More fans stream sports than watch on traditional TV
More fans stream sports than watch on traditional TV
According to new data from Parks Associates, viewers are more and more likely to turn to streaming for live sports events.
With the fall approaching, fans across the United States are thinking about the best ways to watch their favorite NFL, NBA, and NHL teams this season. This year, more viewers will turn to streaming services than try to watch on traditional pay-TV services like cable or satellite. That’s according to InterDigital, Inc. and Parks Associates, which has released a new survey regarding the habits of sports fans and their viewing preferences.
Key Details:
- Throw out that cable box: Forty percent of sports viewers exclusively watch sports on streaming services.
- More features, please: Sports streamers can enhance their products by offering a stronger lineup of features.
- Still work to do: More than half of customers report having issues while streaming live sports.
The “Streaming Live Sports: Where Opportunity Meets Complexity” survey from Parks Associates and InterDigital takes a deep dive into the habits of consumers and the way they consume live sports content. The data shows that 43% of all TV viewers surveyed identify themselves as sports viewers, and of this cohort, 40% watch sports only via streaming services, including live TV streaming services such as Fubo and YouTube TV.
That’s notably larger than the 30% of viewers who combine traditional TV and streaming sources for watching sports, and another 19% of audiences say they watch only on traditional pay TV or via over-the-air antenna. This audience segment will only increase as sports leagues grow more comfortable with offering their games on streaming.
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The data shows that 45% of viewers watch sports on streaming services that offer entertainment content alongside live sports, such as Netflix, Peacock, or Prime Video. That compares to 38% of fans who say they watch sports on a traditional pay-TV service, 20% who use an antenna to watch free broadcasts, and 13% who use a live TV streamer.
There are ways for streaming providers to keep bringing viewers to sports streaming services, namely, interactivity. Fifty-two percent of audiences who watch sports say they have engaged in another activity while watching. Over 10% of respondents say they have used features like multiview, a betting app, used interactive stats embedded in the stream, or watched an alternative broadcast.
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Viewers report they want to be able to choose from more alternate casts, view in-game stats, get more access to multiviews, and participate in other interactive features when watching sports. This creates many more opportunities for streaming services, whose platforms make it easier to deliver these features to customers than traditional TV does.
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There’s also more room for improvement from a technical standpoint for streaming services. Fifty-seven percent of respondents report experiencing at least one challenge in streaming sports content. That includes not being able to watch a desired game because it’s on a streamer a viewer doesn’t have, poor video quality, and an extended lag time for the stream as compared to the live broadcast.
Streamers will keep working on the way they distribute live sports to viewers, trying to iron out issues and increase their audience as much as possible. There will still be persistent issues, but the data from Parks and InterDigital shows that viewers are continuing to shift away from pay TV and toward streamers as their primary source of video viewership.
Prime Video
Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.