well but locates badly; built on observed signals it produces a map usable for a geolocated media budget.
Fan engagement: Fan engagement measures an audience’s interactions with a sports organisation: content viewed, reactions, participation. It concerns people already in contact with the organisation, and therefore says nothing about demand outside that base.
Attribution: Attribution links an observed effect to a specific action. For sports demand it remains a correlation: a rise in searches alongside a campaign does not establish that the campaign caused it, since other factors act over the same period.