Is Reality Less Real? Proliferation of Sports Documentaries in a Locked-Down World

This chapter discusses the explosion of sports documentary releases across OTT platforms coinciding with the pandemic-induced lockdown. The generally ignored line of documentaries—sports documentaries—got a significant boost under lockdown with fans craving for sports action. The television channels and OTT platforms sensed the emptiness and commissioned a string of documentaries across different sports to cater to broader audience bases. They tried to achieve the widening by bringing in drama and emotions to sports apart from plain information and, in the process, strengthening their own brands. An exploratory qualitative study was carried out to understand the creators’ thoughts and the consumers’ expectations. Document analysis was carried out from the reviews made by the top critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which gave the themes and issues that the film directors wanted to touch upon. The major themes that emerged included triumph over adversity, focus on excellence, teamwork, socio-politics of the era including racial issues, coping with defeat, mental health, the role of media, sexism, etc. The consumer angle was captured through in-depth interviews of sports fans who had watched documentaries. They talked about backroom strategies, information outside the scorebook, life lessons, etc., that also improved their own self.